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Witch trials 16th century
Gender roles in the middle ages
Gender roles in the middle ages
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The case of Anne Gunter fits the modern stereotype of witchcraft accusations and the trials that resulted from them; a young girl falsely claims that an older woman or women are causing her harm using supernatural abilities they have gained through nefarious means, sending the community into an uproar. Hysteria runs rampant through the community and the poor women are harshly punished – the formulaic story plays out similarly throughout popular media, must notably in Arthur Millers’ ‘The Crucible’. Yet in the case of young Anne Gunter from North Moreton, there is a deviation from the “standard plot” of a witchcraft trial – the women are acquitted and Miss Gunter’s subterfuge is revealed. The fact that the allegations are not only proven to be false, but a confession of such is given by Anne Gunter allows the focus to shift from the actual Gunter case to what factors played into why people were accused of witchcraft. What we can infer from the Gunter case is that people in England were accused of witchcraft because of three major things: lack of power, prestige, and plenty within society. Generally, there is a socioeconomic disparity between the accuser and those who are accused of practicing witchcraft. The accuser is usually from a higher social class than the people that they are bringing allegations against. The power dynamic between the two parties is often weighted in favor of the person throwing out accusations. Anne Gunter came from a family that was relatively new to North Moreton, but her father, Brian Gunter, was the only gentleman in the village. Yet one of the women Anne accused of witchcraft was a member of one of the leading families of North Moreton, the Gregory’s. Elizabeth Gregory was the wife of a yeoman farmer... ... middle of paper ... ... well liked. Reputations are also shaped by interacts with others, which can lead to civility or animosity between citizens. One could argue that there are a many reasons why someone would be accused of witchcraft during the early modern period. Using Anne Gunter as a case study, three important factors can be parsed out: power, reputation, and wealth. Those with the power, a good reputation, and wealth, can easily throw out accusations at people lacking in all three areas who are in a lower station than them. Social status matters when it comes to accusations of witchcraft. A woman who is poor and thought to be a witch or has a bad reputation among her neighbors, is more likely to be labelled a witch than the daughter of a gentleman. That is why reputation is the most important factor in considering why people were accused of witchcraft in early modern England.
In “We Aren’t Superstitious”, by Stephen Vincent Benet, the theme of accusation supports the superstitions for the Salem Witch Trials. Throughout the entire story, accusations are thrown left and right; Arguing on who is a witch and who isn’t. When Tituba arrived from the West Indies towards the beginning of the story, nobody could predict the mayhem she would unfold. The queer and interesting stories she told Elizabeth Parris later spread into the infamous Salem Witch Trials. Now, one doesn't know if this was part of her “evil voodoo-witch plan” or aimlessly come across, but it was catastrophic. The first individual to be accused of witchery was Sarah Good, who later was followed by Sarah Osborne. They were both accused of witchery because of their low social classes. Sarah Good was known as a whore and a beggar, while Sarah Osborne was married to a lower social class and was a horrible Christian. This accusation of the lower class portrays a lot of what happens today in the real world.
The Salem witchcraft trials of 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts can be considered a horrendous period in American history, yet is also viewed as the turning point in what was considered acceptable in a contemporary society. In a documentation of a trial against a woman named Sarah Good, the reader is able to see the way in which such an accusation was treated and how society as a whole reacted to such a claim. Sarah Good fell victim to the witchcraft hysteria because she was different, and that fear of her divergence from the Puritan lifestyle led to her eventual demise.
Were the witch-hunts in pre-modern Europe misogynistic? Anne Llewellyn Barstow seems to think so in her article, “On Studying Witchcraft as Women’s History: A Historiography of the European Witch Persecutions”. On the contrary, Robin Briggs disagrees that witch-hunts were not solely based on hatred for women as stated in his article, “Women as Victims? Witches, Judges and the Community”. The witch craze that once rapidly swept through Europe may have been because of misconstrued circumstances. The evaluation of European witch-hunts serves as an opportunity to delve deeper into the issue of misogyny.
In Trier, which was the site of many witch trials, there was the trial of Dietrich Flade. Flade was a man, part of the elite, and was highly education, basically the opposite of a perfect witch. This case shows how the stereotype may help to put witches on trial but it won’t be the only reason they’re there. Lorraine, where Camont is from, was the center of some intense witch trials in the sixteenth century making in easier to put people on trial for witchcraft because the more witch hunting that occurred the more almost normal it became. This was especially true in the case of Nicholas Remy who used evidence drawn from his cases not only to prove other cases, but to write his book Demonolatry as well. In a way it was a self-fulfilling cycle. In many other cases the witches did fit the stereotype like the trial record of Suzanna Gaudry. She was a women similar to Camont in her ability to fit the stereotype of a witch, and also similar in that she only confessed under torture. However, it wasn’t her physical attributes that put her on trial but that fact that she “sought refuge in this city of Valenciennes, out of fear of being apprehended by the law…” for the crime of witchcraft. This goes to show the lengths witch hunters were willing to go to catch witches, no matter if the person was or wasn’t
The book begins with a brief history of the colonial witchcraft. Each Chapter is structured with an orientation, presentation of evidence, and her conclusion. A good example of her structure is in chapter two on the demographics of witchcraft; here she summarizes the importance of age and marital status in witchcraft accusations. Following this she provides a good transition into chapter three in the final sentence of chapter two, “A closer look of the material conditions and behavior of acc...
More than 200 people were accused of the begin witches and of the two hundred, about twenty of them were killed. Eventually the people of Massachusetts realized that what they were doing was wrong. Many times the reason for someone to be accused of witchcraft as because if they were found guilty, then the court would receive the land that they had owned. If the court did not want the land, which they usually did not want, it was given to the person who had accused them of witchcraft.
Most of the accusations were made against innocent people for reasons of economic conditions, teenage boredom, and personal jealousies. Of course there was also the fact that people weren’t aware of the certain mental illnesses caused by their environment. For example the one of the first people to be accused of witchcraft was a young girl named Betty Paris who one day became very ill with convulsive erogtism. Ergot is a fungus that invades growing kernels of rye, so it is very likely that she got sick from simply eating bread. Since people were scientifically unable to explain her sudden seizures and hallucinations she was accused of witchcraft.
The Salem Trials took place between the 10th of June and the 22nd of 1692 and in this time nineteen people. In addition to this one man was pressed to death and over 150 people where sent to jail where four adult and one infant died. Although when compared to other witch-hunts in the Western world, it was ‘a small incident in the history of a great superstition,’ but has never lost its grip on our imagination’ . It’s because of this that over the last three centuries many historians have analysed the remaining records of the trials in order to work out what the causes and events were that led to them.
Throughout the late 17th century and into the early 18th century witchcraft prosecutions had been declining. This trend was the result of a multitude of social developments which altered the mentality of society. One of the predominant factors in this decline was the Scientific Revolution, the most important effect of these advances was making society question concepts of witchcraft. Along with this new mental outlook, we see that the Reformation had a similar effect on social opinion concerning witchcraft and magic. These two developments changed societies view on the occult and this led to a wider scepticism concerning witchcraft, this favoured those who had been accused and therefore caused a decline in prosecutions. Beyond the two trends mentioned however, it is important to consider judicial reforms and an improved socio-economic situation which reduced tensions within society. These two changes were certainly not as influential as the Scientific Revolution and the Reformation but heavily altered the circumstances in which accusations were normally made. With the altered social attitudes and mental outlook these changes in living situations all contributed to bring about the decline in witchcraft prosecutions.
Once the accusations began, many innocent people in the community were taken away. They were then either forced to admit that they were witches, to free themselves from a public hanging, or deny that they were witches, saving their integrity, but subjecting themselves to an unjust public hanging.
The term witchcraft is defines as the practice of magic intended to influence nature. It is believed that only people associated with the devil can perform such acts. The Salem Witch Trials was much more than just America’s history, it’s also part of the history of women. The story of witchcraft is first and foremost the story of women. Especially in its western life, Karlsen (1989) noted that “witchcraft challenges us with ideas about women, with fears about women, with the place of women in society and with women themselves”. Witchcraft also confronts us too with violence against women. Even through some men were executed as witches during the witch hunts, the numbers were far less then women. Witches were generally thought to be women and most of those who were accused and executed for being witches were women. Why were women there so many women accused of witchcraft compared to men? Were woman accused of witchcraft because men thought it was a way to control these women? It all happened in 1692, in an era where women were expected to behave a certain way, and women were punished if they threatened what was considered the right way of life. The emphasis of this paper is the explanation of Salem proceedings in view of the role and the position of women in Colonial America.
The European witch-hunts that took place from 1400 to 1800 were complete monstrosities of justice, but the brutality seemed to have been concentrated more in certain parts of Europe than other parts. This is especially true in the British Isles during the witch trials of 1590-1593, where Scotland, a country with a fourth of the population of England, experienced three times as many executions as them. Before these particular trials, England and Scotland were both only mildly involved in the hunts, but a Scottish witch’s confession in late 1590 unveiled a plot to kill King James VI by creating a storm to sink his ship. This confession led to the implementation of others and quickly festered into the widely publicized hunts throughout Scotland in the late 16th century.
The notorious witch trials of Salem, Massachusetts occurred from June through September. It is a brief, but turbulent period in history and the causes of the trials have long been a source of discussion among historians. Many try to explain or rationalize the bizarre happenings of the witch hunts and the causes that contributed to them. To understand the trials and how they came to be, we must first examine the ideals and views of the people surrounding the events. Although religious beliefs were the most influential factor, socioeconomic tensions, and ergot poisoning are also strongly supported theories. A combination of motives seems the most rational explanation of the frenzy that followed the illness of the two girls. This paper looks closely at the some of the possible causes of one of the most notable occurrences in history.
The epoch of Medieval European history concerning the vast and complicated witch hunts spanning from 1450 to 1750 is demonstrative of the socioeconomic, religious, and cultural changes that were occurring within a population that was unprepared for the reconstruction of society. Though numerous conclusions concerning the witch trials, why they occurred, and who was prosecuted have been founded within agreement there remains interpretations that expand on the central beliefs. Through examining multiple arguments a greater understanding of this period can be observed as there remains a staggering amount of catalysts and consequences that emerged. In the pursuit of a greater understanding three different interpretations will be presented. These interpretations which involve Brian Levack’s “The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe,” Eric Boss’s “Syphilis, Misogyny, and Witchcraft in 16th-Century Europe,” and Nachman Ben-Yehuda’s “The European Witch Craze of the 14th to 17th centuries: A Sociologist’s Perspective,” share various opinions while developing their own theories. The comparison of these observations will focus upon why the witch trials occurred when they did, why did they stop when they did, why did the witch trials occur when they did, and who was persecuted and who was responsible for the identification and punishing of witches.
Witchcraft persecution peaked in intensity between 1560 and 1630 however the large scale witch hysteria began in the 14th century, at the end of the Middle Ages and were most intense during the Renaissance and continued until the 18th century, an era often referred to as the Enlightenment or Age of Reason. Representation of witches, nay, representation in general is a political issue. Without the power ot define the female voice and participate in decisions that affect women -similar to other marginalised groups in society- will be subject to the definitions and decisions of those in power. In this context, the power base lay with men. It can be said that the oppression of women may not have been deliberate, it is merely a common sense approach to the natural order of things: women have babies, women are weak, women are dispensable. However the natural order of things, the social constructs reflect the enduring success of patriarchal ideology. As such, ideology is a powerful source of inequality as well as a rationalisation of it. This essay will examine the nature of witchcraft and why it was threatening to Christianity.