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Witch Craze Research Paper

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Dyanna Nunez History 121Midterm Professor Lauri The Witch Craze in Europe has to do with multiple things, Dominican Order, Malleus Maleficarum, Witches Sabbath, The Inquisition and many other things. The Witch Craze is when you have some type of magical power, a magical power that was not human, it came from either God or the Devil, and it came from the Devil these people made a pact with Devil. These so called witches attended Sabbaths; they got to there by traveling at night in their broomsticks. Once when the pact was done the witches had the power to commit evil actions against either humans or animal. What occurred during the Sabbath the witches had large sexual component in which sexual intercourse occurred between the devil and …show more content…

In the short reading assigned to the class, The Hammer of the Witches one story elucidated how a midwife had killed over forty children by "sticking a needle through the crowns of their heads into their brains as they came from the womb." The Catholic Church was not as strong in these areas as opposed to other territories in Europe. Many people were executed between 200,000 to 500,000 people, these people were beheaded, hanged, drowned burned tortured to death (thumbscrews, racks, leg vices, and many other) and even burning at stake. Witches were described mainly in three different types 1. One that injures but can 't cure, 2. One that can cure, but they need to have a particular pack with the devil, but cannot injure 3. One that simply does both cure and injure and a specific witch that can do everything, and these witches were the most dangerous ones that eat other species and humans. There are different views to witches: "Antiquity: Sought after by the ruling class and others to acquire knowledge of the future. Middle Ages: Witches were neither evil nor demonic in nature; rather they only served specific material ends. Early Modern Period: Witches were interpreted as directly undermining society as to usher in a new age of demonic

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It all started when girls in the town were making false accusations of consorting with the devil.(Anderson) They would persecute one another as “witches”, so other people in the town wouldn’t accuse them of being a witch.(Anderson) The deputies of the court would persecute the “witches” that caused them to confess thing that wasn’t true.(Anderson)

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In Massachusetts during 1692 a horrible expiernce had swept throughout the colonies that witches were real, and some of the key concepts that had a major impact to make people think they were real were superstation, economics, politics and there early ideal of gender shaped their era. Throughout the era of witches there had been puritans who were people who had believed in god and do that they thought to be able to see god and his angels you would have to believe in evil apparitions as well. Puritans at the time were one of the main contributing societies of witchcraft in Salem, and it was the belief that Satan was among them and roaming around freely. Next was the other type of contributing factor which was the relationships within and between

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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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The devil is the most vile and wicked being to ever exist. He is smart and cunning that he can take over a person’s body and turn them into a witch, giving them unimaginable powers. In 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts, many of the residents believed in the devil and witchcraft. Soon their belief became stronger, as strange events started happening around the town. Without anything to lean on they blame the devil and witches for the causes of the unknown.

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In the 1600's an event in American history called the Salem Witch Trials occurred. The Salem Witch Trials are now viewed as a dark period during our history. Many innocent people were accused of doing the Devil’s work through witchcraft. Salem was populated with lots of people who followed the Puritan religion. The Puritan religion had strong Christian beliefs and they took anything having to do with the Devil very seriously.

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People were afraid that there were more witches on the prowl, so they started to accuse everyone of witchcraft. The people did a mass hanging on “July 19[, putting] Sarah Good... Elizabeth Howe... Susannah Martin…{and] Rebecca Nurse” to death. The purpose of these mass hangings is to make it easier to hang people and also to provide relief that quite a number of witches are being hanged.

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Because the actual crime involved an agreement made between the accused witch and the devil, in which the devil was given the right to assume the witch's human form, and because, by its very nature, this compact would not have witnesses, finding acceptable evidence was difficult. Spectral evidence included testimony by the afflicted that they could see the specters of the witches tormenting their victims; the evil deeds were not perpetrated by the accused themselves, but by the evil spirits who assumed their shapes. One problem with spectral evidence was that apparitions of demons were invisible to other people in the same room; only the afflicted girls could see the shapes. Another concern was the possibility that Satan could appear in the shape of an innocent person. To overcome these obstacles, confessions were vigorously sought.

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The most common gender killed normally was women or young girls, but there were some men. Most of the people that got hung were women, a few men got killed or examined. During this time period there is strong belief in the devil, which didn’t help the Salem Witch Trials. There were various offenses like actual witchcraft practice. Over 150 men and women were imprison in towns surrounding Salem.

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Many executions were performed during this time and most of the executions were performed on innocent people who were just accused of being a witch and were not actually proven to be witches. The girls were executed because they failed the tests to prove that they are not witches there are many cases of witchcraft such as the case of mary cotton where becaused she may have wanted the attention or simply believed she was a witch that she thought the devil came to town and was attempting to try to curse all of the townspeople. she also seemed to believe that "the devil was going to blow up and bring down all the churches in the county" and make all of the people become possessed and plunge the world into a fiery like

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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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The accused would be held in cold and damp cells and kept awake until they became sleep deprived (Pelka n.pag.). Family and friends were not allowed to visit and the prisoners would be humiliated. Strip tests were done to check the supposed for “witches’ teats”. Any mark on the person’s body that seemed out of the ordinary would classify them as a witch (Plouffe and Plouffe n.pag.). The marks that could change someone's fate included birthmarks, moles, warts, or even a certain color of eyes or hair.

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