After watching part of an episode of the television show 'Lie To Me' which focused on the concept of ergot poisoning and the Salem Witch Trials, I began to look further into the initial causes of the hysteria in colonial Massachusetts. The ingestion of a fungus which is often found in rye as well as other cereals, can have convulsive symptoms such as those experienced by the girls in Salem. Therefore, the symptoms of ergotism are believed to mirror those of 'bewitchment'.

Today Ashley, Amy and I went to the State library to do some research for our Historical Investigation. Fortunately, this library had several books on the Salem Witch Trials, and so I spent a few hours taking more detailed notes on areas such as the narrative, the different colonies at the time, the two categories of witchcraft, the Puritan beliefs, the differences between Salem Village and Salem Town and the roles and expectations of women in colonial Massachusetts. Although I did not get to look through all of the books that I requested, they have been kept on hold so that I can hopefully go back sometime before school begins again to finish off more of my research.


http://www.mesharpe.com/mall/resultsa.asp?Title=America+in+World+History%3A+America+as+World+Frontier+(First+Encounters+to+1776)%3B+America+in+the+Age+of+Nation+Building+(1776+to+1898)%3B+Rise+to+Global+Power+(1898+to+1965)%3B+Challenges+of+Globalization+(1965+to+the+Present)

I found this book extremely helpful ^^

Over the last two days I have been looking into Pilgrims, their arrival on the Mayflower and other ships to Cape Cod, and the Massachusetts Bay Colony. These people had strong religious beliefs which shaped their society. Throughout my research, I found it interesting to learn that the people who were accused of witchcraft were not all of a particular social class or ranking within society, but from a range of areas.

I have written more notes from the World Book Encyclopedia (which has been extremely helpful!) in order to get some background information on my topic, and I have used the internet, but I desperately need to find more book sources! These holidays I think I need to visit the library in the city to see if they have any useful resources there, because unfortunately the school does not really have many books on my topic.