After reading “Johannes Junius A Confession Of Witchcraft Explained” is clear to me that times back in the 1600 was very rough time to be alive. This letter was written 1628 in Germany a time when many of its people were fleeing to the Americas. In the 1600's, many Germans emigrated through the ports of LeHavre, Rotterdam and London. Some were seeking religious freedom in the United States after Martin Luther split from the Catholic Church. The Thirty Years War (1618-1648) and the War of Spanish Succession had destroyed vast parts of Southwest Germany. Many immigrants left in hope. In Hope, the New World would provide a brighter future for themselves and their families.
I thought women were only witches but I guess I was wrong. Johanne, lord mayor of Bamberg a city in Germany starts off the letter by referring to the hundred, thousands, good nights he’s spent locked away from his beloved daughter Veronica. He claims to be an innocent man tortured and killed under false accusation of witchcraft. There was much superstition and ignorance in the 17th century. Witchcraft had been illegal since 1563 and hundreds of women were wrongly accused and punished ‘Proof’ of being a witch could be a third nipple, an unusual scar or birthmark, a boil, a growth, or even owning a cat or a pet. Confessions were often made under torture, same goes for the case of
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Life on the new land was creating new obstacles as well. Although the colonies were hit hard with famine and diseases, the settlers persevered, engaging in agriculture and raising crops to feed the hungry settlers and improve overall health conditions.In 1620, more German immigrants arrived on the legendary Mayflower. Inspired from those who fled before them, German mineral specialists and saw-millwrights who came to live and work in the United States. In fact, the first sawmill in the U.S. was opened by German millwrights came over on the Mayflower from
Karlsen highlights with an remarkable accuracy, the prejudices connected with areas of the particular portrayal of women along with the linkage of the "lady as-witch" idea inside United states tradition. Many contemporary individuals ended up being perplexed by such hasty action against a force that has no evidence. Karlsen brings a plethora of ideas to the table regarding these prejudices and explains in detail, the injustices performed against entirely innocent individuals.
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.
Did people really believe women were more sinful and evil than men, or were they afraid of women taking over? In the 1600’s, Witch Trials took place in Salem, Massachusetts. Many of the accused witches were in fact female. Witch accusations were mainly aimed at women due to the Puritan ideas that women were more vulnerable and evil than men, their sexuality was more obvious and sinful, and the fear of women gaining power and authority.
Morton, Peter Alan, and Barbara Dähms. The Trial of Tempel Anneke: Records of a Witchcraft Trial in Brunswick, Germany, 1663. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press, 2006.
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 1630, the Massachusetts Bay Company set sail to the New World in hope of reforming the Church of England. While crossing the Atlantic, John Winthrop, the puritan leader of the great migration, delivered perhaps the most famous sermon aboard the Arbella, entitled “A Model of Christian Charity.” Winthrop’s sermon gave hope to puritan immigrants to reform the Church of England and set an example for future immigrants. The Puritan’s was a goal to get rid of the offensive features that Catholicism left behind when the Protestant Reformation took place. Under Puritanism, there was a constant strain to devote your life to God and your neighbors. Unlike the old England, they wanted to prove that New England was a community of love and individual worship to God. Therefore, they created a covenant with God and would live their lives according to the covenant. Because of the covenant, Puritans tried to abide by God’s law and got rid of anything that opposed their way of life. Between 1630 and the 18th century, the Puritans tried to create a new society in New England by creating a covenant with God and living your life according to God’s rule, but in the end failed to reform the Church of England. By the mid 1630’s, threats to the Puritans such as Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, and Thomas Hooker were being banned from the Puritan community for their divergent beliefs. 20 years later, another problem arose with the children of church members and if they were to be granted full membership to the church. Because of these children, a Halfway Covenant was developed to make them “halfway” church members. And even more of a threat to the Puritan society was their notion that they were failing God, because of the belief that witches existed in 1692.
...all. He highly stressed that the different factors of change of business, Quaker ministers preaching to the Puritans, and overall disagreement of ideas among the townspeople. He doesn’t seem to think that the people deliberately accused their rivals of witchcraft and not committing fraud but involuntarily fed into the lies they were told and had strange reactions when told to convey what they saw. He talks about how all of their problems were solely intertwined to create the Salem Witch Trials and only discussed after the fact. His point of view seems to think they were inherently hysteric about witchcraft, seeing as how over 40,000 people were executed for it in England, and only amplified their worries of life surrounding them. In summary, his points are saying that the outbreak of witchcraft gave an explanation on how these tragedies might have seemed unavoidable.
Anne Barstow in her book, ‘Witchcraze’ stated that women were subjected to male perversion and even sexual abuse during the period of witch-hunting. She therefore comes to the conclusion that the men used the witch-hunting as an excuse to satisfy their sadism and that women were their primary target, rather than attempting to purify the world of diabolic pacts. This is evident in the records describing methods used to force information from the convicted witches in which these brutal methods were permitted by the legal process during interrogations. In her perspective, witch-hunters were likely to have been carrying out the witch hunt and interrogations while being blinded by their “perverted sexuality”. Robin Briggs agrees to some extent,
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 found within agreement, there remain 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:
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.
John M. Murrin’s essay Coming to Terms with the Salem Witch Trials helps detail the events of these trials and explains why they might have occurred. The witch trials happened during a “particularly turbulent time in the history of colonial Massachusetts and the early modern atlantic world” (Murrin, 339). Salem came to be in 1629 and less than seventy years later found itself in a mess of witch craft.
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 Devil in the Shape of a Woman” was an excellent book that focuses on the unjusts that have been done to women in the name of witchcraft in Salem, and many other areas as well. It goes over statistical data surrounding gender, property inherence, and the perceptions of women in colonial New England. Unlike the other studies of colonial witchcraft, this book examines it as a whole, other then the usual Salem outbreaks in the late 17th century.
What do you think when someone calls someone a witch? What comes to mind? Do you think of the movie, ‘Hocus Pocus’ or do you think of the black pointed hats and the long black, slit ended dresses? What about witchcraft? Does the term “Devil worshiper” ever cross your mind? Do you think of potions and spells? For many, many generations, we have underestimated what the true meaning of a witch and what witchcraft really is. What is the history that hides behind it? Witches and witchcraft have been in our history since the ancient times. There is a little bit more than the ghost stories told on Halloween, the movies shown on TV and dressing up on Halloween.
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.