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The Truth Behind the Salem Witch Trials

A witch is someone who practices and believes in the practice of magical practices which consists of spell, potions, and flying. The term witches played a big role in Salem Massachusetts in the 1600s. Salem Massachusetts experienced a tragical event that will always be a historical event for the history books. A teenage girl started experiencing some terrible symptoms of what someone with hallucinations would experience. The girl then started making accusations that certain women were to blame for the problems. Some of the symptoms included hallucinations, and fits. These accusations caught the attention of the townspeople who were really deep in their religion beliefs and really thought that those women were witches. The townspeople then captured the women that were thought to be witches and sent them to be hanged. The town later decided that the killings were a mistake and they gave compensation to the victims families.

Those women were innocent and were not actually witches so there was something else that caused the crisis of the town of Salem. It is highly unlikely to me that it was really witches because of the lack of evidence and witches still lack to exist yet today. Also there has to be a medical term for what had happened, but what is it? That is why I have done some investigating to find out what really happened. They did not have the resources to do this during that time period so they just listened to the infected towns girls who were having the problems. They actually claimed to being possessed by the devil, so i guess that would just have to do for the cause, considering the time period. After doing some research I think I have discovered the cause. Considering that it was cold and damp cause of the swamps and marshes I think they may have suffered from Ergot poisoning. Ergot poisoning is a type of illness with the ingestion of alkaloids produced by the fungi Claviceps purpurea. This fungus is on rye and wheat which is what they all eat to make a living. My guess would be that they ate some contaminated wheat and it just affected those certain girls. We know that now but back then they had never heard of such a thing. I think this because of the symptoms which are seizures, headaches, vomiting and mania. All of the facts point to this and only if they actually knew what was going on.

There were certain individuals who were accused of the practice of witchcraft. More than 200 people were arrested and accused of the witchcraft and only 20 were actually executed. These people were chosen by the actions they made in everyday life and some were people that were speaking out against the trials so the townspeople thought that they were part of it. Some of the people were chosen by the girls that suffered from the Ergot poisoning. They thought that the women were the ones that had let the devil get a hold of them and possessed them. These women were immediately arrested and sent to trial and after the trial, some were sent to be executed. They did their execution by the concept of hanging.

It was a tragedy, because I feel bad for all of those poor people that were accused of something that there was no way of them committing at all and on top of it, get imprisoned or killed.  The governor finally decided to bring an end to the trials once his very own wife was accused of practicing the dark magic. By then, too many lives were lost so that is why the governor gave compensation to the families and let the people free that were arrested because they realized that they were all wrong.

So this is the real truth between the Salem Witch Trials for those of you that still thought that witches were the real culprit. If you need more information on this topic feel free to just look it up because you will find the same information that I have just shared with you.

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