Salem Witchcraft Trials

10 Pages 2508 Words

s and spells and began dabbling with their own “white magic”. The children soon formed a make shift cult or “coven” of witches that had girls ages 9-20 participating. They began telling each other’s fortunes with crystal balls made up of egg whites and water, and this new sort of game became a dangerous trade. One girl reportedly saw a picture of a coffin at another young girls wedding. This scared the girls. The outcome this new game would reap would soon become known as one of the worst outbreaks witchcraft hysteria.
“Although no one knows why, one day in February 1692, Betty Parris and Abigail Williams began slipping into trances, cowering in corners, blurting out nonsensical phrases, and worst of all, collapsing into shrieking like epileptic like fits. Their bodies supposedly twisted as though their bones were made of putty” (Wilson 56).
Now there are other possibilities that could have been the symptoms of these unnatural fits. The girls could have been victims of ergot poisoning from the bread they ate; but if that were the case most local communities including Salem town would have reported outbreaks in juvenile. Another reason is that the girls truly could have been bewitched but Ann Putnam later admitted that no evil hand touched them. So either way someone was contradicting someone else. “I have very often been most grievously tortured by the apparition of Sarah Good, who most dreadfully afflicted me, and almost choking me to death. But on the 26th of June 1692, Sarah Good most violently pulled me down, my head behind my chest and tied my hands together with a whale band and almost choked me to death.” (Sheldon58). Historians argue that the only reason that the girls kept up the “afflicted” act was to uphold their stories so they would not stand the chance of being put up for public mockery. Yet another reason could have been that that each week was filled with endless physical labor, unrelieved by ...