In 1672 Salem Village, a small farming village split from Salem Town, a prosperous town in Massachusetts. This caused a divide between the villagers, some supporting the split and some opposing it. This controversial split contributed to the uneasy mood of the town and helped fuel the oncoming witch hunt. Due to the recent split Salem Village was given the right to build it’s own church and Samuel Paris was named the minister. Many believe that Paris himself unintentionally had a hand in the start of this hysteria.

Paris owned a slave, Tituba and her husband John Indian. The slave couple was originally from Barbados. T

In January of 1692 Betty Paris was afflicted with psychotic fits. Soon after, several of the other girls began to have similar fits. When the town physician could not diagnose the girls, it was assumed they were victims of witchcraft. As Rosemary Guiley notes “It is impossible to know if the girls feigned witchcraft to hide their involvement with Tituba’s magic or whether they actually believed they were possessed.” (Guiley 289) Their religion told them that witchcraft could be a cause of illness and that witches were involved with the devil. The thought of witchcraft and the devil lurking among them in their small village caused an outburst of hysteria in which no one in the town was above suspicion.

When the idea of these children being the victims of witchcraft was introduced, the girls were immediately questioned in order to seek out the evil doers and punish them for their indiscretions. The girls named several names, the first being Tituba herself. Tituba was an easy target for the villagers, and an obvious suspect. Due to the fact that the villagers had allot of contact with Native Americans, they were well aware of their pagan religions and their belief in witchcraft. Tituba and her husband were originally from a tribe in Barbados, and because of the villager’s previous involvement and distaste for Native Americans; she was accused, tried and convicted of witchcraft immediately.

The Puritan religion, now far less popular than in seventeenth century Salem, dictated the lives of its followers. Their lives were governed by the word of god and the fear of his wrath. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” (1 Peter 5:8) Puritans in Salem were devout followers of their strict religion and anyone who faltered was greatly looked down upon. Due to the strict nature of their religion, when the girls were afflicted the suspected witches were viciously sought out and tried for their crimes against the girls, against God, and against the town.

ituba would fill Paris’ daughter Elisabeth “Betty” Paris, her cousin Abigail Williams, and several other girls with stories from her native country and also with stories of witchcraft and voodoo. In time, out of curiosity or sheer boredom durng the long winter months the girls themselves began to dabble in witchcraft they learned from Tituba by telling each others fortunes and making a rudimentary crystal ball.

There has been substantial research since the trials that could provide an explanations as to why the young girls had these fits. One explanation suggests that the girls were victims of ergot posining. Ergot posining comes from a common grain fungus that was common duing this time period. The effects of this poisoning are similar to the effects of LSD. The fits of hysteria could have been

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