What Triggered The Witch Craze?

During the Elizabethan Era, witches were considered evil burdens to society. It was thought that witches worshipped the devil and used their supernatural powers to commit crimes against the community. They were often held responsible for deaths, illnesses, and other mishaps that occurred within the community. Many citizens hated witches for these misfortunes, even though witches had no control over these accidents. Many times witches were severely punished for committing these crimes and they could even be sentenced to death.

Witch hunts blazed across Europe over the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries not just killing innumerable innocent people, but stripping women of much of the power they had once held, and changing society's perceptions of women all together. The economic hardships, religious rivalries, and troubled politics of the time made accusing your neighbors of witchcraft convenient. Where there was war and poverty, or merely bad luck, peasants would assume witchcraft and rush to blame an old, defenseless woman in trials which involved unbelievable cruelty and horrible sadism. As religion and the Catholic Church began to complement and perpetuate the increasing hysteria, European society as a whole could do nothing but

The Salem witch craft trials are the most learned about and notable of Europe's and North America's witch hunts. Its notoriety and fame comes from the horrendous amount of people that were not only involved, but killed in the witch hunt and that it took place in the late 1700's being one of the last of all witch hunts. The witch craft crises blew out of control for several reasons. Firstly, Salem town was facing hard economic times along with disease and famine making it plausible that the only explanation of the town's despoilment was because of witches and the devil. As well, with the stimulation of the idea of witch's from specific constituents of the town and adolescent boredom the idea of causing entertainment among the town was an

The Salem witch craft hysteria of 1692 was caused by people thinking they could be possessed by the devil, the belief that witches were real and the fear of being accused for being a witch. Actions caused hysteria in Salem. These little girls were acting strangely, so they accused someone as a witch. In “Document C” it says they the girl accused did not even know what a witch was.

It is also theorized by many historians, that the witches were first to be called out by the Doctors in the region, as the use of their healing remedies, were considered competition, and what better way to eliminate the competition, than to exploit the religious fanatics that want to trial anyone accused?

The Rise of the Witchcraft Craze in 17th Century Britain Accusations of witchcraft date back to 900 AD, but killing following accusation reached a fever pitch in the late 16th century Europe, and late 17th century Britain. Germany and Scotland were the areas that were most heavily purged, with an estimated 4000 witches dying in Scotland and 26 000 dying in Germany (Gibbons). The Inquisition in Britain happened against a backdrop of new ideas competing with established traditions which created a sense of confusion and religious hysteria amongst the general population. A number of theories have developed from historians as to what sparked the witchcraft craze; ideas of the Reformation and rise of

In the 1680’s and 1690’s there was mass hysteria in New England over supposed witchcraft. The most famous outbreak was in Salem, Massachusetts, hence the name Salem Witch Trials. In Salem, there were young girls who started acting strangely, and they leveled accusations of witchcraft against some of the West Indian servants who were immersed in voodoo tradition. Most of the accusations were against women, and soon the accusations started to shift to the substantial and prominent women. Neighbors accused other neighbors, husbands accused their wives, etc. and it kept going on for a while. There was this nature of evil and the trials didn’t end until nineteen Salem residents were put to death in 1692, more importantly before the girls

The persecution of witches started in the fourteen hundreds and carried on into the seventeen hundreds. This persecution happened only in the Catholic and Protestant Countries. They were not just endorsed by the churches, but the entire craze was caused by the churches; which gave its full support behind the cause. While the persecution of witches effected every type of person the most effected people where older women, poor, and usually considered outsiders by their society.

The witchcraft hysteria of 1692 happened within the Puritan colony known as Salem Massachusetts. It’s important to know that the belief in witchcraft was carried over from their home country, England. In England, an act of witchcraft was considered treason against the Church of England, not to mention the king, who was the head of the church, so if one was to turn their back on the church also meant going against the king. Many acts against witchcraft were passed, the one dated closest to the Salem witch trials was the Witchcraft Act of 1604 that moved trials of the supposed witches from churches to actual courts. The fact that they were once held in churches rather than courts seems like a biased situation to me. The puritans were afraid of witchcraft so having the church conduct the trials of said witches could only mean that death was certain. The puritan faith to my understanding was a tough faith to follow, especially for women.

James I ascended to the throne in 1603 and had a massive influence on the hunts. This is because he was a strong believer in witchcraft as shown in his law of 1604 that made it illegal and punishable by death, although this was a re-working of an older law so he was not the first ruler to start the persecution of witches. During this period of 1603-1712 there was an on-going debate between science, religion and magic which caused continual confusion about the validity of the hunts. In 1712 Jane Wenham was the last witch to go to trial in England; although sentenced to death she was spared by Queen Anne which represented a

The belief in witchcraft was a widespread epidemic in 16th century England. Elizabethans struggled to explain the cause of unnatural occurrences such as disease and famine due to a lack of scientific knowledge and consequently formed the belief that witches were a causation of such disasters. The witches were also accused of heresy and considered a threat to the ‘Christendom’. The victims of these accusations were often old impoverished women who were believed to have put charms and spells on people to control them. An example of this is the witches of Warboys trial (1593) in which a 76 year old woman, Alice, her husband, and daughter were accused of witchcraft by Jane the daughter of Robert Throckmorton. Subsequently a pamphlet named The Most

Witchcraft in the 1400s going on to the 1700s gained massive popularity due to subsequent factors. Some of these factors included hallucinogens contained in the “oyl” women used to anoint themselves, manipulating the hysteria and using it as a form of social control to make people conform to the norms of the society and lastly, using it to explain misfortunes that afflicted the people of the community and the neighboring ones.

Witch- hunting in Scotland was prevalent in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries due to a number of factors. Witchcraft was a crime from 1563 up until 1736. During this period of time, 3212 named people are thought to have been accused of witchcraft, of which 67% were trialled and executed. These numbers show the sheer scale of witch hunting in Scotland in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The question here is, why witch- hunting was so prevalent in this time period.

A woman was once looked upon as a healer, ancient persist, mid wife, therapist, cook, sever of goddess, a positive figure, etc. As time went on, women were not seen as they were originally portrayed. Women were eventually viewed as a witch. Each culture had a different perception on what a witch looked like, but each represented the same thing. In essence, the witch craze brought about the “dark side” of a female. Some causes of “witch craze” in the fifteenth century would include hallucinations, people not wanting to be tortured and people needing something to blame misfortune on.

A woman was once looked upon as a positive figure, however, with time, women were not seen as they were originally portrayed. Women were eventually viewed as a witch. Each culture had a different perception on what a witch looked like, but each represented the same thing; an old woman living alone or, a widow for instance. In essence, the witch craze brought about the "dark side " of the feminine gender. Some causes of the witch craze in the fifteenth century included hallucinations, an escape for the accused witch from torture and humans natural instincts of blaming a misfortune on someone or something.