Afflicted Accusers In Salem example essay topic

A Fever in Salem: A New Interpretation of the New England Witch Trials. By Laurie Winn Carlson. (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, Publisher, 1999. Pp. x, 197. $24.95.) The author of this book has proposed an intriguing hypothesis regarding the seventeenth-century witchcraft trials in Salem, Massachusetts. Laurie Winn Carlson argues that accusations of witchcraft were linked to an epidemic of encephalitis and that it was a specific form of this disease, encephalitis lethargic a, that accounts for the symptoms suffered by the afflicted, those who accused their neighbors of bewitching them.

Though this interpretation of the Salem episode is fascinating, the book itself is extremely problematic, fraught with historical errors, inconsistencies, contradictions, conjecture, and a very selective use of the evidence. Carlson begins her study with the theory that the afflicted among Salem's residents exhibited symptoms identical to those of individuals infected during the worldwide epidemic of encephalitis lethargic a of the 1920's. She insists that 'victims had nothing to gain' from coming forward to make their accusations, so that their torment must have been real; a bold statement, but one based on the author's opinion alone (27). Carlson tends to dismiss or simply fails to mention any material that does not neatly fit her theory. Any evidence that points to the fact that the afflicted girls were anything more than hapless victims of a virulent disease is not addressed. In fact, there is quite a bit of material from the testimonies produced at the trials of reputed witches that raises doubts about the accusers.

But, Carlson sees clear proof of encephalitis lethargic a everywhere, as in the case of a young English girl who 'had an experience similar to sufferers in New England -- -obviously a case of encephalitis lethargic a' (130). Although the factual errors contained in this book are problematic (according to Carlson, John Winthrop, first governor of the Bay Colony, was an 'esteemed physician'), and the contradictions are frustrating (Cotton Mather either did, p. 47, or did not, p. 70, report visions of a White Spirit in his writings on the Salem episode), it is the wild speculation regarding the spread of encephalitis through the colonial population that is most troubling. Carlson argues that the disease was probably passed from wild birds to humans and livestock through the bites of mosquitoes. She provides maps of migratory routes to demonstrate that birds could have carried the virus from the West Indies to Central America and then north to New England. But, she does not address the absence of the symptoms she attributes to encephalitis in the populations of settled regions elsewhere along the birds' flight path. The English settlers in Barbados and the Chesapeake region were plagued by mosquito-borne ailments, yet never experienced the symptoms described at Salem.

Carlson speculates that the disease originated in West Africa. If so, why was there no mention of it in the slave population? Why were the afflicted accusers in Salem all female? According to Carlson, women and children were more often victims of encephalitis lethargic a than were men.

She argues that they engaged in activities that put them at greater risk for contact with disease-carrying mosquitoes, such as milking cows at dawn or drawing water from wells. But young men spent most of their workday out-of-doors, yet they were somehow not affected. That seems a remarkable stroke of luck. Carlson claims that the disease carried a high mortality rate, but she does not address the fact that the afflicted girls responsible for so many of the accusations all survived their infection. Was this another lucky coincidence? Carlson's effort to lend greater understanding to the tragedy at Salem is to be applauded.

Her sympathy for the afflicted is noble. But, she has failed to draft a convincing argument, relying far too much on conjecture and too little on hard evidence. She has not proven that the afflictions of the bewitched were due to illness, or even that their symptoms were real. More importantly, she has failed to connect her theory of contagion as the culprit in the witchcraft outbreak to the bigger picture of the history of this sorry episode in our past.