Witch Trials

Imagine fire rising from beneath your feet. Slowly the heat rises along your body as smoke fills your lungs and you take your last breath. Or a thick rugged noose gets tied around your neck. Patiently you wait for the bottom to be knocked out from under you as you gasp for your last breath or your neck snaps. Most think the witch trials resulted in the burning of the witches, but many were hung. Typically, the more someone clung to their innocence, the harsher the punishment endured. The trials took place worldwide in the 15th and 16th centuries, while the second wave occurred in the 17th century. In America, we are most familiar with the Salem Witch Trials, but witch trials took place worldwide. While men and women alike were prosecuted during the witch trials, women made up three-quarters of those accused. More times than none, the trials had something to do with the church, Puritan, Protestant, and Roman Catholic. Those accused didn’t fit into societal or religious norms. If a woman was unwed or widowed, didn’t have children, was promiscuous, volatile, had lost a child, extremely poor, older than 60, healers or midwives, they were more likely to be accused. Something that they all had in common was that they were powerless. In 1487 a misogynistic book was published in Germany called “Hammer of the Witches.” It declared women were witches, and it provided information to refute that witchcraft didn’t exist and gave examples of how to prosecute it. This text was printed many times and fueled the witch trials through the 15th and 16th centuries. In the rare instance, a man got accused, it was very likely because his wife was guilty. These “witches” were outcasts that didn’t fit into society. Another reason the witch trials took place was to blame witchcraft for things that no one knew the answer to. Whether it be illness, misfortune, death of crops or livestock, mental illness, or to free a man from blame, witchcraft, and witches were used as a scapegoat. Some people believed in the Devil and thought witches made a pact with him and used magic to harm. Activities that the church deemed wrong like abortion, promiscuity, and drinking were enough to classify someone as a witch. Some consider the times of the witch trials the “women’s holocaust.” There were anywhere from 200,000 to 2 million people murdered around the world due to these atrocities. Eventually, the witch trials ended with greater access to education and witchcraft became more of a superstition. Looking back on this, have we learned anything? From this semester, many of those who would have been considered witches are ostracized today. Those who are female, poor, powerless, unwed, childless, have had abortions could have encountered a similar fate. While modern-day witch hunts don’t consist of burnings or hangings, they still impact women negatively. We must realize the issue at its core to collectively change our way of thinking. Women are beautiful human beings that give life. They are powerful beyond measure. Rather than tear each other down instead, lift each other up. Put out the fires and cut off the nooses, and love and respect each other and live together in harmony.