LETTERS
ALAMY X3
NATURAL CAUSES? I enjoyed your excellent Essential Guide to the History of Witchcraft (April 2022), but I was surprised to learn that historians have ‘debunked’ the idea that ergotism played a part in the tragic events in Salem, Massachusetts. Outbreaks of ergotism infecting cereal crops have been known for centuries and they have had a devastating impact on human health and behaviour. An early recorded outbreak took place in what is now Germany in AD 857, and ergotism was probably the cause of the so-called ‘dancing plague’ in Strasbourg in 1518, when hundreds of women suddenly began dancing in a frenzied fashion and continued doing so for days. There have been many more recent cases, too. An outbreak of ergotism in Manchester in 1928 was attributed to infected rye bread, and so were events in Pont-Saint-Esprit, France, in 1951, when more than 200 people fell seriously ill. Ergotism is known to lead to convulsions, hallucinations and manic behaviour of the kind witnessed at Salem, and can be caused by a number of basic factors: how and when grass is cut; tillage being too shallow; a failure to rotate soil when planting crops; the way rye and wheat are stored during the winter season; and the amount of recent rainfall. During the 1600s, it wasn’t always recognised that farming failures were to blame – it was much easier
MAIN: A painting depicting the 1775 battle of Bunker Hill during the American Revolutionary War. Stephanie Suh enjoyed our recent Essential Guide on the topic, including its information about the role of formerly enslaved people during the conflict BELOW LEFT: Ian MacDonald claims that the strange behaviour of locals during the Salem witch trials was caused by ergotism in crops – an explanation that has also been cited as the cause of Strasbourg’s ‘dancing plague’ of 1518
to attribute a ruined harvest to divine judgment or accuse your neighbours of witchcraft. Ian MacDonald, Essex Ia
O OVERLOOKING THE POSITIVES T I enjoyed your recent Essential Guide about the history of G witches. However, the stories – which claimed that witches were primarily seen as negative and evil – neglected the fact that some people who possessed ‘supernatural’ gifts were seen as positive, helping others in various ways. While the ‘evil’ grabs the news, the positive aspects often seem to be overlooked. George McDaniel, by email
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HISTORYEXTRA.COM
HIDDEN HISTORIES Your Essential Guide to the American Revolutionary War (May 2022) was a superb compendium of the subject, full of interesting knowledge about the birth of a nation made possible not only by the Founding Fathers, but also by people whom they didn’t regard as their equals, and therefore had no qualms about excluding from the family of freedom. For example, the intelligence of Salem Poor, a black militiaman whose bravery and patriotism inspired him to fight for the country that once enslaved him, deserves wider recognition and respect. It does seem surprising to know, however, that freed black people in the antebellum [pre-American Civil War] period could be given educational opportunities, more so than other formerly enslaved
people much later on. I speculate that this was perhaps because some of the early Americans that had emigrated from Great Britain had different ideals to their descendants, influenced by a European rationalism that equated progress with humanism. To conclude, I want to share a titbit about the fourth president of the US, James Madison. He was a diminutive man in stature, but his love of sweets was so immense that his wife, Dolley (or Dolly) Madison, allegedly invented an ice cream with a unique recipe just for him. Many years later, in the 20th century, stories about the first lady serving ice cream at the White House would inspire the name of the popular Dolly Madison ice cream brand, featuring her elegant silhouette on the packaging. Stephanie Suh, Los Angeles
