Since the beginning of time, children have heard stories about the evil witches that cast spells on anyone who crossed them. These stories have been told with a sense of fantasy, making people believe these were just mythical creatures, when in fact they actually existed and thrivedd. In (time period), the beliefs and traditions of witchcraft became highly popularized and have continued into the 21st century despite the harsh actions and persecution taken against the ones who practiced it. Many were accused and killed during this time period and all of the people lived and thrived on fear. Were these witches harmful or harmless? And were the actions taken against them justifiable?
As shown in stories and television productions such as Cinderella and The Wizard of Oz, we can see that not all witches are wicked. During this era, witches were split into two groups; white witches and black witches. White witches were seen as helpful healers, using their knowledge of herbs and medicine to create medicinal cures for diseases and injuries. People sought out these “wise women” and paid to get the treatments for their woes. Black witches however, were referred to as “devil worshippers” and were thought to receive their powers from Lucifer himself. They used their magic to harm, cause misfortune to, and even kill some people. There was known to
…show more content…
be differences in these two groups, but the separation soon fell away and misconceptions arose as the citizens’ fear grew. Many things brought along this new interest in the supernatural including the invention of the printing press, The Black Plague, and uncontrollable circumstances such as the death of a baby or crops withering.
Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1456, introducing a faster and easier way to produce new books. Many of the first books printed were Bibles or contained religious ideas, which resulted in the rising suspicion of witches and witchcraft. Other books widely produced were on magic, astrology, and alchemey and rose supsicions even further
(http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-witchcraft-and-witches.htm). Also during this time, the black plague swept across and killed ⅓ of England’s population. An incident this sudden and unexplainable must have been the work of some magical being… a witch. Anything the people could not explain, they instinctively blamed on the witches and their magic. As their fear began to rise even higher and more suspicious activity continued, innocent people began to be accused of practicing witchcraft. The most obvious suspects were old, poor, and/ or widowed women. Men were rarely accused of practicing dark magic. The witch epidemic did not only take place in England, but in America as well. (SALEM WITCH TRIALS) The beliefs at this time were also represented through cultural aspects such as writings and plays. Shakespeare used the rising popularity of this topic to write works such as Macbeth.
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.
Witches were also mentioned in the bible in multiple places. In Hebrews, Exodus 22:18, one reads, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” (The Salem Witch Trials: A Reference Guide) This basically translates to, “any women practicing dark arts or unnatural powers should be put to death.” Again in the bible, witchcrafts is mentioned “when the prophet Samuel admonishes King Saul of the Israelites, for seeking aid of the Witch of Endor” (The Salem Witch Trials: A Reference Guide). Then God punishes King Saul for this sin by killing him and his sons and allowing the Philistines, Israel’s enemy, to destroy his army (The Salem Witch Trials: A Reference
Witchcraft had always fascinated many people and been a very controversial topic in North America during (seventeenth) 17th century. Many People believe that witchcraft implies the ability to injure or using supernatural power to harm others. People believed that a witch represents dark side of female present and were more likely to embrace witchcraft than men. There are still real witches among us in the Utah whom believe that witchcraft is the oldest religion dealing with the occult. However the popular conception of a witch has not changed at least since the seventeenth century; they still caused panic, fear and variety of other emotions in people…………………….
During the time of the Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692, more than twenty people died an innocent death. All of those innocent people were accused of one thing, witchcraft. During 1692, in the small town of Salem, Massachusetts many terrible events happened. A group of Puritans lived in Salem during this time. They had come from England, where they were prosecuted because of their religious beliefs. They chose to come live in America and choose their own way to live. They were very strict people, who did not like to act different from others. They were also very simple people who devoted most of their lives to God. Men hunted for food and were ministers. Women worked at home doing chores like sewing, cooking, cleaning, and making clothes. The Puritans were also very superstitious. They believed that the devil would cause people to do bad things on earth by using the people who worshiped him. Witches sent out their specters and harmed others. Puritans believed by putting heavy chains on a witch, that it would hold down their specter. Puritans also believed that by hanging a witch, all the people the witch cast a spell on would be healed. Hysteria took over the town and caused them to believe that their neighbors were practicing witchcraft. If there was a wind storm and a fence was knocked down, people believed that their neighbors used witchcraft to do it. Everyone from ordinary people to the governor’s wife was accused of witchcraft. Even a pregnant woman and the most perfect puritan woman were accused. No one in the small town was safe. As one can see, the chaotic Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692 were caused by superstition, the strict puritan lifestyle, religious beliefs, and hysteria.
Religious influence, the manipulation of fear, and the frightening aspects of witchcraft all are very influential to the popular belief of witchcraft during this time period. The popularity of witchcraft in this time period is important because it has shown how in the past when there is no logical explanation they would automatically blame Satan and say it was Satan’s doing. It also shows that history repeats itself because during the Cold War many individuals were accused of being communist even though there was no hard evidence proving this accusation; however, out of fear people will still be convicted, just like during the witch trials. Moreover, witch trials were not only influenced by many things but they have been influential; therefore, showing that they influenced things in our time
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.
In this essay I will discuss the role of gender in witchcraft and why the majority of people executed as witches were women. There have been various explanations by different historians for why the majority of witches accused were women. One of the first models concerning Witchcraft and gender to be produced was the ‘Witch-cult‘ idea. This theory was devised by Margaret Murray in the early 20th century and revolved around the idea of Witchcraft being an actual pre-Christian religion. This pagan woman-based religion centred around ‘The Horned God’ who from the Christian point of view was Satan.
For many centuries to the present day, Christians have lived in fear of witches. They were known as to be the devils child who only practiced black magic and thought of as the Christians “persecution”. Witches have been known to mankind since the 1200’s. Throughout the 1400’s, the examination of witches was more focus and moved from the Jews. In the church’s law, it was stated that the belief of existence and practices of witchcraft was “heresy”. Because of what the Christians believed, churches would then torture and hunt down anyone who they thought were witches and killed the many women and only a few of the men. They even made them make the confession of flying through the midnight sky, being in love with the devil himself, practicing black magic and even turning into animals.
The history of witchcraft dates back all the way to the thirteenth century. During the 13th and 14th centuries, witchcraft was considered to only be harmless magic. However, in the 16th century, witches were condemned and tortured. Later, during the 17th century, witch hunts and trials died off, along with the 'witch craze.';
Johannes Gutenberg is the man credited with inventing the printing press. Though the use of moveable type was first discovered in China sometime between 1000 and 1100 ad, it wasn’t known in Europe until Johannes Gutenberg invented it there. Before he invented the printing press books were made by people copying by hand on to blank pages. This took a long time per book, so books at that time were hard to come by and very expensive. Mostly rich people bought books.
Witchcraft is the use of these forces for negative ends, to extort evil, and magic asks for positive ends. Witchcraft has been found to exist in all corners of the globe at some point. It is no coincidence that during the Enlightenment, witch hunts in Europe and North America became common. The aim was to rid society of these people regarded as unreasonable and dangerous. By contrast self-proclaimed witches still have a function in some societies today, mainly in the developing world. Magic however is often a word used to describe certai...
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.
The printing press was the invention of moveable metal type paper and was able to print books, newspapers, bibles and much more. It was the start of something new and evolving throughout the entire world. Gutenberg’s creation is known to be the most significant invention in history. It is the most prompted creation that people could ever ask for, and for many extraordinary reasons. The reason why the printing press was so useful than just any other invention is because it spread everywhere.
It is now established how both men and women practiced magic, yet the issue on why women as a gender were singled out particularly in witchcraft persecution is still vague. “The most well-documented characteristic of those persons who were prosecuted for witchcraft is that they were predominantly, if not overwhelmingly, female.” Many wonder where the idea of women specifically committing dark magic originated. The idea of the English witch was comprised of a progression of beliefs and practices of rituals common of the Pagan practicing. This idea comes from where the “early Christian Church insisted that ...
However, while the idea of white magic was customary, the population was extremely terrified of witches and “dark magic”. Dark magic was considered to be hateful, generally causing harm to others in some direct or indirect way. Examples in Stuart England of harm caused by a witch was the damage done to individuals by a “witch’s evil eye,” which was thought that one look from the ‘evil eye’ would constitute a certain death or severe injury. “Another was the harm allegedly caused to individuals by some completely internal act of the witch, such as wishing that a person were dead.” An additional problem was that the line distinguishing white and dark magic was often subjected. Occasionally, it was difficult to determine whether the act of