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The history of witches essay
The increase in witchcraft accusations early modern europe
The history of witches essay
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The Encumbrance of Females Through Accusations of Witchcraft
Her feet dangle wildly beneath her, hoping to brush upon any stable object. Inches away, the platform beneath taunts her. All the blood is gushing to her head, at any moment she thinks it will explode. Her eyes are straining, searching for a friendly face in the crowd that has gathered around her, but there is not one. She sees the judge that convicted her, she sees the Inquisitor that accused her, and she sees her husband that once loved her. The last sight she sees is her husband bowing his head in shame and finally she gives in to the noose strangling her to death. She has no name; she represents one of the more than 100,000 women that were executed for their involvement in witchcraft (Clark).
Women were far more likely to be accused of being a witch than men were. Out of the 200,000 trials, 80% of the accused were female, and of the 100,000 executed, 85% were also female (Clark). This was do to the reason that society feared and resented independent women, therefore, this was an attempt at keeping the female gender at a status below that of males.
First of all, it is important to define what exactly a witch was:
Witches were no longer simply people who used magical power to get what they wanted, but people used by the devil to do what he wanted. Witchcraft was thus not a question of what one did, but of what on was, and proving that a witch had committed maleficia was no longer necessary for conviction. (Wiesner 265)
Because these witches were servants of the devil, they were thought to be the enemies of God and Christianity; they were the "ultimate heretics" (265). The "witch craze" era lasted for about 200 years, from 1560-1760 all over Euro...
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...man was accused of practicing witchcraft (Clark). This was an easy, and legal "disposal" of a potential problem to the traditions that had been established in society.
Gender equity has come a long way since the witch craze about 450 years ago, and it is good to know that just because a woman has an opinion, and stands up for herself does not mean that she will have the same fate as many of those women who were accused of witchcraft had.
Bibliography:
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Clark, Patricia. Class lecture. History 202. University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 26 September 2000.
Kramer, Heinrich and Jacob Sprenger. Malleus Maleficarum. Trans.
Montague Summers. 1928. New York: Dover,1971. 41-44,140-4.
Weisner, Merry E. Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe. 2nd
ed. Cambridge UP,2000.
To begin, one of the causes of the Salem witch trial was the age, gender, and marital status. In Document B, twenty-four accusers were females. Twenty-three of the twenty-nine were under twenty years old, and twenty-eight of the thirty-four accusers were unmarried. 80% of females were 40 years old, and 75% of the females were either married or widowed. It’s interesting to mention that 23 of the accuser were females that were single, and 13 females that were at least between the ages of 16-20.
One of the causes that started the Salem Witch Trial hysteria of 1692 was age , gender , and marital status. According to Document B, twenty-nine of the accusers were females. Twenty-three out of twenty-nine females were under twenty years old. Also according to Document, over eighty percent of the accused were female and most of them were over forty years old. Seventy-five percent of the women
... see things more rationally led to a mechanical philosophy which contradicted the major concepts concerning witchcraft. It is therefore inevitable that the developments throughout the period led to a decline in witchcraft as they largely focused on increasing awareness throughout society and thus leading to wide spread questioning about magic and witchcraft. This questioning created a situation in which witchcraft prosecutions were much rarer and took much longer to reach. Finally, therefore the changes in attitudes across the period were the most important consequence of the factors described and led to the decline in witchcraft prosecutions.
Whenever we think of witches, we think of shriveled up ladies who wear pointy hats with a big black drape over her. But in England, in the Renaissance era, that is not always how they were distinguished out among the crowd. Many citizens were put on trial and even killed if they were accused of being witches. Many times, these people were falsely accused and therefore murdered wrongfully. Witchcraft was a problem starting around the mid-1400’s and influenced many writers such as Shakespeare, and although it is not a big problem in today’s society, looking back at how this affected the renaissance era in England is something that had a huge impact on their society.
Hinds, Maurene J. Witchcraft on Trial: From the Salem Witch Hunts to the Crucible. Library ed. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow, 2009. Print.
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.
The early modern era in Western Europe was a dangerous place for women with the rise of so called “witches” populating towns and country sides. With the peak of these witch trials happening between 1560 and 1640 in England (the making of the west 499). This caused the people of Europe to live in fear of the devil and his counterparts on earth. Over 80 percent of victims of these witch trials were women and thousands upon thousands of trials taking place all across Europe and the North American Colonies at the time as well (motw 500). Seeing that women are mostly accused of witches, it raises the questions as to why that is. Upon examining 2 specific cases in this essay, those being of Walpurga Hausmannin from Dillingen, Germany and Francatte Camont from Lorraine, France; one can see that both these cases are very similar in many aspects despite the fact that both these women were trialed in different countries in Western Europe. In this essay, the reader will explore the motivations, visions and the targets of these witch trials with specific evidence and focus on the trials of both Walpurga and Francatte. The reader will also be able see connections between both trials throughout as well.
Once the accusations began, many innocent people in the community were taken away. They were then either forced to admit that they were witches, to free themselves from a public hanging, or deny that they were witches, saving their integrity, but subjecting themselves to an unjust public hanging.
People during these time periods were very superstitious, and blamed unfortunate occurrences on witchcraft because it was easier and more convenient to explain. A few examples were poor crops, death of a child, and failing businesses. Additionally, people blamed cases of the bubonic plague on witches, because there was not a cure and nobody could
Witchcraft was relentlessly thought as the work of the devil with only sinful and immoral intentions. Julio Caro Baroja explains in his book on Basque witchcraft that women who were out casted from society and unable to fulfill their womanly duties became witches as a way to compensate for her failed life. They were thought to be a threat to society as they dwindled in evil magic. This misunderstanding may have originated from the literary works of Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger, in their published book, “Malleus Maleficarum”. Accusations of being adulterous, liars and dealing with the devil materialized because of the...
...em Witchcraft Hysteria is that the women were trying to stand out and tried to prove social equality because of social and attention seeking. So basically, they wanted to be noticed. I feel the search for power is a common aspect of the human nature because everyone wants more than others and that is what brings dissatisfaction of what we have. Also, coming from my cultures point of view which is highly and greatly superstitious a culture, we know that every evil has consequences so therefore, I take it to be that the girls knew that witches would face several consequences. Moving further, the counter point in Laurie Winn Carlson's article has no substantial evidence to support her theory. Furthermore, they wanted to seek the power and respect they never had the opportunity of having and wanted to benefit from it. This argument supported by sociologist Dodd Bogart.
The Salem Witch Trials occurred in colonial Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693. More than 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft and 20 were killed for this. Eventually, the town admitted the trials were a mistake and repayed the families of those killed in this horrible scenario. Since then, the story of the trials has become crazy with Satanism and injustice, and it continues to baffle the imagination of our generation more than 300 years later. Several centuries ago, many practicing Christians, and those of other religions, had a strong belief that the Devil could give certain people known as witches the power to harm others in return for their loyalty. A "witchcraft craze" ran through Europe from the 1300s to the end of the 1600s. Tens of thousands of supposed witches (mostly women) were executed. Though the Salem trials came on just as the craze was winding down, the Salem Witch trials sparked them up again.
To a time period where being accused of witchcraft essentially meant you were sentenced to death. The time period I am referring to is between the years of 1542-1735, during this period of English history witchcraft was a statutory crime punishable by death. This time period is responsible for many of the misconceptions and misunderstandings we as a society have about witches, witchcraft and polypharmakas. The reason practicing witchcraft became a crime is a discussion for another paper, but what one should take away from this time period is that for almost two hundred years the practice of witchcraft was against the law and punishable by death. This means for two hundred years this very harsh legislation towards witches and witchcraft put them in the same category as killers, and thieves. This time period and very harsh legislation towards witches and witchcraft is heavily responsible for societies misunderstanding of the practice of witchcraft.
In England, witchcraft persecutions started much later than anywhere in Europe and only fully emerged until after Queen Elizabeth left the crown (University of Sydney). The power of witchcraft was part of their belief system so much that “Formal accusations against witches – who were usually poor, elderly women – reached a peak in the late 16th century, particularly in south-east England” (“Witchcraft.”)
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.