What Caused the Salem Witch Trials?

During the 1690s in New England, there was still a strong belief in Christian mysticism. Many people were paranoid about spiritualists and mediums. At this time, people believe that there was white magic and then there was black magic, or dark magic. The white magic would be like if you wore a charm for good luck or you hung up a charm for good crop yield.

People believed that they could use those things and it would give them good luck or it would make their crops grow better or would make a child healthier. Eventually, that grew into black magic. Someone might put a curse on you or do something to you. If you were someone who was accused of doing some black magic, then you were considered to be a witch.

Both God and the devil were thought to be among us all the time. The people knew that there were demons and angels, both God and the devil, around them all the time. The devil could make them do bad things, but they had to be strong and do good things to please God.

If they did something bad, they would say that the devil made them do it or a demon possessed them and made them do it. Eventually, they might accuse someone and say, “Well, this person made me do it. I saw their specter,” which was like a spirit that looks like them.

If they accused that person of having sent their specter to make them do something bad, then that person was considered a witch. Really, the only thing that they had for evidence was the accuser who was saying “I saw this person’s specter come and make me do something bad.” Really, it worked out as a good excuse.

If you did something bad, you could just say “Oh, that person’s specter came and made me do it.” Well, at first, people were being accused of being witches or peasants or beggars, people that were low standing in society. No one was really going to speak up for them.

This paranoia that people had about spiritualists and mediums, this belief in the spirits being all around you, combined with local feuds led to 19 women and one man being executed for witchcraft in 1692. This was a larger number than was normal to be accused as witches. It all happened in one area.

You had Salem village, Salem town, and a couple of surrounding towns where people were being accused of being witches. It all started in the Salem area, and then eventually they had to bring in a special court to try these people. Eventually, 19 were tried and they were tried with being executed. That was their punishment. They were killed.

Most likely, the afflicted were only suffering delusions caused by a kind of hallucinogenic red mold, or ergot. Ergot is a kind of fungus that would grow on bread. If people ate it, it might have caused them delusions. There are also theories that the afflicted were simply acting so they could accuse people out of spite, jealousy, or feud-related retaliation.

The afflicted would be the people who were saying “Oh, someone cast a spell on me. Someone cursed me.” The afflicted could have really been suffering some kind of delusion from bread mold. They honestly suffered a delusion and they said “Oh, I saw this person come to me and they made me feel this way,” because sometimes people would be yelling out or they would have neck pain or they would do something harmful to someone else.

All of this acting out- those kind of things might have been attributed to the bread mold, or they could have been acting. They could say “Oh, this person was rude to me the other day, so I’m going to say that she’s a witch. I’m going to say that she cast this spell on me. She’s cursed me. She made me do this bad thing. She’s making me have these fits.”

That person would get in trouble. They would get arrested and tried to see if they were a witch or not. It could be out of jealousy. Maybe if the neighbor had more cattle than you and they kind of gloated about it, you may say “Oh, I’m jealous of her. I’m going to say that she cursed my cattle and that’s why they’re all dying.” It could just be feud-related retaliation.

If your family had a feud with another family, you may just say “Oh, well someone from that family came and did something at our house,” and the only evidence you needed was what they called spectral evidence (that you saw their specter come and do something or you saw their specter come and curse you).

All the accuser had to say was that this person’s specter came to me, and then immediately that would provoke them to arrest the person and investigate it and eventually put them to trial. This wasn’t done with very much actual evidence. This was done very much on hearsay. It did cast some aspersions on this area for a long time.

The witch trials only stopped when people in high places began being accused. When people who were very high in society begin being accused, more than one of them, then that became a problem.

When people who were very involved in the church started being accused, then that became a problem, because people were looking at them and saying “Well this person is so good. They are in such high standing. Everyone looks up to them. Are we really sure that they are a witch?”

A different court has come into kind of sort all this out. Most of the people who had been arrested were tried and found not guilty and were released. But there were those 19 women and one man who were killed in 1692 after being found guilty of being witches. The Salem Witch Trials tarnished the image of the clergy for a long time. It was going to tarnish the image of the Salem area.

If you hear Salem, you usually are going to think about the Salem witch trials, because it’s something that’s so well-known. Because the clergy were involved in this, they were involved in the trying and they were involved as witnesses, people who were higher up in the church were going to be considered less likely to be a witch than those who were not in good standing with the church.

Sometimes it could just be a person’s lifestyle that made someone accuse them of being a witch. The clergy looked bad after this. This further contributed to a general relaxation of religious fervor during this period. In the 1650s, people had already started to kind of lose momentum on how strictly their lives were revolving around their church.

After this happened, there was going to be even more relaxation on the religious fervor. The Salem witch trials were when- now there were trials that happened before 1692, and some happened after where people were found innocent. Generally, when you hear Salem witch trials, they’re talking about those that happened in 1692, when 19 women and one man were executed for witchcraft.

There were far more than 20 people that were arrested for witchcraft, but most of the others weren’t killed for it. This was a result of a conjunction of the paranoia that was going on with all the thoughts of Christian mysticism and knowing that spirits were all around and always being worried about having spirits right there with you and the local feuds that were going on. Were people really witches? Probably not.

This was going to be something that was caused by delusions that people were having from reactions to bread mold, or people could have simply been acting so that they could get back at someone who had wronged them or someone who they were jealous of. It could have been for no good reason at all.

It could have been someone saying “Oh, I don’t like the way that person’s living.” Maybe if they dressed differently or they weren’t married or they were in the streets begging and you didn’t like the way they acted, that may be someone that was accused of being a witch. This wasn’t really based on any kind of evidence. It was more based on hearsay.

Eventually, the witch trials did stop when people in high places started being accused. This did still tarnish the image of the clergy for a long time and further contributed to there being a relaxation on the religious fervor in New England during this period.