05x15 - The Salem Witch Trials

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Tonight, a dark chapter
in early American history.

We are still fascinated
by the Salem witch trials

because it's a
story of injustice.

Women, young women,

some of them as young
as nine years old,

denounced their
neighbors for witchcraft.

Accusations fly and many
people are put to death.

People are coming
to court saying,

"I see invisible specters,"

and that was being
accepted as fact.

Now, we explore the top theories

behind a notorious tragedy

that's never been explained.

Suddenly, they realized
that beneath the surface,

there's this giant conspiracy
that's been building,

and so they want to uproot this.

They want to find out how
deep the conspiracy goes.

Can modern science
finally shed new light?

Medical knowledge is power.

It's a luxury that we have now

that they did not have
back then in Salem.

What really happened

in the small town of
Salem, Massachusetts

and what sparked the
Salem witch trials?


Massachusetts.

This tight-knit
Puritan community

lives a deeply religious
and strict way of life.

The Puritan settled
in Salem about 70 years

before the outbreak of
the Salem witch trials.

They had fled England where
they had been persecuted

for their religious beliefs
by the Anglican Church.

Puritans are not
fans of this church,

not because it's too strict,

but because it's
not strict enough.

They have established
themselves in Massachusetts Bay

and they sought to build
a godly city on a hill.

Their first settlement,

Salem Town is a port city,

but as the years go by,

the settlers
gradually move inland

and eventually they
form Salem Village.

But at some point,

there's really a
kind of a division

that starts to take
place between Salem Town

and Salem Village.

Salem Town developed
into a bustling port city

with trading connections
all over the region.

In contrast,

Salem Village is a
poor rural community.

It's more than 500
inhabitants spread out

over a much larger area

and make a living
mostly as farmers.

It's surrounded on
all sides, basically,

by pretty dense woods,

and they really kind
of eke out a bit

of a subsistence existence.

The community that is created
by these Puritan beliefs

is that your life is constantly
a battle between good and evil.

And evil can overtake
you at any turn,

so you always have
to be on the lookout.

Puritans consider
women especially susceptible

to Satan's charms.

Puritans don't believe that
women are inherently evil,

but they preach that
women are weaker than men,

both physically and morally.

When the witch hunt begins,

that makes women likely
targets for accusations.

The Puritan's
fear of witchcraft traces back

to Europe where massive witch
hunts have been going on

for over 300 years.

Something like 50,000
people were ex*cuted

for witchcraft across Europe

and its colonies
between 1450 and 1750.

It's against this backdrop

that the stage is set

for the most infamous
witch hunt of all time.

The events leading to the
Salem witch trials are believed

to begin at the end of 1691

in the Salem Village home
of Reverend Samuel Parris.

Reverend Samuel Parris

and his wife leave
their daughter Betty,

who's nine years old,

and her 11-year-old
cousin Abigail alone

when they go off on
trips for various things.

They're not totally alone.

They're actually with their
enslaved house servant Tituba.

Some historical sources say

that she's of African ancestry,

but most likely she was
from what is present day

of Venezuela or Guyana.

Tituba decides
let's play a game,

which is already
kind of uncommon

because kids in Puritanical
societies are also not allowed

to engage in any sort of fun.

Young girls'
voices are not heard.

Children are
expected to be quiet

and to listen to whatever
their parents say

and to grow up
without a personality.

That's what was expected of
the young girls in Salem.

Tituba teaches them a
game called the Venus Glass.

They would take an egg white

and drop it into
a glass of water

and try to interpret the shape,

and they thought that they
would get some insight

into who their future
partner would be,

But when they're
looking in the glass,

they see something
that terrifies them,

the image of a coffin.

Soon after,

in the midst of an
especially bitter winter,

Betty and Abigail both
come down with what appears

to be an unexplained illness.

It starts with a fever.

But then from there,

it progresses into
very strange forms.

They become catatonic.

They start hiding
under furniture.

They start barking like dogs,

and they feel like
they're being pinched

or pricked all
over their bodies,

even though there's no visible
marks that could be seen

and nobody has a clue what's
going on with these girls.

February, 1692,

with no improvement
in their condition,

the Parris girls accused
Tituba of bewitching them.

A court is convened
in the town of Salem.

Tituba is brought
before a court,

before a council,

and they asked her,
"Are you a witch?

Did you bewitch
the Parris girls?"

One of the peculiarities
of the Salem witch trials is

that those who confess
are granted clemency.

If you maintained your innocence

but you were found guilty,

then you were put to death.

Tituba understands this.

She can read the
room pretty easily,

so she confesses,
"Yes, I'm a witch,

I bewitched these girls."

Tituba testifies

that she does something called
signing the devil's book,

and she says further
it's not just her,

there are other people
that she knows in the town

who did it too.

Who they were,

nobody exactly knew,

And it breeds an
atmosphere of paranoia

and anxiety within the village

that spurs further denunciations

Over the course
of the three-day trial,

Tituba will go on to
name several women.

So these women
are thrown in jail,

but the accusations don't stop.

The next wave of
people that are accused

and arrested are
both men and women.

It's not just one or the other.

In court,

the young women that
are afflicted begin

to make allegations that their
neighbors are harming them,

but harming them
in spectral form.

Spectral evidence broadly
is the idea that the devil,

if he forms some sort
of a pact with a person,

can then take that person's
form and be a specter

and travel among
the ordinary people

of the town looking
like that person.

There was no need to prove that.

As long as someone says

that they have essentially
the special power to see it

because the whole idea is that
this evidence is invisible.

Confronted with
spectral evidence,

it's impossible for defendants
to answer the charges.

Ultimately, more than 200 men

and women wind up accused,

over 50 confessed and
are committed to prison,


and are ex*cuted.

Contrary to popular belief,

no witch was ever burned at
the stake in the United States.

They were all hung

except for one person,

a man by the name
of Giles Corey.

They took Giles
Corey out to a field,

laid him on his back,

and they started slowly
placing these heavy stones

on his chest,

telling him, "Confess!

Do you confess to
being a witch?"

All he says is just, "Add
more weight, more weight,"

until finally he can't
breathe and he dies.

May, 1693,

Massachusetts Governor
William Phipps officially ends

the witch trials.

The witch hunts may be over,

but the horror they unleashed
still resonates to this day.

The key question of the
Salem witch trials is,

what caused these
afflicted girls

to start falling
into these fits?

There's certainly
room for the idea

that maybe what the girls
were suffering from was

something more psychological
than physiological.

Mass hysteria is a known
psychological event where one

or two people start experiencing
psychologically-based

symptoms that then
become contagious

just as if it were another
sort of physical illness.

After Betty and
Abigail's terrifying experience

with the Venus Glass,

both girls come
down with some sort

of mysterious affliction.

They start getting sick,

and it starts off with
them getting feverish,

but they don't really know what
the cause of this fever is.

On top of the fever,

they also start hallucinating.

Their arms and their legs just
start moving in weird fits.

Finally, Reverend Parris
summons the village doctor,

William Griggs.

Dr. Griggs examines the girls

and could not find any
medical explanation

for their symptoms.

Clearly, they have
to be bewitched.

There is a precedent that does
exist for this sort of thing.

So there's a renowned
Puritan minister

by the name of Cotton Mather.

He writes a book called
"Memorable Providences Relating

to Witchcraft and Possession."

And it's a story
about a Boston family

and the way in which they are
being afflicted by a witch.

Cotton Mather's book was
widely read at the time.

Probably the girls
heard the stories.

After their terrifying
experience with the Venus Glass,

Abigail and Betty feel a
tremendous sense of guilt.

They're living in a
repressive Puritan society

in the house of the minister.

They believe that dabbling

with magic makes you a prime
target for demonic as*ault.

Perhaps the fits they
experience are a reaction

to their own sense of guilt.

It's as if all of this fear,

all of this paranoia just
suddenly explodes out

and everyone feels it.

People who are being accused

of being witches when they call
on their family and friends

and say, "Please come forward

and say that I've not
done any of these things,"

then those individuals
get accused also.

So it's like no one can escape
the wrath of discord system.

When you're already in a
community prone to groupthink,

mass hysteria is going
to spread even faster.

Many people start

to also exhibit the
same sorts of behaviors,

and this is what we see at Salem

where it's not
just the two girls,

but many girls screaming,

feeling like they're being
physically tormented.

All these things seem to spread
from two girls originally

to suddenly a whole group of
people behaving the same way.

It's classic mass hysteria.

There are other instances
in more recent times

where we do see this
phenomenon actually happening.

In 1965,

Blackburn, England,

we have a group of girls

who are complaining of
dizziness and a fainting.

Within hours of
those complaints,


are also complaining

of the same medical issues
of dizziness, of fainting,

and yet there's
no medical reason

as to why that actually happens.

Psychological triggers

in mass hysteria can involve
a lot of different things.

Certainly, pervasive
stress is one of them.

Oftentimes, it can also happen

when the person already
feels a loss of control

in their lives as probably
many of these villagers did.

Once you have an
initial trigger,

the effects can very
easily snowball.

And sadly, it
got way out of hand

where it ended up costing lives

It is 1692 and a group of girls

in Colonial Salem, Massachusetts
kickstart accusations

of witchcraft,

sending hundreds
of people to jail

and 19 to the gallows.

Now, looking back,

we know that these girls
were not bewitched,

but they still
experience these symptoms

for quite a long period of time.

So how do we explain
these symptoms?

So these girls are being raised

in an extremely
repressive environment,

a town where there's not
a whole lot of attention

for these girls,

and maybe they found a way
to get a lot of attention.

All of a sudden,

they find their voices.

Some experts
suggest the answer lies

in a power play by
the alleged victims.

The girls' symptoms
would change over time

and come up at the most
convenient of moments

like during the
trials themselves

when a specific symptom was
actually being discussed.

There is even some evidence
that fraud may have occurred

in the later parts
of the trials.

The girls started
to show up in court

with pins sticking
in their hands,

saying that they'd been
put there by a specter,

with bite marks saying that
a specter had bit them,

physical kind of manifestations
that are clearly impossible.

When these children are
being paid attention to finally

and getting that support and
love from their community

and being valued
for speaking up,

which is so different

from what they
experienced up until now, its

easy for children especially to
get hooked on that.

Some historians contend

that the Salem witch trials
all started when two girls,

Betty Parris and her
cousin Abigail cry wolf.

And as the trials continue,

the spotlight on them
only grows brighter.

Perhaps early on in the trials,

the afflicted girls
enjoy the attention

that they're getting.

The audience for
these girls is growing.

People are coming from
outside into Salem,

new blood, new people, new
audience to perform for

'cause There's really a kind
of a theatrical element.

So many people want to be here

to see this scandalous
affair that they have to move

to the meeting house,

the largest building
within Salem Village.

As soon as they start to talk
to the suspected witches,

the girls begin to
fall into terrible fits

and it causes complete
pandemonium in the courtroom.

It seems to me that
the girls could be,

in a sense, having
the last laugh here.

They're getting a lot of
entertainment about it.

Nothing this fun or exciting
has ever happened in Salem.

You have these girls who
are suddenly rock stars,

this group who tends to
be ignored, marginalized,

and they have their
moment in the limelight.

It isn't just attention

these girls are getting,

it's also power.

Men were the ones
that spoke out in court.

Men were the ones that
charged their neighbors

with moral infractions.

But in this case,

women and young women
are given the authority

and the power to appear in court

to denounce their
neighbors for witchcraft.

It's a complete reversal
of the entire gender

and power hierarchies
within Puritan society.

In June of 1692, Ann Putnam,

the daughter of one of
the prominent families,

accuses Rebecca Nurse of
being one of the people

who's bewitching the girls.

Now, she's a very respected
person in the community.

She isn't one of these loners

or an outsider or something.

And so 39 people

in the community sign
a petition that says,

"No, she's a good person.

She's an upstanding
moral citizen,

and she's not the kind of
person who'd be a witch.

We don't think she's a witch."

Rebecca Nurse
pleads her innocence

from the very beginning.

But by the time of
Rebecca Nurse's trial,

the afflicted girls are
running the courtroom.

The judges are
deferring to them.

Rebecca Nurse ultimately
is hanged for being a witch.

Imagine the power that this
is giving to 9-year-old,


girls in this town.

Children do cruel and strange
things just to get attention

or just because they're bored,

but to blame for
that really should go

to the adults and not the kids.

It's impossible

to know whether the
Salem girls were

intentionally play acting,

but given the
culture of the day,

it's almost certain they
could never admit to lying.

Once the girls have
denounced their neighbors

and they've been
hanged as witches,

it is too late for them

to retract their statements.

Within the Puritan community,

lying under oath
is a serious sin

that could place your
eternal soul in jeopardy.

It's doubtful

whether these young women
would've risked that.

In 1692,

Salem Village, Massachusetts
is a dangerous place.

Accusations of witchcraft
suddenly threatened hundreds

of lives and people are
starting to be hanged



when you start to pull away

from the mystical, the magical,

you start to unearth a much
more interesting story,

one that potentially talks
about not black magic,

but jealousy, rivalry,

and also a clash of ideology.

The politics

of this small village are
very neighborhood-based.

In an environment like this,

you have to depend
on your neighbor

in order to make it past
all the immense challenges

of life at this time.

Everything was very close knit.

There wasn't a police force.

Everybody just knew
everybody else's business.

Gossip plays a huge role
in the Salem witch trials.

Once Tituba confesses,

it's the talk of the town.

People come from as
far away as Boston

to attend her examination.

Once the afflicted start falling
into fits in the courtroom,

mass pandemonium ensues.

But behind all of this hysteria,

behind all of this gossip,

behind all of this
everyone getting

into everyone's business,

in the background,

there's something that's been
brewing for about 20 years

and it's gonna come to a head

right around the time
of these witch trials.

One factor in the Salem
witch trials is the feud

between the Porters
and the Putnams.

The Putnams are an old,

extremely conservative
farming family,

while the Porters
run the local sawmill

and are newer and more
liberal in their outlook

with stronger links
to nearby Salem town

In 1672, a dam that's owned
by the Porters breaks open

and it floods land that
belongs to the Putnams.

And so the Putnam will
actually file a lawsuit

against the Porter
family for damages.

It causes immense tensions
between these two families

because the fields

and the fertility of the
fields is absolutely central

to their survival.

Tensions between
these two families came

to a head when it was time to
elect a new religious leader.

The Putnam felt that the people

in Salem Township were
becoming more and more liberal,

and they wanted to
preserve the traditions

that exist in Salem Village,

and so they bring in
this more conservative,

more authoritarian minister.

Samuel Parris is stern.

He's very fire and brimstone.

He's a fundamentalist

at a time when we
would've thought

they were all fundamentalists.

Samuel Parris
becomes a lightning rod

for controversy
within Salem Village.

He's bombastic,

he's pompous,

he's loud,

and many people don't like him.

Once established as Minister,

the village splits further
over his accommodation

and expenses.


Village Council,



vote to give the reverend's
family a house, a barn,

and two acres of land.

The Porters believe

that installing Parris
is a bridge too far.

They're unwilling to pay

for what they see as large
scale expenses for Samuel Parris

and his work as
religious leader.

The Porters also
decide to remove members

of the Putnam family off
of the governing board

for Salem Village.

In October of 1691,

just a few months before the
girls are supposedly stricken,

the new committee
members installed

by the Porters vote
down a tax levy

that would pay Reverend
Parris' salary.

With powerful
figures opposing him,

it seems that Parris could
soon be out of a job.

So this feud between the Putnam

and the Porters has been
brewing for about 20 years.

So by the time we get
to the first accusation

that's been made,

the line in the
sand has been drawn

and this feud is going

to find a whole new
b*ttlefield to play out on.

In all, eight members

of the Putnam family
are either accusers

or part of the team prosecuting
the suspected witches.

Thomas Putnam files


and testifies against


who are accused of witchcraft,

but his daughter Anne takes
it all one step further.

Anne Putnam in the end
actually levies accusations

against 48 people.

So nearly one quarter
of all the people

who get accused of
witchcraft in Salem Village.

Now, in response to all
of these testimonies made

by Thomas Putnam
and his daughter,

the Porters come out

and try to start mobilizing
the villagers of Salem

to try to put up stop
to these witch trials.

As they're trying to
mobilize these villagers,

subsequently, 19 of their
friends end up being accused

of witchcraft.

The legal system in Puritan
New England gave essentially

those accused a
witchcraft no way

to make an effective defense.

If you were pointed
at and called a witch,

that was an accusation

and you were immediately
put on trial.

There are people who think
that it's entirely possible

that the Putnams and Reverend
Parris were responsible

for more or less
manipulating their kids

into making these
kinds of accusations.

From the Putnam's perspective

and from Parris' perspective,

this is a great thing

'cause not only do they get
to eliminate their enemies

by accusing them of witches

and potentially k*lling them,

but they also create
a kind of hysteria

that brings people closer to
their fundamentalist viewpoint.

But this also puts Reverend
Parris in a sort of spotlight

because what better time
to start coming to church

and to listening to his sermons?

So even though these
accusations could be seen

as an extension of the feud

between the Putnam
and the Porters,

the accusations then start to
get a little out of control

and start to snowball.

The problem extended
well beyond Salem Village.

There are actually 20
different communities

that had people within them
who were accused of witchcraft.

So the Putnam and Porter
families were really

only a very small
part of what grew

to be a much larger affair.

Puritans in Salem, Massachusetts

in the late 1600s live in
a world of faith and fear,

which many believe
is at the root

of the most infamous witch
hunt in American history.

But what if there was
a more tangible cause,

one that the Puritans would
have no way of detecting?

Now, more than three
centuries later,

perhaps we have the scientific
means to uncover it.

Salem Villages,

they're built on
agriculture and farming,

and so there's a lot
of growing of grasses,

barley wheat.

In Salem Village,

rye grain is actually one
of the most prevalent crops.

It's hearty, it's durable.

It can make it through a
winter pretty decently,

and so it becomes the
staple of the Puritan diet.

You can make everything
with it from bread to beer.

But you're never guaranteed
a successful harvest.

You have to plant
this crop correctly.

And if you end up having
a miserable harvest,

you could face starvation.

Going into the
planting season of 1692,

the Puritans of the
Massachusetts Bay

colony have endured a brutal
winter.

Their stores of
grain are running low

and they're kind of
hoping for the spring,

but the spring turns out
being pretty miserable,

very damp weather.

Damp weather is disastrous when
you're trying to keep grain

because things
start to get moldy.

When this crop comes up
from the ground in 1692,

Puritans may have
taken a look at it

and noticed a black stain
on the back of the grain,

but they may have just
thought that this was due

to overexposure to the sun,

so they could have
well harvested it

and ground it into their bread.

But these
Puritans are seemingly unaware

that the black
spot they've ground

into their bread is
actually a fungus.

And this fungus, though,

it can cause severe
hallucination.

Ergot is a kind of
fungus that is very toxic

and which is very durable.

It's extremely
difficult to get rid of.

Even now, modern fungicides
have a difficult time k*lling

the ergot fungus,

and it particularly likes
to grow in rye grain.

So the only way
that you can get rid

of ergot is if you rotate
your crops pretty regularly.

If there's a particular fungus

or pest that likes a
particular kind of crop,

then by rotating the crops
that you grow one kind one year

and another kind
of different year,

you don't allow
the pests to stay

and they'll die
off in one winter

and they won't
come back the next.

But because the soil so
wet and is not as arable

and it's kind of a rocky
or terrain up there,

it's hard to rotate your crops
as regularly in the north

and it is in the south.

It's possible some

of this ergot made its way
into the villager's bread.

They ingest it,

and they are experiencing
what's called ergotism

AKA St. Anthony's fire.

It's called St. Anthony's fire

because in previous instances

where ergotism had been seen,

it is said that those that
ingested this fungus that prayed

to Saint Anthony
were spared death.

Ergotism causes
LSD-like effects.

It's sufferers have
hallucinations,

they suffer convulsions.

Behavioral
scientist, Linnda Caporael,

first published this
theory back in 1976.

It's a really interesting
fact that the symptoms

of ergot poisoning are
really similar to what it is

that affects and afflicts
Betty and Abigail back

at the Parris homestead.

So those sorts of
hallucinations that they have,

the catatonia that they have,

the kind of acting out,

the convulsions or the fits,

all those are also symptoms
of ergot poisoning.

Her explanation

of why young women would've
been particularly susceptible

to ergotism is that they were
smaller and weighed less,

and so the toxicity would've
had more of an effect on them.

It's easy to see why she thought

that these LSD-like effects

of ergotism could have
caused the girls' fits

because they're vivid
descriptions of specter

that they had seen

and strange creatures
they encountered.

If ergot poisoning is to blame,

there isn't a soul in Salem
who would've known about it.

When William Griggs goes

and sees the Parris
girls for the first time

and tries to diagnose them,

he wouldn't have been
able to diagnose ergotism

'cause at the time,

it wasn't a thing,

people didn't even
know it existed.

Ergotism is not contagious.

It all depends on who's exposed,

how much they're exposed

to the dose makes the poison.

People throughout the families,

if they're all eating
from the same bread,

but they're eating it
at different amounts,

they're getting different doses.

That could have
been one of the things

that made it a lot
harder for doctors

to try to figure out what
exactly was going on in Salem.

There are some
scholars who think

that the ergot poisoning
theory is not likely

because one of the things

that would've kind of
counteracted that is a diet

that was rich in vitamin A.

Vitamin A can counteract
the effects of the ergot.

Where do you find vitamin A?

From fish.

And the Puritans would have
had a regular diet of fish

because a Massachusetts
Bay colony right

by the Atlantic Ocean,

and so the Puritans would've
had a daily diet of fish.

Therefore, their vitamin A
levels would've been quite high

and ergot maybe wasn't that
much of a problem for them.

The
forest surrounding Salem Village

is rife with danger.

Not only is there the ongoing
w*r with Native Americans,

bears and wolves
prowl the frontier

just beyond the edge of town,

but many believe it's some

of New England's
smallest inhabitants

that may pose the
biggest threat.

New England has
an overpopulation problem

with deer. There's deer all over
the place.

They would come in and
actually eat some of the green

that they were growing.

On a positive side,

they also provided venison,

which was a major part

of the diet of the villagers.

One thing hunters
didn't understand in the 17th

century is that with deer comes
a bigger problem,

deer ticks.

Lyme disease isn't
studied seriously

until the 1970s when
a group of children

and adults in Lyme Connecticut
contract the disease,

There were children
that were suffering

from joint paralysis,
fatigue, rashes.

Two mothers from
the group cracked the case

by conducting their own research

and keeping meticulous notes,

a pattern finally emerges.

Each suffered a tick bite in
the Lyme Connecticut area.

There is evidence to suggest

that this disease
existed centuries ago

and also outside of Connecticut,

including in places like
Salem in New England.

In 2008,

historian M.M. Drymon
publishes a book

in which she contends that
Lyme disease was the root cause

of the Salem witch trials.

In the book,

she writes that the Parris
girl symptoms included

intense headaches and the
feeling of being pinched

and poked by an invisible force.

Sufferers of Lyme disease also
experience intense headaches

and also joint pains that feel
like they're being stung.

One of the telltale
signs of infection

with Lyme disease is
a bite, the tick bite,

which is surrounded by what's
called a bullseye rash.

So a little kind of
ring around that bite.

And what's clear from
the early testimonies given

in court is that a number
of children ended up

with red marks on their bodies
in very distinctive ways.

You have several
children from one family

that have red streaks
all over their body.

You have another child that says

that they have
marks on their body

that looks like stab wounds.

Darkest good.

A 4-year-old that was
accused of witchcraft

and spent months in jail
has a little red wound

on her finger.

That's about the
size of a flea bite.

Now, these were discovered

because at the time,

as part of the
interrogation of a witch,

they wanted to see whether
women had any strange marks

on their bodies anywhere.

So because of this,

we do have testimonies of
various things that were found.

In their minds,

this was proof of the devil.

For us from a
scientific perspective,

maybe this was part of the
tick bite and the bullseye rash

that they were actually seeing.

As for why it was largely girls

and women who suffered
from these symptoms,

M.M. Drymon has a theory.

Kids tend to play or interact

with each other on
the ground more,

and women wear very long skirts

that actually touch
the ground physically.

Cloth is fibrous

and it's a perfect
little attachment point

for a tick to grab onto.

It's certainly plausible

that a couple of children
could have been playing out

in the woods

and have gotten bitten by a tick

and come down with Lyme disease.

You don't have to
interact with a deer

or wildlife to get a deer tick.

These ticks will travel
around in the grass looking

for their latest prey.

Nowadays, of course,

we don't have that
much to worry about

with Lyme disease.

It's easily treated with
antibiotics, with penicillin.

However, penicillin wasn't
a thing until the 1930s,

so about 250 years after
the Salem witch trials.

Not only can Lyme
disease cause rashes,

some experts believe it
could also explain some

of the girls' more
extreme symptoms.

With Lyme disease, it's rare,

but it can become
a neurotoxicant

that can cause various type
of neurological issues,

changes in behavior,

seeing things that aren't there.

There appear to have been
long-term health effects.

Abigail stays sick

and in fact doesn't
live very long

after the close of these trials.

It is possible that both Abigail

and Anne Putnam were
victims of not witchcraft,

just Lyme disease

Life in 1692 Salem isn't

for the faint of heart.

Not only do devoted Puritans
worry about hellfire

and brimstone in the afterlife,

they also worry about
bewitchment in the here and now.

Centuries later,

we know sorcery didn't cause
the Salem girls' symptoms,

but the real culprit has
yet to be identified.

There are a lot of
potential root causes

that could have led to
the Salem witch trials.

You have a lot of fear and
paranoia in these communities.

Why?

You're living in the woods,

animals could get you.

You might not plant
your crop the right way,

which could lead to
a shortage of food,

which means you have to worry

about how you're gonna
survive for a winter.

There are historical
accounts that suggest

that the consumption of
certain types of plants,

one in particular,

just might play a major role.

Jimsonweed is a very
common roadside weed.

It is part of the
nightshade family.

It does have
hallucinogenic properties

and it is native
to North America

Jimsonweed produces a
small egg-shaped fruit

about two inches in diameter,

and usually it's most
harmful to cattle

and other wild animals
who die after they eat it.

The plant has large white

or purple
trumpet-shaped flowers,

just the kind of wild flower

that might attract
a young girl's eye.

It's very plausible that women

and children are
picking the jimsonweed

because they are
a flowering fruit.

We look at the historical
background of this plant.

We find that it is in
fact linked to occultism

and to elements of dark magic

With its hallucinogenic
properties,

jimsonweed has been associated
with various cultural

and spiritual practices
throughout history,

including witchcraft.

Jimsonweed has been
linked to paganism

and it has been used to
alter one's consciousness

and it can and do
hallucinations.

It's possible that the
girls came in contact

with jimsonweed either outside

or in the house on the day
of the Venus Glass incident.

There are even suggestions

that there is a member
of the Salem community

who would already be familiar
with these practices.

According to some historians,

Tituba may well be
from a Caribbean tribe called

the Arawak who are known to use
jimsonweed for medicinal

and ceremonial purposes.

Native American
groups at the time,

and maybe even Tituba herself,

often are using jimsonweed
as part of religious rituals.

These could be made into cakes

and these gems and
cakes would be ingested

The alter state of
consciousness that it invites

might, for example, allow
someone to commune

with their ancestors or with
some higher power.

The use of jimsonweed

as a hallucinogenic has been
confirmed more recently.

There were four
teenagers in Los Angeles

that actually brewed
their jimsonweed tea

and experienced
psychedelic effects.

They were really successful

and they got really high.

And by high,

I mean that the symptoms

that they experienced
were very similar

to the hallucinations

and things that were
described as a part

of the original Parris girls
experiences in the 1690s.

If these girls had been
ingesting jimson cakes,

could they have believed
that the hallucinations

that they were having were real?

That seems entirely possible.

They were doing this very
secretive thing possibly

that they knew they
weren't supposed to do.

And that, of course, led
to feeding into this idea

of we should be
punished for our crime.

However, as the accusations grow

and more and more accusers
also appear in the village,

it seems unlikely
that they're all kind

of binging on jimson cakes.

Whatever the cause of the
witch trials in the first place,

it takes an outsider
to end them.

Reverend Increase
Mather of Boston,

father of Cotton Mather,

encourages cooler
heads to prevail,

Though he still believes

that the devil is
at work in Salem,

he thinks it's at work

and actually the people who
are making the accusations

rather than the people
who are accused.

Mather proclaims that is
better for 10 suspected witches

to be set free than for
one person who's innocent

to be ex*cuted.

And although the stain
never disappears,

things do quiet down
in this little town.

When it's all said and done,

the people who were caught up

in that fervor may look
back on it and and say,

"It's all in the past

and the devil made me do it."

In 1697, the legislature
of Massachusetts,

which was called
the General Court,

they declare a day of
fasting to atone for the sins

that they'd committed at Salem

during the events at
the Salem witch trials.


of Judicature declared

that the events that had
happened were unlawful

and the results
of that were void.

I think if there's a lesson

to be learned is that the
dangers of instilling fear

in a population are real

and that very easily neighbors
can turn against one another.

It reveals something
about how people behave

when they're together.

It reveals something about
tribalism and human nature.

It's hard in many
ways to believe

that all this happened
on American soil.

We tend to associate
the whole witch hunts,

the burning of witches
with medieval Europe,

not with what happens in
Massachusetts for God's sakes.

The Salem witch trials
are an infamous stain

on American history,

a cautionary tale about
the dangers of groupthink

and unfounded accusations.

We may never know for certain
what caused a group of girls

to suffer those disturbing
symptoms more than 300 years ago

in Salem, Massachusetts.

But whether they were brought
on by disease, toxins,

or mass hysteria,

one thing is true,

executing 20 innocent
people was never a cure.

I'm Laurence Fishburne.

Thank you for watching
History's Greatest Mysteries.