[Lodging a hysterical accusation suddenly makes the powerless powerful, and the marginally noticed suddenly the center of attention...]
True.
I read that the hysteria outbreak may have been triggered by a barley toxin. It’s supposedly been traced to certain fields where the cut grain got wet in unexpected showers and then got moldy, producing the toxin that brought on convulsions and hallucinations. I think the mold is called “ergot”.
People thought they were either under an evil spell, or possessed. The panic soon inspired wild accusations and denunciations as people tried to deflect the blame to others.
The young adolescent girls were at the epicenter. And their imaginations had been heightened by an Afro-Caribbean serving woman who’d -— unbeknownst to their parents —— been entertaining them with ghost stories all winter long.
As the ergotism subsided, so did the “ witchcraft” outbreak.
So this could be the bernie phenom?
The most important thing when someone uses the Salem trials to make an anti-religious point is to remind them that they didn’t occur in the United States, but a British colony. They are as much US history as the French and Indian wars; something that happened in our geographical territory prior to the founding of this country.