I keep hearing claims that the Salem witchcraft trials were the result of poisoning by grain infected with ergot fungus, which caused convulsions and other symptoms that the simple souls of the day interpreted as signs of demonic possession. Any truth to this, Cecil?–Daniel L., Kenosha, Wisconsin
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Let’s start with the facts. During the winter of 1691-’92, several girls in Salem Village, a county-size jurisdiction surrounding what’s now the city of Salem, Massachusetts, came down with a strange illness, experiencing pain, fever, and convulsions and behaving oddly. After a doctor suggested that the girls might be under supernatural influence, someone proposed baking a “witch cake” containing urine from the girls, which was then fed to a dog as a test for witchcraft. That set the pot boiling. More girls began having seizures and claiming they’d been approached by specters of their neighbors with wicked intent. Soon a witch hunt was under way. The first three accused were a Caribbean Indian servant named Tituba; Sarah Good, a beggar; and Sarah Osborn, a quarrelsome older woman. The frightened Tituba cracked, confessing that she was a witch and that she and the other accused women had flown on “poles.”
By fall the frenzy had begun to subside. After the governor disallowed the use of spectral evidence, most trials ended in acquittal. Eventually the proceedings were halted, the imprisoned released, and damages paid to the estates of the dead. Embarrassed colonists began asking themselves a question that historians have debated ever since: What the hell was that all about?
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration/Slug Signorino.
