When Was Witchcraft Made?

When Was Witchcraft Made?

When was witchcraft made? We can answer these questions in two ways. One is by looking at its historical origin and second is by looking at the legality of the practice. Let’s take a look at both. The first question has an answer in both of these ways. Whether witchcraft is legal or not depends on what you consider to be “witchcraft.”

Origin

The ‘Origin of Witchcraft’ was a controversial topic for centuries. While it is true that people have been using magic for centuries, the ‘Witchcraft’ term was never claimed until the early modern period. The earliest evidence for ‘witchcraft’ dates back to the Paleolithic Age, which was the beginning of religion and paganism. However, many historians argue that this epochal event did not give rise to witchcraft as we know it today.

In the context of modernity and anthropology, witchcraft is increasingly considered a contemporary phenomenon. Transnational rumors bear testimony to the reconfiguration of the occult in contemporary Africa, and bespeak the occult modernity of the continent. Scholars such as Peter Geschiere have stressed the irreducible modernity of witchcraft in African contexts. As such, the “witchcraft of modernity” has become a common trope in academic discourses on the occult in Africa.

The earliest accusations of witchcraft stemmed from the belief that folk healers were evil. This belief was so widespread that the practice was condemned, and the accused was usually burned. However, in the later medieval ages, the popularity of witchcraft declined and the belief in witchcraft slowly faded. After the Enlightenment, the use of witchcraft sunk to its lowest point. Nevertheless, the image of witches still persists in many cultures today.

Exact date

The Massachusetts Bay Colony executed seventy-four individuals, including fourteen women and five men, for practicing witchcraft. The first hanged occurred in June; the last was in September. Several of the accused were tortured and executed. The youngest was five years old, and many were pressed to death. The Reverend Samuel Parris’ daughter and niece fell ill in January, and the village doctor, William Griggs, concluded that the accused had committed bewitchment. The hanging of nineteen men and women followed, and one man was pressed to death. The execution of another man followed, and the accused were left to suffer the consequences.

The Salem witchcraft hysteria began in 1692, with a group of young girls. After participating in a fortune-telling game, the girls fell ill. The witches’ alleged crimes arose from this game. The young girls were hung, burned, or otherwise imprisoned. The resulting persecutions spawned mass panic. The number of witches murdered during this time span is estimated at 50,000.

In the 1617 Act, witchcraft became a capital crime in Massachusetts. It was defined as contact with a familiar spirit. Murder and bestiality followed. During this time, witch trials in New England lasted five years. More than two hundred people were arrested and executed for their crimes. Most of these people were women. In one of the most horrific witch trials in history, a boy was tortured and killed and a servant confessed to a Satanic pact.

Evidence

The Salem witch trials were based on superstition, religious doctrine, and subjective evidence. In 1692, two girls in Salem Village began suffering fits and pin pricks. Although medical examinations determined that the girls did not have a physical illness, they began to experience more of these symptoms. As the town grew and people became increasingly suspicious, witchcraft was suspected of being a possible cause of their symptoms.

Before the 19th century, there were few ways to prove witchcraft. The accused was tried by a judge after a formal complaint was filed against them. Evidence was collected by local magistrates, which included examinations of the accused. Before 1662, only one witness was required to establish a witchcraft conviction, while in Connecticut two or more witnesses had to witness the same incident simultaneously. In most cases, however, the evidence was enough to convict a person.

Before the Salem witch trials, Cotton Mather wrote a book entitled Memorable Providences, which described the symptoms of witchcraft in two fictional characters: an Irish washerwoman named Goody Glover, and the children Betty and Abigail. The characters’ afflictions matched with the claims made by Goody and the Goodwins. The accusers used these accounts to try and prove the validity of their accusers.

Legality

The legality of witchcraft has often been a source of debate, and the Salem trials are perhaps the most famous case. Even though there is no legal basis for witchcraft, it is often depicted as a particularly dangerous crime. In America, the Salem trials were just one example of many witchcraft trials, which occurred throughout the country. In English law, witchcraft is defined as “magical powers conferred by the Devil.” This interpretation was based on Puritan religious rules and political and economic uncertainty.

England’s Witchcraft Act of 1603 outlawed the practice of speaking with the dead. It also banned invoking evil spirits, obtaining treasure through witchcraft, and using the supernatural for “unlawful love.” The Act also prohibited executions of witches. However, the number of witchcraft trials declined during the eighteenth century, with the last execution occurring on English soil in 1685. Today, many European countries have banned the practice.

Until the late Medieval period, witchcraft was seen as an exclusively church business, and remained this way until the late 1400s, when secular courts began prosecuting canon law crimes. In these years, texts like The Malleus Maleficarum served as a practical guide for witchcraft prosecutions. Written by a Catholic priest, Heinrich Kramer, The Malleus Maleficarum was first published in Speyer in 1486, and it later gained cultural influence.

Pendle witches

The Pendle witchcraft trials were part of the general moral panic of the early sixteenth century. While the trials were relatively unremarkable by English standards, the execution of nine women was unusually high. Pendle was also the first place in England where a jury heard sworn evidence of witchcraft, including the allegation that some women had pacts with the Devil. Those accused of witchcraft were also hung together.

The Pendle witches were given hanging sentences and transported to the moors above Lancaster. Though most of the women accused of witchcraft confessed, the political and religious climate of seventeenth-century England may have played a part. Many of the women were executed for political reasons. While it’s impossible to know for sure which reason a particular group of women committed witchcraft, there are several clues that might help explain why this occurred.

The story of Pendle witchcraft begins with a peddler. Alison Device, a member of the Pendle Witches, lived with her family in a Malkin Tower hovel. She earned money by begging and odd jobs. In fact, she was begging on the streets of Pendle. On one occasion, she approached John Law, a wealthy merchant on the Colne Road. Despite her protestations, the peddler refused to buy anything from her and went back to begging.

Salem witch trials

In the month of February 1692, 180 people in Salem, Massachusetts, were accused of witchcraft. Of these, 144 were jailed for several months. Of these, 55 were tortured into confessing their guilt. During these trials, four-year-old Dorcas Good went insane after watching her sister die in jail. Three women and two infants died. 19 were imprisoned for refusing to confess their guilt, and one was hanged after a trial ended.

While the Salem witch trials were largely based on superstition and religion, there were precedents for these trials in Europe. The biblical book Exodus 22:18 declared that no one may live with a witch, and the local minister encouraged this practice. Parris was the fourth minister of Salem Village, and was a terrible mediator. During the first phase of the trials, he forced confessions from the defendants by interrogating them with questions designed to force them to confess. The questions asked of Sarah Good assumed her guilt.

Many historians attribute the events of Salem to European witchcraft. Perhaps the cold climate was more likely to cause paranoia than the hysteria surrounding the Salem witch trials. It is possible that some of the people accused of witchcraft were actually Native Americans. Native Americans lived in the area for centuries and had little contact with the witches, making the Salem witch trials a particularly traumatic experience. It is unclear if Salem was influenced by the witch trials of Europeans.