Hey guys welcome back to freak week
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If you haven't heard of freak week yet you're gonna have to get caught up because we are doing an
Doing an entire week of Halloween themed videos and topics that you guys have requested over the last year I've been saving them all for freak week
And today we're going to be talking about the highly requested Salem witch trials and I have some very interesting
Information for you guys about it and before we get started with that I want to remind you guys about the limited edition freak week shirt
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now I think before we talk about salem, we just need to talk about witch trials in general and go back
You know a couple hundred years before the Salem witch trials even happened.
I just want you guys to keep in mind that back
Then things were pretty whack there was barely any real like regulation there was not a good judicial system
So weird things like this could happen and back in the 1300s during the time of the bubonic plague people really started to target
Catholics actually many groups wanted to bring down the Catholic Church, thought they were getting too powerful
And they were using things like magic and spells and witchcraft and stuff and so it became this major
War from witchcraft type things which now keep in mind. I'd probably be considered a witch for believing in astrology and
Really any of the things I believe or anyone who believes in like Reiki or crystals or anything like
Alternative I guess would probably be considered a witch
So it was really in the 1300s where it became like
Outsider versus the religious insider there were tons of trials. It was really popular in Europe
It was really really popular in Europe
Tons and tons of people were being accused of being witches now this was mostly women now
It was overwhelmingly women who were being targeted there even times where Jewish people were considered to be in the same
Categories of witches is a stuff that wouldn't fly today a lot of just discrimination and well you know I guess maybe today
But there was a lot of fear from Catholic men mainly that were the ones pushing this against women
Women who were alternative poor women widowed women
Situations like that or slaves were often the ones that were looked at for being witches now
Let's jump back to Salem this came across the seas to Salem in 1600s
from a guy named cotton nather, now let me tell you about this guy cotton, cotton was a real fucker
he had some very choice things to say about women, and he was very afraid of the devil
And he really was the one that got everyone in Salem hyped up about witches and back at the time that this happened
This is literally 17th century pre-revolutionary America
It is a fucking mess to be honest the colonies were a mess there was no good legal system put into place
No
Good judicial system there was no checks and balances so bullshit happen all the time there were trials that were complete
Bullshit happening all the time and the Salem witch trials really got started when a minister's daughter and his niece both were having severe
convulsions hallucinations
And muscle spasms, you know this is some devil compels you type of shit instead of thinking
They were sick or having some type of disease or something they just assumed that the girls had been messed with by witches the girls
Were also having aloud outbursts
So people wanted to someone to point fingers at and they even you know being a witch back
Then was a really scary thing. It wasn't like witches like we have now wasn't cool
It was very looked down upon there were more and more girls in the town that we're having the same symptoms
And they assumed that there must be some devil's work witchcraft
Going on in the town so the first person that they blamed was actually a woman named Tituba
She was actually the slave of the minister whose daughters
Got sick. They also accused a beggar named Sara good and a widow named Sarah
Osborne there were tons of other people in the trial as well
but these were kind of the first ones and the first one to come forward and admit that she was a witch was Tituba and
It is really important to keep in mind that her confession only came after days of
Testimony and scrutiny is very possible
She just wanted to say it so that maybe they would let her off the hook or try to help or something.
Not the case. More and more women we're getting roped into it being accused of being a witch and back then if you
Like look down upon these child at all or we're going against the system
A lot of people just stayed quiet because if you were to like out loud to stay
This is this is crazy. You can't do this to these people
You could be considered a witch as well. It was a really intense situation
I think most of the people in the town like knew it wasn't right
But they were either scared because there were so much disease and stuff
And they were worried that the girls really were possessed or they were just keeping their mouths shut to survive. There was absolutely no fair
Trial they had all these crazy ways of determining things one was called a witch cake and I'm not even kidding you
It was rye mixed with the urine of the person who was apparently bewitched which bewitched is a real
diagnosis. Bewitching was actually what these people were diagnosed with they would make these cakes out of rye and the urine of the
Person who was bewitched or bewitchment and they would mix them and make these little cakes
And they would feed it to a dog, and if the dog started having the same symptoms
They were able to determine that there was witchcraft involved now
It's really really crazy when you think about it so in a Salem in 1692
20 people were killed after being accused of being a witch. Men and women, mainly women, all of them were hanged except for one man
Who was this is terrible
this is what makes this all scary too - he literally would lay a board on someone like a door or something a wood board and
Then they slowly put stones on it until the person was just crushed one by one like I it's very very scary to think about
The two-year-old Thomas Brobi fears kept in his family and this area here shows
What was as it says here , Gallows Hill
Coincides with what the city of Salem confirms this week to be the exact site of the infamous hangings of 19 people.
it's the probable place of executions from the
1692 Salem witch trials
This right here is in your backyard ?
Like I say we've always kind of lived with the suspicion that it was
And this is what they call proctors ledge
This is which this is what you're standing on right now this ledge the homeowner tells me that this is the spot where the accused
Witches were hung many across town say they could see them hanging from this hill if there was
People hanging from a tree right here that would be definitely visible
There are a couple different theories as to why this happened one of them being ergot. Now this is a theory
I really believe Linda Caporal came up with this theory of
Ergot, so ergot is actually a fungus that grows on rye grain
And they that it had existed back then but they thought it was actually the Sun like cooking parts of the Rye
So they didn't know that they weren't supposed to consume it, but ergot is a
It's a fungus
and it's a poison. This type of fungus is literally referred to as nature's LSD this stuff does crazy things to people. There was a
Rainy season and they think that the fungus was developing underneath, and it wouldn't have been harvested until the following year
And that's when people started to get sick
There's tons of stories of ergot having
Plagued entire groups of people and had mass hysteria and disease and all types of weird events that we now know
Were caused by the consumption of this poison symptoms of it are
Hallucinations convulsions and muscle spasms so basically they just eat some moldy bread and went insane
I think that's probably the most likely theory however
There are people that think this was just like town bullshit basically that people were going off of rumors that
Which still happens people still lie and make up rumors all the time there definitely are petty people that make stuff up
And they think that maybe this was petty girls
Just trying to get attention or it's something like that and another big thing. Is that the town really did believe in witches
It's scary. It was the occult was like a major
freaky thing back
then I mean it wasn't like Halloween and stuff so that stuff was really really a threat to people and
People were definitely scared of witches and there's people to think that this was just the cold weather that made people go crazy
You know they say seasonal depression
Basically, there's people that think that they had all types of issues because it was extra cold that year and basically took the anger out
On these witches for their crop failure and other issues now
I really do think it's a got ergot ergotism . It makes complete sense
I definitely think that's what happened here, and thankfully we know about it now
And we wonder like why something like this happens
This is the result of a government that is out of control and unchecked and so
I really think it really shows us. It hasn't been that long
You know our governments come a long way
But always have some skepticism
Towards them because at the end of the day we had shit like this going on all the time
There's so much unfair things and so many and it's easy to see now how an entire town could be brainwashed
And that's why it's so important. I think to question everything around you, but that's a whole other topic
I think another reason that these women were really targeted was you know people that were afraid of overthrow of the church or
Alternative medicine, that's a huge thing there was like a lot of healers and women that were healing with herbs
And you know holistic healing type things, which I think is really cool and has been around for thousands of years
I think there's somewhat of a threat towards doctors, and they wanted to control medication
I think there's so many different reasons why this happened
But I definitely think the fungus on the bread is what really caused the Salem witch trials which is just crazy now
It's really important to note that witch trials still happen in parts of the world to this day, so it's still an issue
I don't think a lot of people know that
We're standing on on Proctor's ledge on gallows Hill in Salem my ancestors is Roger Toothaker
And he actually was arrested and died in prison while awaiting trial for witchcraft in 1692
There are literally millions of people alive today
Who are descendants of people involved in the Salem witch trials Salem now has a memorial at an infamous site of the witch trials
325 years ago five women were hanged
Today at Proctor's ledge the sight of those hangings the city dedicated a memorial to the 20 people put to death for witchcraft the semi-circular
Stonewall memorial is inscribed with the names of those hanged at that site
The truth is that the lessons from Salem are not just learned once
But must be learned and re learned by each generation. We must never forget what happened and
What can happen
Community Preservation Act
Grant and many smaller donations from descendants of those accused of witchcraft paid for that memorial
That's it for me today freaks
Be sure to catch up on my previous freak week videos as well as stay tuned for the ones that are to come I hope
You're having a great day, and I will see you next time