Do you want to be hanged because you are practicing witchcraft? The Salem Witch Trial Hysteria happened in the year of 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts. The story is that the people of Salem, Massachusetts were Puritans. The Puritans thought that they were going to be like a “city upon a hill” which meant they thought that they were going to make it look like they were more perfect than everyone else and they were closer to God. They made it like this because they believed that every word in the Bible was the true word of God and was to be followed to the exact letter of every word.
After reading “Devil in the Shape of a Woman: The Economic Basis of Witchcraft “by Carol Karlsen I was intrigued by Karlsen’s interpretation, and upset about the ways women were treated. During these witch hunts women and men alike were accused of the crime, but the majority were women. I found it interesting that she related the commonly known Puritan beliefs, which lead to accusations of witchcraft, with gender roles. She ultimately says that Puritans feared these accused women because they symbolized female independence. I found it shocking that women, often the wealthier, had a greater chance of being let go of their accusations if they had a husband to spoke on their behalf.
Telling fortunes, showing peoples faces in glasses, enchantments, and healing the sick are some of the things people who practiced witchcraft claimed to be able to do. New Englanders often turned to people who could do these things for favors and referred to them as "cunning folk" (pg.107). The New Englanders didn't see any harm in using their occult powers for there own good, when in fact these people were in contact with the devil. They did not see it that way but they were indeed risking being banished to hell.
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”.
Throughout the 1940s and 50s America was overwhelmed with concerns about the threat of communism growing in eastern Europe and China. Paranoia ensued. Salem was established as a religious community in the midst of evil. The people of Salem considered the forest the domain of the devil, and as you could guess, they were surrounded by it; Paranoia ensued
9 and 11 year old girls started to scream, cry unstoppably and have said to see a ghostly figure of their fellow townspeople. The diagnosis was easy, it was witchcraft. This sent the colony of Salem into a frantic state of matter. They had started to see that other children in the town had the same symptoms. They had began to accuse people left and right.
Add to that the stress and insecurity of being brought up in an unstable home, which only makes them more expedient to blame. Unnecessary death due to faulty witch accusations also happens when social misfits are targeted. This problem is extremely prevalent in Ghana, where “outspoken or eccentric women... accused of witchcraft... [are] forced to live out their days together in witch camps” (Whitaker 1). Women like this often do not have family and friends
Throughout history women have struggled to gain their rights. Ever since Adam and Eve, Eve was always the one making mistakes. American history regarding women is a shameful one, for women have been suppressed since the beginning. In the 1600s puritans traveled to america to gain freedom, but they suppressed their women as much as possible.
"In an ordinary crime, how does one defend the accused? One calls up witnesses to prove his innocence. But witchcraft is, ipso facto, on its face and by its nature, an invisible crime, is it not? Therefore, who may possibly be a witness to it? The witch and the victim.
These views, in and of themselves, speak to the level of intolerance permeating America and to the level of fear associated with witchcraft. The Religious intolerance and fear experienced in English North America was not a sole construct of Puritanism in New England. These ideas permeated Southwards throughout the length of the thirteen English colonies. Oftentimes, the fear of witchcraft led to colonial governments establishing capital laws against any person entering into communion with Satan.
Witches practice witchcraft which grants access to let witches have communication with the devil. Furthermore, “the culmination of the mythology of witchcraft came about from the 15th to the 18th centuries in the depiction of the witches Sabbath” (Carroll). Witchcraft is talked about and defined in the book, The Element Encyclopedia of Ghosts & Hauntings, saying, “Witchcraft is an ancient art that utilizes the powers of nature and the mind to bring out desired effect” (Cheung 539). In addition to that, witchcraft works by using certain combinations of natural elements to draw certain energies.
"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,
Hoodoo and Witchcraft are two of the many branches of practices of magic. Both coincide in various ways, especially since both are common folk magic practices. Hoodoo and Witchcraft are practiced today still(The Truth About Witchcraft Today) to assist on love, money, luck and success. They have comparable rituals, spells, and ideas, but a common clear-cut disagreement between the two is that Hoodoo does not believe in Karma while Witchcraft profoundly believes in the idea. Folk magic or in this example, witchcraft, is “...generally of a practical nature, meant to address the common ills of the community: healing the sick, bringing love or luck, driving away evil forces, finding lost items, bringing good harvests, granting fertility, reading
He states that you coldly prompted your daughter to cry witchery upon George Jacobs that is now in jail.” (Danforth 182). This shows that someone thinks that the girls did perform witch craft and now that there is an accusation against them, the whole village will know what someone saw. The girl’s reputation is going to be ruined by the accusation made against them, and now they have to do anything to prove that they are innocent. Anyone will do anything to protect their reputation.
On the other hand, when someone does something punishable, it is not taken lightly. In fact, that person suffers severe consequences because he or she is believed to be overtaken by evil spirits. To fully understand witchcraft amongst the Cherokee, one has to realize that using medicine, conjuring, and witchcraft have remained an integral part of Cherokee culture even up to the present day (Cherokee Indian Religion). They have used medication as a whole to help with healing people within their
