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American Witch Dbq

1920 Words8 Pages

The European witch craze between 1563 and 1620 highlighted a variety of problems across society over how these individuals were treated and what the root cause of the increase of the sweeping paranoia of witchcraft and magic. Ultimately, like the beliefs of historians such as Anne Barstow and Marion Gibson, the sweeping paranoia increase was ruled by misogyny both as a direct and underlying cause. Justification for misogyny during trials came in many forms such as religious justification as female witches magic was viewed as the complete opposite to Christianity’s God and his holy power. Legislation against witchcraft didn’t really come into power in England until the 1563 Witchcraft Act created by Queen Elizabeth I and it “formally criminalised …show more content…

The North Berwick trials in the 1590s were kickstarted by David Seaton, which historian Suzannah Lipscomb argues was due to the sexual dominance and ownership he felt over Gilly Duncan. Duncan herself was simply caught leaving late at night and captured and tortured by Seaton, who believed she was a witch. Her torture included wrenching and searching where Duncan was severely violated upon the whims of a man who wanted to demonstrate the power he held on Duncan’s life. Duncan’s confession of being a witch, along with the names of eight other witches, snowballed into 100 – 200 being accused and tried of witchcraft. Throughout these trials, James VI became personally involved in the investigations such as the trial of Agnes Sampson and was so caught up in the idea of witchcraft and evil entering Scotland, he essentially gave convictions and torture the “Stamp of royal approval”. James was the first and only King to write a book about witches called “Daemonologie” which had a long-term influence on witchcraft trials and how they

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610 Words | 3 Pages

The first set of witchcraft persecutions occurred during Elizabeth 1st reign, this was Around 1563. Commonly people associated witches with a woman and the beliefs were the following of that they have made a pact with the evil spirit Satan. The rush of the witch persecutions mainly happened after 1563 and by the time period of 1750 roughly 200,000 witches were tortured, burnt, or hung across the whole of Western Europe. Therefore, in this essay, I will be mainly focusing and arguing which of the hysteria surrounding witchcraft and witchcraft trials had a greater impact in Britain or the American colonies in the time period of the 17th century. And I will be arguing it following different factors which could contribute to this such as the social factors geographical factors, religious factors and also control law and order.

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428 Words | 2 Pages

Accused and Betrayed Throughout the late 1600’s women had been accused of being a part of witchcraft. In this time women went through many disgusting torture treatments and got charged with many different things. When a women had been accused she would be “treated” with many different types of torture until they had died or had admitted to doing witchcraft. Some of the tortures were called: “The Garotte”,” Dunking the Witch”, and “The Boots”.

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1532 Words | 7 Pages

The novel A Delusion of Satan written by Frances Hill describes the history of the Salem Witch Trials (“Salem”) in 1692, the causes and effects of the witch hysteria, and the biographies of major characters associated with the trials. In the novel, Hill started out explaining the Puritans’ beliefs and customs, the gender roles of men and women in Salem and why women were easily accused of being witches and practicing witchcraft in the 17th century. During that time, women were easily accused of practicing witchcraft because they were viewed as physically, politically and spiritually weaker than men. Men were perceived as the power, status, and worthy in the society, and they dominated women’s behavior and social status. In the 17th century,

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631 Words | 3 Pages

There was much superstition and ignorance in the 17th century England and hundreds of women were wrongly accused and punished. From 1484 until around 1750 some 200,000 witches were tortured, burnt or hanged in Western Europe and England. Most supposed witches were usually poor old women. Women who weren’t lucky enough to look beautiful. Any woman who was ‘crone-like’ with broken irregular teeth , sunken cheeks and a hairy lip was assumed to be a witch !

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556 Words | 3 Pages

Between 1692 and 1693, more than 200 people became imprisoned due to the false accusations led by Abigail Williams and her assembly of several other Salem girls. Together these girls accused innocent people for involvement in the devil’s work- known as witchcraft-overall about 20 people were trialed and found guilty (The man who made a difference). Even though they were truly innocent, the punishment involved execution by hanging on the scaffold in front of the entire village. Among the twenty people executed remained John Proctor; one of the Salem witch trials most infamous and prideful figures. “John Proctor was the first man to be accused of witchcraft” (1).

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1469 Words | 6 Pages

Accused, trial, guilty, executed, devil, jury - the news spreading around Salem, Massachusetts was deathly. Starting with women, and then expanding to men, there were accusations of witchcraft encompassing the whole town. The arraigned did not stand a chance against the court. The accused witches went through one of the most arduous times of all people in Salem; however, after a well-abounding amount of trials, the cases were closed and the issue was solved. “It was the darkest and most desponding period in the civil history of New England.”

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992 Words | 4 Pages

In the seventeenth century, the belief in witchcraft was spread among Europe and the colonies. According to the textbook, America a Narrative History, “Prior to the dramatic episode in Salem, almost 300 New Englanders had been accused of practicing witchcraft, and more than 30 had been hanged.” This outbreak of witches ruined Massachusetts Puritan utopia. This paper will discuss the settlers of Massachusetts prior to this calamity, what happened during, and the outcome.

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175 Words | 1 Pages

For over three centuries the people of Europe lived in a time of mass hysteria and fear. Between the late 1400’s and 1700’s thousands of everyday folks were accused of witchcraft (Lipscomb). Accusations of witchcraft lead to the fantasised myths we know today, but the real stories behind them are far less charming. Witchcraft became a crime in the mid-1500’s thus inducing some of the most prominent legal trails of the century, and the rise of the witch hunter. The first proclamation against witchcraft was passed in 1542 and was followed by a harsher and more intense revision in 1562, which was signed into law by

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745 Words | 3 Pages

Most witches were accused harming neighbor when unexplainable tragic event took place. Trials and execution were public event, for example, in France (1460) thousand people were in attendance in a witch trial. Legal weapon were wielded by courts to prosecute witches, like the Malleus Maleficarum, Hammer of the witches (by Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, two Dominican

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1924 Words | 8 Pages

The witch-craze was brought upon by a variety of different factors, however, the most prominent factor and one that will be used to build an argument in its favour is judicial torture. This essay will give a brief description of judicial torture, describe some of the significant uses of this form of torture and why it was practised so universally across Early Modern Europe. Using Brian Levack’s The Witch-Hunt of Early Modern Europe, and a variety of other sources this essay will argue that judicial torture was the prime reason for the distinct rise of witchcraft, both the practice and of people being accused. It will further go into detail on why this reason is significantly better than other theories for the rise of witchcraft. Judicial Torture is the use of torture by the state or a judicial figure to gain information from victims and quite often gain a confession.

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605 Words | 3 Pages

Firstly, as stated by Julian Goodare in his piece entitled “Women and the witch-hunt in Scotland”, the belief that was forced upon the people stemmed from King James’ belief that women were the frailer sex and as such, were more likely to be seduced by the devil. This has been a reiterated theme for hundreds of years: for example in the biblical story of Adam and Eve, Eve is enticed to eat the apple by the Serpent and tempts Adam as well. Therefore, reiterating the notion that women are the cause of men’s troubles. King James further supports this in Daemonologie when discussing why women are more frequently accused of witchcraft he states “… for as that sexe is frailer then men is, so it is easier to be entrapped in those gross snares of

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721 Words | 3 Pages

Bridget Bishop, a resident of Salem, was the first person to be tried as a witch. Surprisingly, Bishop was accused of witch craft by the highest number of witneses. After Bishop, more than two hundred people were tried of practicing witchcraft and twenty were executed. Many of these accusations arose from jealous, lower class members of society, especially towards women who had come into a great deal of land or wealth. Three young children by the names of Elizabeth, Abigail, and Ann were the first three people to be “harmed” by the witches.

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798 Words | 4 Pages

The Salem Witch Trial examines the accusations of witch craft during the late 1600’s in Salem Massachusetts. The Salem Witch Trials began when a group of girls accused their first three victims of malicious practice of witchcraft. The suggested practice first occurred in the home of the Reverend, Samuel Parris. He had a Caribbean slave, Tituba, who was said to have bewitched the girls. The girls and Tituba were said to have practiced a black magic dance in the middle of the woods.

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1059 Words | 5 Pages

"The story of witchcraft is primarily the story of women . . . ." Karlsen argues for the relevance and importance of women’s roles in the panic of witchcraft fear in 17th Century American society. She subtly contests that specific interests were at work in the shaping of witchcraft accusations; book elaborates that a specific type of woman risked accusation based on her demographic representation in society. Karlsen further elaborates on her theme with,

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1054 Words | 5 Pages

This book was relevant to my research although the title of the book is geared toward male witches but the information is mainly about female witches. However some useful information was found. For instance, It was revealed that male witches were accused primarily because they were related to female witches; In large witch panics, they were usually accused of different types of witchcraft than females, and they were accused in larger numbers in areas that was treated primarily as heresy than maleficium. Many females while being tortured by male interrogators experienced sexualised torture described as pain in the genitals, rape or the threat of rape. Male witches often were victims of sexual torture as well.

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