Salem Witch Trials: Black Magic or Bad Bread?

As described by my history teacher, the Salem Witch Trials were a low point in our country's history, an example of intolerance and injustice which specifically targeted women. Having visited Salem, Massachusetts as a kid, I became engrossed in the history of the trials, wondering not only how these people could have been prosecuted with so little evidence, but what caused their symptoms of "bewitchment"? The belief that Salem's residents' afflictions were due to supernatural causes did not make sense to me, as an association with the devil seemed to be something that only happened in The Conjuring, not in colonial Massachusetts. Never having believed the "devil's magic" as causing such violent madness of the people of Salem, I searched for a more reasonable explanation. 

The Witch Trials

In the late 17th century, the people of the Puritan village of Salem were plagued by a multitude of worries. In addition to the harsh reality of life in colonial New England, they feared an attack by the neighboring Native Americans. They also suffered the effects of the war between Britain and France fought in the colonies, and experienced tumultuous times in politics as a new royally-appointed governor sought to create changes that the Puritans opposed. Colonial New Englanders were inclined to blame everything they perceived as strange or unpleasant on some aspect of their religion - they always had a Bible verse as an explanation. 

As early as the 14th century, the belief in the supernatural, and the ability of witches to cause harm emerged in Europe and soon became widespread in colonial New England. The second capital crime of the colonists' legal code was witchcraft, which detailed that any person suspected of witchcraft could be sentenced to death. 

In the winter of 1692, the 9-year-old daughter and 11-year-old niece of Samuel Parris, minister of Salem Village, began having "fits." They barked like dogs, complained of invisible hands pinching and biting their skin, had wild outbursts of screaming, fell into trances, and had violent reactions to prayers or religious sentiments, with one of them once hurling a Bible across the room. The local physician could not find any physical cause for their condition, and pronounced that the girls must be suffering from "the evil hand." Friends of the girls soon began to exhibit similar symptoms, and neither prayer nor medicine seemed to help them. The only other explanation the villagers could come up with was that their suffering was caused by witchcraft, and people of the village were accused of bewitching the girls. Hysteria spread throughout the colony, many people were accused and a special court was established to hear the cases of witchcraft. In the end, 200 people were accused, 30 of them found guilty, and 19 people were hanged for their practice of witchcraft. 

Illustration of a courtroom during the Salem Witch Trials

Alternative Explanation

In 1976, Linnda Caporael, now a behavioral psychologist, offered an alternative hypothesis to explain the afflictions of the "bewitched" girls of Salem. Her work claimed that the hallucinations the "bewitched" suffered from were actually caused by a case of ergot poisoning. 

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Ergot is a plant disease caused by the fungus Claviceps purpurea which can affect rye, wheat, and other types of grain. When a plant is first infected, it will spew out a sweet mucus called "honey-dew" that contains spores and attracts insects, so that the spores can be transmitted to other plants. As the fungus grows, it replaces kernels of the infected grain with sclerotium which contain chemicals of ergot alkaloids such as lysergic acid, which is used to make LSD, and ergotamine, which is now used to treat migraines. Eating grain contaminated with ergot can lead to many symptoms recorded during the Salem Witch trials: muscle spasms, hallucinations, and feelings of things crawling on the skin. 

Grain containing a claviceps purpurea sclerotia

Lysergic acid diethylamide, also known as LSD, is a potent psychedelic drug which can produce changes in perception, mood and thought, and can cause a user to experience hallucinations. LSD is made from the lysergic acid found in the sclerotium of grains infected with ergot.

LSD works by binding to proteins on brain cells called serotonin receptors. Serotonin is a chemical messenger that carries messages between cells in the brain and throughout the body. It helps the brain send messages to control mood, emotions, and digestion. By binding to these receptors, LSD alters the neural pathways, which can cause the hallucinations and "trips" of people who have taken it. Part of the serotonin 2B receptor acts as a lid, trapping the LSD molecule to the receptor, which is why "trips" under the influence of LSD can last so long.

 

Molecule of LSD bound to a serotonin receptor

Ergot thrives after warm and rainy springs and summers, exactly the conditions reported in the diaries of Salem villagers from 1691. Most of the afflicted people of Salem lived in the western section of Salem Village, which consisted of swampy meadows, ideal for the growth of ergot. Rye was a main crop of Salem Village, widely consumed, mostly in bread. Farmers may have ignored the dark kernels of the infected rye as being due to sun damage, and sent the poisonous grain to the mills to be processed and consumed. The villagers in the western section of Salem were at greater risk of consuming the poisonous grain, as confirmed by the higher percentage of afflicted people in that section. 

Map of the distribution of the bewitched/accusers (A), witches (circled W), and the defenders (D)

Linnda Caporael concluded that the "bewitched" girls had been poisoned with ergot. The symptoms of ergot poisoning, including convulsions, hallucinations, and muscle spasms, are consistent with those observed in Salem. However, there are likely other factors unrelated to ergot that contributed to the events in Salem. The villagers of Salem likely also suffered from mass hysteria, and as a result, went along with the accusations and added their own.