Ergot at 50: “Moldy Bread” and the Salem Witchcraft Trials

Margo Burns is the 10th-generation great-granddaughter of Rebecca Nurse, who was hanged in Salem in 1692 on the charge of witchcraft. She is the project manager and an associate editor of Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt, published in 2009 by Cambridge University Press. This work is the definitive collection of transcriptions of the legal records of the episode. Burns has also done extensive research into the notion put forth in 1976 that the accusers were under the influence of an hallucinogenic toxic fungus, ergot, a possible explanation for their spectral visions and physical symptoms of bewitchment. On the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Linnda Caporeal original article, “Ergotism: The Satan Loosed in Salem?” in Science magazine, Burns explains why the general public has found it so plausible and compelling for so long.

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