CAUSES OF THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS

FIRST BLOWOUT

• When Tituba brought the girls in the woods is when it started
• The girls started acting crazy
• They would accuse each other to take the blame off of themselves
• More and more people were accused because of this outburst

MASS HYSTERIA

• Mass hysteria is when your emotions take over
• People who were scared of being accused would freak themselves into shock
• This would make them act strange which led to them being accused
• Once accused, they would freak out even more which led to worse punishments

TEENAGE BOREDOM

• Some teenagers would start acting out to get attention
• Lots of these type of things happened which made it hard to believe

IMPERFECTIONS

• Any person who had imperfections were accused
• Two different eye colors
• Freckles
• Moles
• Sickness

JElOUSY

• People who were angry or jealous would often accuse others
• They would accuse because they wanted to get rid or get back at that person
• Some wanted others' property so they accused to get it

FEUDS

• Angry people would often accuse others to get back at them
• Fights or disagreements led to revenge

DENIAL

• When accused of witchcraft, if you denied it you were punished more
• If you couldn't prove that you weren't a witch then you were punished for lying
• Refusing to go to court because of being accused would cause a big punishment

VOODOO DOLLS

• People believed that voodoo dolls worked
• If you were caught with one, you were immediately accused
• Abigail Williams made people believe these truly worked

ERGOTISM

• The disease that occurs after someone eats moldy rye bread that contains chemicals in LSD
• This disease makes you hallucinate very badly and act strange
• If you got this disease and you started acting off infront of people, you were accused
• The effects caused lots of people to be accused of witchcraft