The Salem Witch Trials began in the year 1692. The trials caused hysteria in the village of Salem. There were twenty people accused of witchcraft and executed. Over one hundred people were believed to be guilty and were jailed. However, “the Salem witch hunts were notable not for the number of those hanged and imprisoned, but for the fact that they happened when they did” (Hill 1). The trials began more than forty years after the initial witch frenzy in Europe (Hill 1). The superstition was questioned by scientists of the time. Why then should yet another witch hunt begin? There has been much discussion about why the witch hunt began. It has been speculated that hostility or psychological disorders were the main cause of the witch hunts. The girls may have been under the influence of Tituba, a Caribbean slave. Ergot poisoning is another theory that has been questioned. Whether it was ergotism, Tituba's influence, or hostility that caused the witch hunts, the only thing that is certain is that the Salem witch trials were hysterical. Ergot poisoning was one theory as to what made the girls of Salem Village act the way they did. Done. It was speculated that the girls may have contracted ergotism from eating rye bread produced on the Putnam farm (Woolf, par.17). The fungus would grow on the rye flowers and replace the grain that grew there with a bundle of mycelia that could contain the ergot (Woolf, par.9). You could contract different types of ergotism. The type of ergotism believed to affect Salem girls was convulsive ergotism. When someone or something contracts convulsive ergotism, they experience substantial dizziness, headaches, painful muscle contractions, mania, delirium, and visual and auditory hallucinations (Woolf, ... middle of paper ... will it be true, or perhaps the real reason has yet to Works Cited Hansen, "Andover Witchcraft and the Causes of the Salem Witchcraft Trials." University of Illinois Press, 1983. Rpt in Critical Literature from 1400 to 1800. Ed. Jelena O. Krstovic Vol. 38. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998. Literature Resource Center. 2013Hill, Frances. The Salem Witch Trials Reader [Cambridge, Massachusetts]: Da Capo, 2000. Print.Rosenthal, Bernard "Tituba Magazine of History", July 2003: 48-50 MasterFILE Web 2013. Woolf, Alan. "Witchcraft or Mycotoxin? The Salem Witch Trials." Journal of Toxicology: Clinical Toxicology 38.4 (2000): 457. Gale Cengage Learning Network November. 2013.