The government had to play a role in Thomas and Jane Weirs’ trials because they are the authority figures that tend to convict people of their misdemeanours. “After both Dittays were read and found relevant by the Justices, the King’s Advocate caused interrogate the Major judicially anent his Guilt…the King’s Advocate takes Instruments that he refuses to answer positively.” The trial itself is a testament to the workings of the government, parliament and authority figure of Scotland in the case of witch hunting of men and women.
The Trial: Women Women within the case of a trial can be either the witnesses, the defence or prosecution. Women are more likely to be convicted of the crimes of sorcery and be prosecuted from the trials. When Jane Weir was convicted, she was in the age range of approximately 40 which is the most common age for women convicted in the 1600s. The role of women in the trial of Thomas and Jane was mainly the women that Thomas committed adultery with, the witnesses to his prosecutions such as his sister in law
…show more content…
Witch hunting occurs when members of the local community and authority figures within Scotland have gotten suspicious of people within the community. Throughout many years, witch hunting in early modern Scotland has been sporadically occurring until the 1640s when there was an intense amount of witch hunting occurring thus allowing people to be prosecuted. When it comes to witch hunting, a person who was seen as “witches” had to be consumed by the Devil thus making them evil. When it comes to the Weir Trials, only Jane had taken part in sorcery and witchcraft but they both had dealings with the Devil thus allowing them to be put in the witch hunts. While in prison, Jane confessed to the hierarchy of Edinburgh that both her and her brother had made arrangements and a contract with the Devil before the prosecution in
Although,there was talk about the many people’s roles in the witch hunts of that time. Local elites were in charge of the witch hunts and before the judges took over the trials, they were also in charge of the witch trials similar to the Weir Trials. The local level according to the people was similar to the religious authority, it was ordinary people such as ministers, landlords, magistrates and religious elites. Within the Weir trials, there were many witnesses and local members of the community that contributed in the trials mostly religious members of the community such as Reverend Mr. Fraser, and Master John Sinclair. The locals were the members of the communities that contributed to the convictions of the Thomas and Jane as well as the people who “treat” the convicts. Thomas and Jane were visited by multiple local authority figures such as clergy-men, lay-men, physicians, lawyers, conform and non-conform Ministers thus allowing the locals to try and
Case techniques involved citizens complaining in opposition to innocent victims, often with no lawyer. Once brought before the magistrates for trial, the hypothetical evidence is assessed by the judges, and a formal trial by jury would follow. Most convicted, at that time, were not emotionally or logically capable of defending oneself against a hysterical witness or strict court. In general, you could say that the afflicted, young girls contributed the evidence, and other people that confessed being a witch justified it. The verdicts, at that time, were not viewed as being unfair, except by those who got convicted. It was believed that Lucifer could “possess” anyone 's soul, but, in 1693, it had been accepted that erroneous procedures and false verifications had been passed down by the courts, but the people of the colony still believed that Lucifer
“If they confessed to the charges, it was because most were frightened, hungry and emotionally drained. Others were plagued by feelings of unworthiness or pressured by panicked family members who feared its impact on the rest of the family (Foulds 42).” Many assumed that witchcraft was hereditary, therefore spouses, siblings, and even children of accused witches were brought in.
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 WITCH-HUNT IN MODERN EUROPE By: Brian Levack The Witch-Hunt in Modern Europe by Brian Levack proved to be an interesting as well as insightful look at the intriguing world of the European practice of witchcraft and witch-hunts. The book offers a solid, reasonable interpretation of the accusation, prosecution, and execution for witchcraft in Europe between 1450 and 1750. Levack focuses mainly on the circumstances from which the witch-hunts emerged, as this report will examine. The causes of witch-hunting have been sometimes in publications portrayed differently from reality. The hunts were not prisoner escapee type hunts but rather a hunt that involved the identification of individuals who were believed to be engaged in a secret activity. Sometimes professional witch-hunters carried on the task, but judicial authorities performed most. The cause of most of these hunts is the multi-causal approach, which sees the emergence of new ideas about the witches and changes in the criminal law statutes. Both point to major religious changes and a lot of social tension among society. The intellectual foundations of the hunts were attributed to the witch’s face-to-face pact with the devil and the periodic meetings of witches to engage in practices considered to be barbaric and heinous. The cumulative concept of witchcraft pointed immediately to the devil, the source of the magic and the one most witches adored. There was strong belief then that witches made pacts with the devil. Some would barter their soul to the devil in exchange for a gift or a taste of well being.
To better understand the events of the Salem witch trials, it is necessary to understand the time period in which the accusations of witchcraft occurred. There were the ordinary stresses of 17th-century life in Massachusetts Bay Colony. A strong belief in the devil, factions among Salem Village fanatics, and rivalry with nearby Salem Town all played a part in the stress. There was also a recent small pox epidemic and the threat of an attack by warring tribes created a fertile ground for fear and suspicion. Soon prisons were filled with more than 150 men and women from towns surrounding Salem.
Puritans believed in the devil and his role as strong as they believed in God and his role. For many centuries, Puritans had the idea that the weakest individuals in society often committed diabolical acts and sins. Furthermore, Satan selected the most vulnerable individuals to do his bidding, among these individuals, women were often held responsible for many sins, including witchcraft. (Godbeer 12). According to Richard Godbeer, in his book, The Salem Witch Hunt, “it was Eve who first gave away to Satan and seduced Adam.” (Godbeer 12). In 1692, witchcraft became a panic among Puritan society. Even though both men and women were accused of witchcraft, women were seventy-six percent more likely to be accused in Salem than men. (Godbeer 12). Puritan society was a male dominate society and men looked down upon women. There were two particular reasons to why women were often accused of being witches. The first reason, was in due to the Puritan belief that women were the source of evil. The second reason was because of certain events that associated with accusations. These events were being of relatively low social status and income, being rich or financially independent and being a midwife or nurse.
The European witch-hunts that took place from 1400 to 1800 were complete monstrosities of justice, but the brutality seemed to have been concentrated more in certain parts of Europe than other parts. This is especially true in the British Isles during the witch trials of 1590-1593, where Scotland, a country with a fourth of the population of England, experienced three times as many executions as them. Before these particular trials, England and Scotland were both only mildly involved in the hunts, but a Scottish witch’s confession in late 1590 unveiled a plot to kill King James VI by creating a storm to sink his ship. This confession led to the implementation of others and quickly festered into the widely publicized hunts throughout Scotland in the late 16th century.
In the past, the word Salem has always been somewhat synonymous with the infamous witch trials. Thanks to works such as Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible”, many people find it hard not to envision a community torn apart by chaos, even though Miller’s play was not so much about the witch trials but instead a commentary on the rampant McCarthyism going on at the time he wrote it. Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, however, see a very different picture when the Salem witch trials are mentioned. Rather than overlook the “ordinary” people living in the towns in which they write about (in the case of Salem Possessed, the town of Salem, Massachusetts), they instead take the instance of the witch trials of 1692 and springboard from them into a detailed inquisition into the entire history of the small village of Salem; or, in their own words, Boyer and Nissenbaum have “exploited the focal events of 1692 somewhat as a stranger might make use of a lightning flash in the night: better to observe the contours of the landscape which it chances to illuminate” (xii). That is to say, the authors strive to show how the witch trials were not simply a completely spontaneous event, but rather a long, horrible process by which individuals were singled out, tried, and executed in order to vent emotions of hostility towards change. The way in which the authors go about this, however, is in a somewhat difficult to comprehend style that goes back and forth between the years, forcing one to rethink all the facts thus far each time a new chapter is introduced. In addition, the authors tend to focus mostly on the social and economic aspects of witchcraft, with little to nothing as far as further explanation of the actions of the women accused.
Before the Salem Witch Trials even began there were still accusations of witchcraft being made starting with Margaret Jones in 1648 but no one had ever confessed before, giving the town officials/judges nothing to prove that witchcraft existed ("The Salem Witch Trials: Facts & History"). What the main cause of the Salem Witch Trials was believed to be was Tituba when she confessed to witchcraft. This community was highly religious and had a strong fear of Satan, as mentioned above, and so when Tituba confessed that she as well as others were witches working for Satan, it caused mass hysteria and caused the massive witch hunt to begin ("The Salem Witch Trials: Facts & History"). Before Tituba confessed there had been no proof that witchcraft existed, however, after she did this led to a witch hunt due to the belief that there could be more “witches” out there causing destruction to the
The Salem Witch Trials occurred from 1692 to 1693. When two girls, aged 9 and 11, started having strange and peculiar fits, the Puritans believed that the cause of these actions was the work of the devil. The children accused three women of afflicting them: Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne. Tituba was a Caribbean slave owned by the Parris family. Sarah Good was a homeless woman. Sarah Osborne was a poor elderly woman. Sarah Osborne and Sarah Good pleaded innocent. Tituba admitted, “The Devil came to me and bid me serve him.” She described seeing red cats, yellow birds, black dogs, and a black man who asked her to sign his “book”. She confessed to signing the book. All three wo...
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.
All participants in the witch-hunt were influenced by the society that existed in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Salem operated as a theocracy, a government ruled by and subject to religious authority. In a theocracy, people's sins are not forgiven, so that when they commit an indiscretion, they are left feeling guilty. "The witch-hunt was....a long overdue opportunity for everyone so inclined to express publicly his guilt and sins, under the cover of accusations against the victims." (p. 7) Characters such as Abigail Williams and Mrs. Putnam used the witch-hunts in the way cited above, as a method of confessing their sins without being accountable for them. Others used the chaos created by it for their own benefit. Thomas Putnam made his daughter Ruth accuse both George Jacobs and Rebecca Nurse so he could buy the resulting unclaimed land after they were hung. Any character that accused, confessed, or in any way joined the witch-hunt failed his or her test.
The justice system is designed to protect the people that it serves but during the trials the accused witch had two choices, death or imprisonment.
These witch trials are all based on the butterfly effect, how your actions affect what happens later in life. When characters choose certain things to do or say it comes back to spite them.