what are the roots of Salem witchcraft panic in Crucible?

One Comment

1. johnslat says:

   March 13, 2010 at 11:44 am

   Interesting answer:

   "The Salem Witchcraft Trials began not as an act of revenge against an ex-lover, as they did in The Crucible, but as series of seemingly unlinked, complex events, which a paranoid and scared group of people incorrectly linked. And while there were countless other witchcraft trials, Salem’s trials remain the best-known. In Salem, fears of witchcraft perpetuated by popular writings were personified when two girls were said to be bewitched. A hysteria overcame the people of Salem, whose trials went awry. In less than six months, 19 men and women were hanged, 17 innocents died in filthy prisons, an 80-year old man was crushed to death, and two dogs were stoned to death for collaborating with the Devil (Richardson 6).

   How could an entire village, including scholars, believe in witchcraft? Were these trials justified? Or were they evil, as many people think? How could respected, learned men believe the accounts of psychotics? Most importantly, could the trials have been avoided?

   A major cause of the Salem Witchcraft trials was superstition, an “irrational [belief] … resulting from ignorance or fear of the unknown” (Saliba). A lack of scientific reasoning led many people to believe that, for instance, walking under a ladder would bring seven years of bad luck. The Puritans in Salem had even more reasons to be superstitious. Cotton Mather’s “Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions,” with its inaccurate accounts of witchcraft, terrified. In addition, crude medical techniques, constant food poisoning, and unsanitary conditions killed many Puritans. (In the Trials, dead people and dead livestock were used as evidence of witchcraft.) More importantly, war with a nearby Indian tribe was imminent (Schlect 1); when livestock died, the Puritans thought their village was cursed, vulnerable to Indian attack. With several factions vying for control of the Village, and a series of legislative and property disputes with the nearby Salem Town which controlled Salem Village, it is easy to see how the people of Salem were so vulnerable to the notion of witches taking over their town.

   The Puritans who settled in Massachusetts left England because they thought the Church was obscuring God’s glory with its obsession of earthly things. While they realized that they could not escape this possession, (they believed they were intrinsically sinful (Encarta)), they felt that it was their responsibility to stay free from sin to glorify God. Thus, the they believed that there were ten visible signs of decay: 1. Visible decay of godliness 2. Manifestations of pride – especially among the rich 3. Presence of “heretics” – among them, witches 4. Violations of the Sabbath, and swearing and sleeping during sermons 5. Decay of family government 6. People full of contention – more lawsuits and lawyers 7. Sex and alcohol abuse on the increase 8. Decay in business morality – lying, underpaying laborers, etc. 9. No disposition to reform 10. Lacking in social behavior (Geree)

   Upon arriving in Massachusetts, the Puritans established a theocracy; religion and the power of religious authorities became vital to the Salem Witchcraft Trials. Some historians believe that, without religion, the Salem Witchcraft Trials and other persecutions would never have taken place. Reverend Parris’s chief duty should not have been religious; he needed to resolve squabbles between factions in his village; regardless, he used his religious authority to persecute those who were allegedly sinful. Ironically, he showed visible signs of decay: he was greedy in his land disputes (rule 1); he did not free those who pleaded innocent, because that would weaken his power (rule 2); and he chose not to reform (rule 9).

   Puritans believed that the Devil could possess any non-secular person, and cause him to say or do unordinary (and thus heretical) things. That Little Betty Parris was sick, and that the Dr. Griggs (who was too proud to say that he could not diagnose Little Betty’s illness) claimed she was bewitched (Richardson 7), were enough reasons for court authorities to suspect witchcraft was the cause of the illness. In addition, several young girls in the village had participated in “black magic” experiments – harmless adolescent games – in the company of Tituba, Reverend Parris’s slave. The restless young girls allegedly met in Parris’s shed, and created and listened to Tituba’s incredible tales of sorcery and black arts, which were doubtless an outlet for their repressed feelings. Soon, faulty cause-and-effect relationships sparked delirium.

   When the girls had fits of hysteria – seizures, trance-like states, and sacrilegious screaming – Parris called upon his colleagues to exorcise the demons that possessed the girls. Ministers from nearby communities met in Salem Village “to lead a public day of fasting and prayer, and to question the afflicted girls about what had caused their disturbing behavior” (8). Occasionally, the girls went mute or blind, choked, had muscle spasms, and had visions of frightening spirits. They claimed that evil spirits “pursued them, threatening, biting, pinching, pricking, and performing other bodily injuries” (8). After that, public concern became mass hysteria. Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne, were arrested and tried. Only Tituba confessed to signing the Devil’s book. Afraid of being accused of witchcraft, the power-hangedry girls accused innocent people to save their own lives. The rest is history.

   Many historians today believe that religion was not the catalyst of the Salem Witchcraft Trials. They cite a series of quarrels among townspeople as the cause of the string of accusations that sent more than 200 people to jail. Based on the few documented quarrels, this seems plausible. The town was divided into two factions; each wanted a different church leader. Like people today, many citizens of Salem probably held grudges (Richardson 6). In addition, there were land disputes between members of Salem Village, and between Salem Village and Salem Town. Many people saw the Trials as an effective means of gaining land and silencing embarrassing enemies. Accused witches’ names were defiled. If the accused did not confess, they were imprisoned or hanged.

   However, Chadwick Hanson, author of “Witchcraft at Salem,” argued that this account of the Trials, written by Reverend Charles Wentworth Upham, was fictional. “Upham had been a minister of Salem and then its mayor. He was as interested in genealogy and local history as he was in witchcraft, and therefore he outlined in considerable detail the village quarrels he thought to be one cause of the events. … The overall impression he leaves is that the whole affair is a monstrous conspiracy, in which the ministers and magistrates took advantage of the fraudulent behavior of the afflicted girls to exercise a mindless and irresponsible power at the expense of the suffering community” (xi). Hanson was certain that the girls were not possessed, but clinically insane (x). And that, he explained, may have been the result of witchcraft which, contrary to popular belief, is psychogenic, rather than occult. That means that the girls may have experienced their hysterical symptoms as a result of their fear. Regardless, the girls were insane, Hanson contended, “long before any clergyman got to them.”

   Another possible explanation for the girls’ insanity was ergot poisoning, a common problem during the time period. Ergot is extremely toxic to humans and animals. “For cattle, 0.5% by weight of ergot in the diet causes [significantly] reduced feed consumption and weight loss” (Evans 5). Ergot poisoning was possibly responsible for a number of miscarriages in Salem Village, which were blamed on witchcraft. According to Britannica.com, symptoms of ergot poisoning include convulsions and muscle twitches, two common symptoms of “witches.” In addition, ergot is said to have hallucinogenic powers; it very well may, since LSD is derived from it. That would explain the spectral figures and the girls’ “tripped-out” behavior. The evidence of ergot poisoning is so solid that there seems to be only one more possibility: boredom."

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