The Witch-Hunt In Early Modern Europe: Source Analysis

Many people are aware of the witch hunt that occurred in Salem, Massachusetts in the year 1692, however these same people may not be as familiar with the other witch hunt that also occurred in New England during the same year. Escaping Salem: the other witch hunt of 1692, written by Richard Godbeer, is a historical monograph that reconstructs the, mostly unheard-of witch hunt, that occurred in Stamford, Connecticut. The book also gives its readers insight into the minds of early American citizens. Thus, the theme of Escaping Salem, beside witchcraft, is human nature and Richard Godbeer’s thesis is that humans demonize others before recognizing their own share of human frailty. It is evident that he is biased toward the witches and sympathizes with them. This, of course, is not surprising since they were irrationally punished because of their neighbours unsubstantiated accusations. Richard Godbeer is currently a Professor of History at the University of Miami, who offers courses on a broad range of topics, including sex and gender in early America, witchcraft in colonial New England, religious culture in early America, and the American Revolution. He is also the author of 11 other historical monographs.

During the late fifteenth through the seventeenth centuries, thousands of individuals were persecuted as witches. It was thought that these individuals practiced black magic and performed evil deeds, the deeds of the devil. This all happened during a time of great change in Europe, during the time of the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, and the consolidation of national governments. They were persecuted for a variety of reasons, but three major ones were religious reasons, social prejudices, and the economic greed of the people. Religious leaders such as Martin Luther and John Calvin influenced the ideas of their followers. Religion dominated the time period and it’s easy to see how many opinions

The large-scale witch-hunts that occurred from 1638 to 1651 gathered momentum via major happenings in the political, societal, and religious domains developing at the time. Individuals who had either political, religious or economic power in society, also known as elites, together had absolute control over the pursuit and prosecution of individuals who partook in witchcraft. The clergy played a crucial role in the witchcraft prosecutions and were slower than the state and localities to desert their beliefs in the reality of witches as the prosecution of witchcraft was, in their eyes, an effective tool to eradicate social deviance. Though local authorities and the Parliament did contribute to the witch-hunts significantly, without the kirk of Scotland declaring and encouraging this sanction on witchcraft, both other parties would not have taken the actions they ultimately did. This essay will provide a brief description of events that took place from 1638 to 1651 and then utilize evidence from a multitude of sources to argue that the religious elites were the most influential of these forces during the witchcraft prosecutions that occurred in the 1640s.

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.

The evidence of witchcraft and related works has been around for many centuries. Gradually, though, a mixture a religious, economical, and political reasons instigated different periods of fear and uncertainty among society. Witchcraft was thought of as a connection to the devil that made the victim do evil and strange deeds. (Sutter par. 1) In the sixteenth, seventeenth, and twentieth century, the hysteria over certain causes resulted in prosecution in the Salem Witch Trials, European Witchcraft Craze, and the McCarthy hearings. These three events all used uncertain and unjustly accusations to attack the accused.

“The European Witch-Hunts, c. 1450-1750” by Steven Katz describes witch-hunts and how females played a huge role as victims. This journal proves that not only were most women accused of being women but they were also the victims. The author of this journal brings up data and information to back up his theory that women were the victims because people were afraid of women having to much power. This journal is a good article for anyone researching witch hunts and the impact it had on females and why.

Massive witch hunts were common in Europe before Salem. Since witchery was frowned upon and considered a sin and when paranoia occurred in the community, the people were determined to execute the accused. In the Puritan’s religion, it was believed that not only one’s own faith determined their destiny to Heaven or Hell, but also the communities. When one was considered to be against God’s faith, it was a top priority to purify the colony. But, there had to be some sort of proof that the accused really was a witch to justify further punishment.

Witch hunting was the persecution and possible execution of individuals considered to be ‘witches’ loyal to the devil. It was an all too common occurrence from 1603-1712 all over Europe. However in order to understand why this happened the context must be taken into account. It was a time of change, the Renaissance - the rebirth of culture, ideas and attitudes to living. The Reformation had also only been implemented in England in the last 80 years back from 1603, when it had previously been catholic for centuries. The English civil war from 1642 to 1651 is argued to have played a part in the intensification of the witch hunts in England due to the peak in executions whilst it was on going. Some historians have taken the view that in time of crisis certain groups can be victimised like in wars, famine, disease outbreaks and changes in society structure.

Witch Hunts of the Early Modern Period as the Result of Religious and Social Upheaval

Many explanations for the cause of the Salem Witch Trials in 1692 have been offered by historians since the first girl fell ill to bewitchment in December 1961. This marked the beginning of the witch hunt that ended with the death of twenty convicted “witches”. Historical writers have tried to allocate one particular factor or event as the cause of the Trials, but it is more likely that many of these factors and events are connected and a number of these issues are at the centre of the trials. The context that these historians are writing in are reflected in their work and perspectives and are also influenced by their own emotions and opinions. For this reason alone, no objective reasonings have been or may not ever be brought forward to explain what truly caused the Witch Trials to occur.

During the 16th century, women started to become the subject of many harsh criminal allegations. Accusations of witchcraft and persecution took over many parts of Europe, especially German and French speaking lands. As widespread witch hunts began surfacing, the question of why they started became prevalent. Europe began experiencing economic troubles in the early modern period, with “population saturation, food scarcity, and runaway inflation”. As a result of this troubled society, a scapegoat was needed to draw attention away from all of the troubles that Europe was facing. Lords with political legitimacy as well as other people with authoritative roles, like the clergy, looked at this idea of scapegoating as a way to protect their image and ensure that they remained in power. The high levels of economic and political conflict in 16th century Europe led people in authority to draw attention to easy targets, by accusing them of witchcraft.

This essay assesses the claim that witch-hunting was rarely an uncontrollable or hysterical phenomenon. Witch hunts have traditionally been presented in the academic literature as the result of a panicked reaction to supposed malevolent devil worship (e.g., Trevor-Roper 1969; Thomas 1972). In support of this interpretation, it is possible to cite numerous cases in which large numbers of people were put on trial, imprisoned, tortured, and executed seemingly without reason and on poor evidence. It is sometimes argued that a number of the more famous trials were uncontrollable and hysterical in the way they were conducted. Examples include the North Berwick witch trials (1581-1593) in Scotland, the Salem witch trials in America (1692-1693), the Torsåker witch trials in Sweden (1675), and the Trier (1581-1593), Fulda (1603-1606), Bamberg (1626-1631), Würzburg (1626-1631) witch trials in Germany, among others (Briggs 2002; Ankarloo and Henningsen 1999). This argument has also been based on the development of a fierce culture of anti-witchcraft beginning in the 14th century, as evidenced by the publication of books on demonology and the emergence of professions such as ‘witch-hunters’ and ‘inquisitors’ (Ankarloo and Henningsen 1999). This essay argues that these select cases were the exceptions to the rule and that the incidence of ‘witch hysteria’ was relatively low. Contemporary perceptions of witchcraft have been misrepresented by focusing too narrowly on the most dramatic

Witchcraft accusations in the sixteenth and seventeenth century saw a dramatic increase in the sheer amount of accused witches that were tried and executed. “Between about 1450 and 1750 maybe 40,000 of Europe’s inhabitants, most of them women, were executed, many of them by burning at the stake, as witches.” (Sharpe 65) The vulnerability of society to so blindly accuse others of witchcraft stemmed from not knowing about certain types of illnesses or why horrible things sometimes occurred. Some accusations were brought about for the social gain by the ‘bewitching’ of one’s child, such as in the case of Anne Gunter. Using the case of Anne Gunter, we can identify some of the reasons that the English people were accused of witchcraft.

When one thinks of the word ‘witch’ today, one pictures a withered old crone from fairytales or a Halloween costume. In short, people associate a witch immediately with fiction. However, in Europe, witches were a very real threat. Between 1400 and 1800, historians estimate that upwards of 50,000 people were killed after being convicted as witches in Europe (Give Me Liberty, p. 109). As colonists settled in North America, they not only brought new customs, plants, animals, and diseases, they brought their superstitions. Witch executions were relatively rare in America, that is, until the 150 convictions and 19 executions of witches that took place in Salem, Massachusetts beginning in 1691 (Orr, September 30, 2015). Though the causes of the mania are still hotly debated even today, the primary cause of the witchcraft hysteria that captivated Salem, Massachusetts in the 1690’s was socioeconomic tensions within the community.

As witch conspiracies were so often in the 1600s-1700s they began witch hunting. Witch hunt is when, one sets out a trial to find whomever is responsible for any sort of witchcraft or strange actions. As witches were caught some would beg in mercy to deny all questioning, but usually were found ‘’guilty” as it was very unlikely to not . In result all execution ended in the 18th century and the rest had been dealt by law. As it was very strange to “end” such an outrage they had been going through alot in general, and holding on to this whole witch situation had made it very difficult while only a few were accused of being actual witches. Still many people are hunting