Elizabethan Era Witchcraft, Witches, and Witch Hunts During the Elizabethan Era, the printing press had been invented and this helped spread printed copies of Bibles and other religious books. These books had contained ideas of witches and witchcraft. This had helped promote the idea of witch hunts and people became obsessed with finding witches. The supernatural belief of witches, witchcraft, and witch hunts had spread like wildfire across Europe and later to the newly made American colonies. Most people connect witches and witchcraft to the popular Salem Witchcraft Trials. Ideas such as alchemy, astronomy, and magic had also spurred the likeliness of witch hunts. Witches were blamed for events that could not be explained. The Bubonic …show more content…
Accused witches were usually women who didn’t have anyone to vouch for them, like a dominate male figure in their life. These witches included women who were old, poor, unprotected, single or widowed, and kept a pet very close to them. Anyone who kept a cat, frog, pig, raven, goat, wolf, goose, crow, bat, or mouse as a pet was usually accused of being a witch. Witches were classified as either Black Witches or White Witches. Black Witches were the “evil” witches who wanted to harm people, physically or practically, and would practice forbidden arts. White witches were the helpful witches. They had knowledge of plants and herbs passed down generations. They would use the plants and herbs to make ointments and potions that would try to cure ailments. Some herbs these witches would use are mandrake, datura, monkshood, cannabis, belladonna, henbane, and hemlock. Many of these herbs had psychedelic …show more content…
The trials that occurred were trying the accused of maleficium. Torture was not allowed to be used in the interrogation of the trial. Three trials occurred in Chelmsford. The first trial included Elizabeth Frances, Agnes Waterhouse, and Joan Waterhouse. Elizabeth Frances had used a cat called Sathan to harm various people. She then gave the cat to Agnes Waterhouse and her daughter, Joan. Elizabeth Frances was sentenced one year in prison, Agnes Waterhouse was hanged, and Joan was found not guilty. There were three trials in Chelmsford