Salem Witch Hunt Causes

Causes of the Salem Witch Hunt The Salem Witch Hunt is an event in history that caused many of good innocent people to be hanged. During this hunt, twenty innocent men and women were accused of crimes in which they did not commit. These crimes included performing witchcraft on other civilians and practicing witchcraft on their own. All of these accused were sentenced to be hanged except for one man. Instead of being hanged, he was stoned to death for his unwillingness to admit that he practiced witchcraft The accused witches were believed to have been chosen by Satan to carry out his plans. Because religion was taken very seriously during the seventeenth century, the civilians had many fears of being possessed or have a spell be cast upon …show more content…
Jealousy comes into play again but this time because of popularity, lifestyles, and money. There were very popular families that had a large impact on the village and their opinion meant a lot to the community. That is why when Reverend Samuel Parris’ daughter and niece claimed that they had witchcraft practiced on them, the whole village believed them. The popularity had a lot to do with the accusations. For example, if Tituba, the unfortunate slave woman, had accused Reverend Samuel Parris of witchcraft, she most likely would have been imprisoned just for the accusation. Very popular families used this to their advantage by accusing their less popular rival families of practicing witchcraft. In fact, a young woman named Ann Putnam accused a member of the Porters family of witchcraft. The Putnam family and Porters family did not like one another and bumped heads a …show more content…
Only certain diseases had been studied and even at that, a diagnosis was not as accurate as it would be today. When the doctor could not identify the symptoms with an illness, witchcraft was to blame. Some patients with odd symptoms such as hallucinations or ticks were most likely to be diagnosed with witchcraft while today we find that it may have been Schizophrenia. Again, being in a very religious time, so to civilians and doctors, it made sense to diagnose someone as being possessed. Ergot poisoning was common up until the 1850’s. Ergot was found in the grain Rye and since most people consumed Rye, many were affected by it. When the patients ate the fungus, they would experience symptoms such as body spams, twisting or contorting of the body, hallucinations, and confusion. These symptoms were also symptoms of witchcraft. But, since doctors had no knowledge of the poisoning, they were not taking it into