The Pendle Witch Trials are part of the most famous witch trials in English history and are also some of the best recorded of the 17th Century. The first twelve witched accused all lived in the area around Pendle Hill in Lancashire, England. A man called Roger Nowell was the the local Justice of the Peace. In 1612, he was required to compile a list of the recusants in the area (people who refused to attend the English Church and to take communion, at this time it was a criminal offence). At the same time, a claim was brought by John Law, a Halifax peddler, against Alizon Device of Pendle, accusing her of causing a stroke by witchcraft. Alizon freely confessed that she had sold her soul to the Devil and also appeared to be convinced of her own powers to injure. …show more content…
In the end, twelve people from Pendle were accused: Alizon Device, Elizabeth Device, James Device, Elizabeth Southerns, Alice Gray, Jennet Preston, Anne Whittle, Anne Redferne, Alice Nutter, Katherine Hewitt, John Bulcock and Jane Bulcock. They were all charged with the murders of ten people by the use of witchcraft, and ten of the twelve were tried at Lancaster Assizes in August 1612. This was because Jennet Preston was tried at York, and Elizabeth Southerns died in prison. Of the eleven individuals who went to trial (nine women and two men) ten were found guilty and executed by hanging, and Alice Gray was the only one found not guilty. Nine-year-old Jennet Device was a key witness for the prosecution (she gave evidence against members of her own family), this would not have been permitted in many other 17th Century criminal trials, but King James had made a case for suspending the normal rules of evidence for witchcraft trials in his “Daemonologie”. Several years later, Jennet Device found herself accused of witchcraft as
The Wurzburg Witch trials started in a territory around the city in 1626. Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn (the Prince Bishop of Wurzburg) gave the consent needed for the trials to begin. They reached climax under Philipp Adolf von Ehrenbuerg; the nephew and successor of Julius. The Wurzburg Witch Trials took place during a witch hysteria that resulted in a series of trials.
The Salem Witch Trails of 1692 began in Salem Village, Massachusetts, when the minister's daughter and niece started complaining about strange pinching, prickling sensations, knifelike pains, and the feeling of being strangled. Soon when a lot other kids started showing these symptoms, the doctors concluded that witchcraft is responsible for them. It was proven that witchcraft did exist because the scripture mentions it. When they forced the girls to name the witches, they named three people. These were called the witch trials.
Throughout the 1940s and 50s America was overwhelmed with concerns about the threat of communism growing in eastern Europe and China. Paranoia ensued. Salem was established as a religious community in the midst of evil. The people of Salem considered the forest the domain of the devil, and as you could guess, they were surrounded by it; Paranoia ensued
The Salem Witch Trial is a historically located incident stirred by the accusations of an Indian slave woman, named Tituba, who confessed to the practice of witchcraft under the pressure and physical force of colonial slave owners in 1692. She escaped execution, unlike many accused women, because of her ability to acclimate to the culture and society of her oppressors. In Breslaw’s portrait of Tituba’s life starting with her ambiguous Amerindian-Caribbean roots, she shows how Tituba’s first step in acclimating to British-colonial society was to force her mother tongue to take a backseat to the language introduced and enforced by English colonizers who captured “American Indians to sell as slaves in Barbados” for the purpose of providing slave labor to British colonies in
Though it seems that the defendants and accusers were only young girls and women, there were some men involved in the trials. One of these men that were involved was Samuel Wardwell. He confessed in doing witchcraft soon after he was arrested. He then claimed that his confession was fake and should die of perjury. His confession could have been to protect himself or out of fear.
The Civil Rights Movement and The Salem Witch Hunts “Only in the darkness can you see the stars.” - Martin Luther King Jr. In both the 1690’s Salem Witch Trials and the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement there were groups of people who were mistreated and faced dark times. Leading up to the protests in The Civil Rights there was enormous tension in the USA between African-Americans and their oppressors due to the history of slavery and discrimination against the minority. African-American citizens, like those accused of witchcraft in The Crucible, suffered from the inability to work, they were more likely to be assaulted or a victim of a violent crime, and were segregated from the public.
Centuries ago within the two years of 1692 and 1693, the Salem witch trials took place in Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony. During this tragic event, there were over two hundred people, including male and female, who were accused of being witches. Isolating the accusations, there were only about twenty or those people who were executed for the practice of “Devil’s Magic”. Such practice of witchcraft was against many religions, like Christianity (Blumberg). The trials begin in January of 1692 because of Reverend Parris’ daughter, Elizabeth (who was only nine), and his niece, Abigail Williams (who was eleven).
On June 15, 1692, a group of ministers including Mather wrote to at the time Governor Phips urging that special caution be taken in the use of evidence in the trials. The court next met on June 29 and heard the cases of five more accused women. When the jury tried to acquit accused witch Rebecca Nurse, William Stoughton sent the jury back to deliberate, and returned with a changed verdict from innocent to guilty. Ultimately, all five of the women were hanged on July 19, 1692; at this time the witchcraft hysteria had spread out of the Salem border to Andover. When the hysteria reached the Corey household for the second time, Martha’s husband Giles
These individuals may or may not been witches, yet the jury many times to chose to hang any accused individuals with or without reasonable cause. Due to fear of being wrongly accused during the salem witch trials erratic and chaotic behaviours stemmed across the town. People feared of being called witches so they hid, lied, cheated, and wrongfully their friends and family. Chaos grow across the town and more and more people were hung. Like on the day 9/11 when the planes hit the twins tower and the buildings fell, people hid, cried, and hurt, due to the destruction.
She stated that she was sorry, and felt as though she was taken by satan. She said, "I desire to be humbled before God for that sad and humbling providence that befell my father's family in the year about ninety-two; that I, then being in my childhood, should, by such a providence of God, be made an instrument for the accusing of several people for grievous crimes, whereby their lives was taken away from them, whom, now I have just grounds and good reason to believe they were innocent persons; and that it was a great delusion of
What was going through people's mind when testifying? Bad luck! We all have felt it at one point that we have had bad luck, but to blame it on witchcraft would just be wrong. At the end, she had no chance and was found guilty. It wasn't a fair trial.
Our topic, on the Salem Witch Trial, was chosen because we were inspired by a lesson taught by our 7th-grade social studies teacher, Mr.Wong. He had discussed the Salem Witch Trial as part of the 7th-grade curriculum; we were fascinated by this topic that we wanted to learn more about this event. What captured our interest? It was mostly due to the fact that this topic involved witchcraft since at this day it would most likely not be accepted. We found that the Salem Witch Trial was significant to the US’s history since it foretold the fragility of the US’s society in the past when reacting to a magical threat.
In a matter of time five people were hanged in July. One was Rebecca Nurse. Her execution was a pivotal moment in Salem Witch Trials. Nurse was a well-respected and well-loved member of the community. When first arrested the community signed a petition for her release.
Although the beginning of witchcraft cannot be dated, it was believed to be a very real thing by many, even arguably all civilizations. Throughout history many horrendous trials have been focused on witches/wizards. Historically one of the most well know trails was the one that took place in Salem. The Salem Witch Trails occurred in 1692, this conflict caused death, the downfall of a community, and diminished the trust of 100’s of people. Many religious beliefs, mixed with fear of witchcraft, and a lack of knowledge resulted in 200 accused and 19 permanently suffering.
Bridget Bishop, a resident of Salem, was the first person to be tried as a witch. Surprisingly, Bishop was accused of witch craft by the highest number of witneses. After Bishop, more than two hundred people were tried of practicing witchcraft and twenty were executed. Many of these accusations arose from jealous, lower class members of society, especially towards women who had come into a great deal of land or wealth. Three young children by the names of Elizabeth, Abigail, and Ann were the first three people to be “harmed” by the witches.