The Witch

The Salem Witch Trials During the seventeenth-century, an outbreak of witchcraft struck Salem Village, Massachusetts. Was it really witchcraft or was it just petty children? Either way, this took a toll on the New England colony and influenced history greatly. There are many documents and cases that reveal how the hysteria began, how it continued, and abruptly ended. The “afflicted girls”, Sarah and Dorcas Good, were not apart of Salem Village, but accused Tituba, the slave of Samuel Parris,…

The witch hunt craze that enveloped Europe and the New World throughout the 13th-16th centuries resulted in the senseless murders of countless people through horrifying methods of torture and execution, and all for seemingly no reason. Women constituted the vast majority of victims of the witch hunt craze that enveloped Europe and the New World throughout the 13th-16th centuries, with up to 80% of all witchcraft victims being women (Barstow, page 7), for a wide variety of reasons that can all be…

SALEM WITCH TRIALS Over three hundred years ago, the people in and around Salem, Massachusetts, took part in the most massive witch hunt in American history. The Salem Witch Trials were a terrible time for the little town of Salem. The Trials began in the Spring of 1692 when a group of girls claimed they were possessed by the devil. This sent panic all throughout the Village of Salem and led to more than two hundred local citizens being accused of witchcraft (Worthen 1 of 3). The Trials came…

The Witch of Edmonton, unlike many works of fiction, actually has a basis of truth; this play is loosely based on the witch trials that were occurring in England during the 1640s. Having insight into the reality behind this play will provide a better understanding of the character development of Elizabeth, and provide a basis of understanding of the culture within the setting. Witch hunting was not simply an idea that materialized into someone’s mind overnight: turmoil had long been brewing in…

Analogies of Witch Hunts and McCarthyism Going through high school in my small hometown, I would always hear about McCarthyism, or the Second Red Scare, in a poor context. One common analogy I heard was connecting McCarthyism to the witch hunts that I would hear about from the medieval period. This shows a bias has been developed against the topic and is now ingrained into society. To examine this topic I looked at sources involving both McCarthyism and the witch hunts. While the witch hunt…

The People of Salem The Salem witch trial was a period of time where the citizens of Salem (mostly women) were persecuted of witchcraft. The panic took place around February of 1692 to May of 1693. The occupants of Salem were mostly Purist, Protestants who left the Roman Catholic Church due to corruption during the reformation period. They were a group of hard working individuals who were heavily God fearing. During the trials 19 people were executed, from either hanging or body pressing. Among…

The Salem Witch Trials are known for the execution of twenty innocent victims. The civilians of Salem also accused two hundred innocent people of performing some type of witchcraft supposedly. “Eighteen others followed Bishop to Salem’s Gallow Hill, while some one hundred fifty more men, women and children were accused over the next several months” (Bodian). A witch is a person that practices witchcraft, which is also known as the Devil's magic. The government of Salem said that they could tell…

Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Europe, it is estimated that approximately 110,000 were accused of witch-craft, with some 60,000 “confessing” and being tortured or executed. Among the tens of thousands accused and/or executed, many were women who were often single, widowed, and of lower socioeconomic status. According to Sarah and Brady Hughes, “…centralized governments were willing to prosecute on sexual and religious matters fell heaviest on the lower class, those unable…

Historical Young Adult books are so few and far between, I was delighted that The Witch Hunter was both that and a fantasy. The earlier time period fit the tone of the story very well, especially considering that Elizabeth's profession is to hunt witches. In this world, a powerful wizard was blamed for the start of a plague years ago, so all magic is forbidden. If you are caught practicing witchcraft, you will be arrested and burned at the stake. There are those who of course oppose the laws -…

Arjona, cites Slash Film. She definitely looks like she is from Kansas. But she finds out that she is in a dark place without rainbows and butterflies. In the trailer, she looks like she has powers of her own. The question is, is she a good witch or a bad witch? Wizard of Oz Meets Game of Thrones…