Salem Witch Trials: A Theory Claims Moldy Bread Is The Cause Salemites Turned To The Dark Side

The colonial people of Massachusetts accused and prosecuted 20 people of witchcraft, thus leading to the very grim and very famous Salem Witch Trials. Many have speculated what really caused the Salem Witch Trials, with one theory claiming that the cause for Salemites to turn on each other was due to moldy bread.

In the 1976 paper titled Ergotism: The Satan Loosed In Salem, author Linnda R. Caporael claims that a fungus growing on moldy bread caused the symptoms of witchcraft found on the accused. She pointed out that ergot, a type of fungus that grows on rye, is the main culprit behind the Salem Witch Trials.

Ergot looks like an overbaked grain and when ingested causes a person's limbs to fall off (gangrenous ergotism) or convulse, choke, prick and/or have hallucinations (convulsive ergotism). These descriptions of the different effects of ergot have sparked Carporael to think that maybe the fungus was the main cause of the witchcraft accused in Salem.

The theory of Linnda R. Caporael, although controversial, is quite possible. During that time, the agricultural landscape of Salem in 1961 is ripe for ergot to spread on rye. According to Caporael, the Salemites would not have known what ergot is, but letters she found proved that it was a significant problem in that area.

Adding to her theory, Linnda R. Caporael also claims that since the minister, Preacher Parris, was mostly paid in grain, his family was the first to succumb to the effects of ergotism. The minister's daughter, 9-year-old Elizabeth, and niece, 11-year-old Abigail William, were showing symptoms of convulsing, skin rashes and others, which the Preacher Parris believed were caused by witchcraft.

Furthermore, the western part of Salem was the only one afflicted with ergot and where most of the people accused of witchcraft lived. According to Linnda R. Caporael, the symptoms of witchcraft that the Salemites described are similar to the symptoms caused by ergotism. This was well-documented and is now archived in the Salem records. The most intriguing claim of Caporael's theory is that LSD, a modern and familiar hallucinogen, which was first synthesized from ergot back in 1938, caused the hallucinations the Salemites experienced.

According to Secrets of the Dead, Linnda R. Caporael's theory is supported by scholars like Mary Matossian, but many are saying her theory is wrong. Nicholas Spanos along with fellow scholar, Alan Woolf, argued that Caporael's theory about the Salem Witch Trials is plain wrong.

The scholars argued that some of the symptoms of ergotism did not match the reported symptoms of witchcraft. Adding to their arguments, Spanos and Woolf claim that although the Salem Witch Trials were an isolated event, places around and near Salem could have also held their own trials and are not affected with ergotism.