Witchcraft in Early North America

The thought of magic, witches, and sorcery to be fact is seen as preposterous in modern America. Coincidence is accepted as such and accusations of possession and bewitchment is extinct. When North America was first colonized by Europeans, however, the fear of magic and the like was all too real. Alison Games’s “Witchcraft in Early North America” describes the effects of the Europeans’ on the Native Americans and vice versa. As decades progressed, the ideas on witchcraft of the Spanish and British changed as well. “Witchcraft in Early North America” introduces different beliefs and practices of witchcraft of Europeans before colonization, Native Americans after colonization, the Spanish of New Mexico, and the British Colonies.

The Spanish and British each adapted to the environment based on who they were involved with as well as what conflict was encountered. Views on witchcraft seemed different when evaluated post colonization, but Europeans, pre colonization, all agreed on the fact that Christian theology was linked to witchcraft. All witchcraft was seen as works of the Devil, projected through weak spirited individuals who had abandoned the path of God. The Devil was said to allow people to know the location of certain objects and the thoughts of others, also known as coincidences that had no explanation at the time. Either something was done by the hand of God, or by the wrath of the Devil and his followers. With this idea glued into the judging minds of seventeenth century Europeans, witch hunts were widespread and frequent. Most of those targeted were women, due to the stigma that women were weak and lustful creatures. Women wanted luxury and wealth, as well as sexual gratification, which the Devil could offer. Why target...

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...ossession usually manifested itself after someone else suspected the possession. Why would these women fake being possessed if they knew they were not? These women did not want to break the social norms that women were susceptible to possession, lust, and everything else deemed unsuitable. Denying that one is possessed when others are stating the opposite causes suspicion that one has become bewitched to believe that nothing has occurred. This may be the reason why the Salem Witch Trials affected so many people.

Early colonization of America led to the merging and changing in the ideas of witchcraft by the Europeans, Native Americans, Spanish, and British. These ideas took the lives of many, but they shaped the past so the present may be as it is today.

Works Cited

Games, Alison. Witchcraft in Early North America. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2010. Print.