...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...
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...“200 angry villagers-mostly youths carrying axes, machetes and knives-grabbed Jane Faidha Bakari, 58, in Tabora, hacked her with sharp weapons and burned her alive while her helpless husband watched” (Tonny Onyulo). Actual witch hunts have not been practiced for centuries all over the world, but in recent years Africa as begun to experience various forms of witch hunts in its society. In order to explain people’s deaths, illness, bad luck, and hardships, witches have become the escape goat. Many women are being beaten, hung, and burned alive just for being accused of witchcraft whether it is proven or not. Moreover, witch hunts have more than a single motive: both personal and economic. Many Africans feel that they are doing the right...
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...I think that the United states has definitely evolved much further than to go on actual witch hunts in this day in age but similar things still occur. Society definitely engages in witch hunts in this day in age. There are so many ways that people are targeted that maybe even you can’t see the correlation. We have turned to other distractions to distract from certain economic issues. We have always blamed our problems on something that takes people's minds off of the real problems. The overweight, liberal media, and the democratic muslim bans are just some of the ways witch hunts are occurring today. The first example that society is engaging in witch hunts today is liberal media. People blaming journalists and news reporters saying that they...
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...From 1450 to 1750, witch hunts were rampant around areas in Europe that were already ravaged by conflict. Witch hunts were roused by paranoia among both the layman and the religious authorities alike. The typically uneducated layman were easy prey for an intense paranoia and needed an outlet to blame. Sommerville, a modern historian, wrote a paper for other historians with a more neutral viewpoint than the fearful people of the past, detailing how women reaching for power was seen as evil and that was a part of how they were associated with witchcraft (Source 1). At the time, women were often treated as if they were a part of a lower class to be subjugated, and like when any member of a lower group tries to ascend to a higher one, they...
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...Witchcraft accusations may begin as petty conflicts between women, but “During witch hunts, men legitimize violence against the accused women by using rumor and conspiracy, and the women are made credible scapegoats in the process” (Chaudhuri, 2012, p. 1214). Men are the driving force behind transforming petty village conflicts into acts of violence against women through the use of conspiracy and calculated attacks; men also rely on the women’s blind faith in the established gender roles in order to make their witchcraft accusations without much opposition. Men are the decision makers in Indian tribal societies and use these conflicts to serve their own interests (Chaudhuri 2012). “The women (the accused witch and those initiating the accusation against her) are thus bait or scapegoats in the entire conspiracy by the men in the village” (Chaudhuri, 2012, p. 1220). Traditional Hindu philosophy also influences the gender relationships in tribal communities; these communities have adopted Hindu norms for the expected behavior of women. “According to Hindu philosophy, a woman is virtuous if she listens to and believes her husband pati parameshwar (the husband is equal to god)” (Chaudhuri, 2012, p. 1220)....
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...Its 1692 Salem, Massachusetts your neighbors are dwindling one by one. Extreme fear is in your heart, will I be next, will it be my wife, friend, preacher etc., who condemn me as a witch? That is what a witch-hunt feels like. Witch-hunts are designed to strike fear in your heart, to make you comply, to make you theirs. They are what one reverts to when they don’t want to own up to what they have done or have know idea how to explain what just really happened. In the case of Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty, and David Evans this is their real life story. They were turned from envied Duke lacrosse players to hated rapists in a matter of a night of partying. Accused by Crystal Mangum, a stripper who was paid to preform at the party, who had...
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...Witch-Hunts, Then and Now Witch-Hunts, Then and Now, is the topic I have chosen for my research paper, which will define similarities and differences between the “Salem Witch Trials” and “The Second Red Scare”. The actions that took place during both events played on the fears of citizens to further the personal, political and social agendas of those individuals that conducted the trials. These two events are just two examples of how history repeated itself, where hysteria of the masses has been used as justification to trample on the basic rights that we, as humans, have come to believe as essential to our lives. I chose this research project because the effect of the McCarthy era tactics that infringed on the Constitutional rights of many Americans can be seen today in the policies and actions implemented since September 11, 2001. As an American, I am disturbed to see that we as a people and our government appear not to have learned from our past. During the eras of the Salem Witch Trials and that of McCarthyism, there existed a fear that the values of each society were being threatened from both internal and external entities. During the Court of Oyer and Terminer, influential members of the Salem community used the trials to punish ministers with in the colony who were seen as tolerant to other religions. There was a movement within the colony to relax the strict customs of the Puritans, but the community leaders wanted to maintain a tight control on their spiritual beliefs...
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...Hartford, Connecticut One of the very first witch hunts that happened in America, took place in Hartford, Connecticut. The witch hysteria began when Elizabeth Kelly’s parents assumed a woman named Goody Ayres bewitched Elizabeth and made her ill. This assumption arose when Elizabeth came home with Ayres and shouted, “Father! Father! Help me, help me! Goodwife Ayres is upon me. She chokes me. She kneels on my belly. She will break my bowels. She pinches me. She will make me black and blue.” (Woodward) After Kelly died, a girl named Ann Cole became ill and accused Rebecca Greensmith, a rude lady, who had already been accused by others in the Kelly case. “The most damning testimony supposedly came from Greensmith herself, who reportedly admitted to having “familiarity with the devil” and said that “at Christmas they...
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...Vulnerability to a Witch Hunt The fact is that Salem, Massachusetts is all about God and doing God’s work, yet they are believing a bunch of young girls and hanging people without evidence. People believed whoever the person before could blame, no one ever would think of anyone possibly lying or acting? If making a city vulnerable to a witch trial could be easy, Salem and the people living there definitely caused it. In Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible”, religion, personal vendettas, and human faults, made the individuals and society in Salem vulnerable to a witch hunt. To start off one of many reasons Salem society was vulnerable to a witch hunt was religion. Religion was the main priority in Salem and almost anything said or done that wasn’t by the bible was witchery or evil. “At any rate very few indians were converted and Salem folk believed that the virgin forest was the devil’s last preserve.” This quote is simply explaining how easily things were blamed and or believed and how religion was the base of everything. Puritans believe if you swear on the bible...
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...In the past hysteria formed itself in many different way,which include the Holocaust,Muslims after September 11,2001. Hysteria changed all the world because of a person’s irrational fears. All these lead to modern day witch hunt. In present day, modern day witch hunt is still a fear in humanity. This causes people to panic over dumb things that are not factual. It has caused most people in the world to believe what they hear or what other tell them.Even some people know it’s true but say it is just so they can fit in because, they fear if they don’t believe something bad will happen The Holocaust was a good example of witch hunt. Hitler targeted Jews because,a man named Julius Streicher led all Jewish businesses to boycott(Matias 1).Things...
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...what others says, some of them even invent information that made them look bad so they can have whatever they want. Can you ever be that one person in that position like when everyone its judging you. When you feel like you have to be in the center of attention but in a mean way-blacklisted. You feel like your the bad person when your not, the only thing that you want its to look out for your future do anything for your family, an because you dint have what most people have, your being judge of things that you dint do, you act like a strong person but inside your weak, you feel lost, unworthy and shocking of everything that happening to you when you have done nothing. Everyone does not trust you. In the article 3 Modern Witch Hunts That Shape Our Current World clearly says "...that good, upstanding, working Americans are getting fleeced by lazy people who will stop at nothing (short of honest work) to steal their hard-earned money". In that statement you can see that they does not work for what they have, they only guilt others that work hard for the things that they have. Those people say lies to get what they always wanted. People are always justifying other by they color,size, or even what they have. "They also argue that they are not being prejudiced or unfair because fat is a choice founded on laziness and greed, and helping the overweight overcome these deadly sins is in the sinners' interests". Why they have to blame on other people how they are? That...
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...Historically, witch-hunts are known as an unfair judgement against innocent people derived from fear. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller talks about the Salem witch trials, writing an allegory that references the communists who were being persecuted during the red scare. In fact, witch-hunts can still be compared to events that occur in modern day’s American society. With this in mind it is important to point out racial profiling, which has been increasing lately. It is known as the inclusion of racial or ethnic characteristics in determining whether an individual is considered likely to commit an illegal act, leading to the unfair targeting of its victims. Arthur Miller profits from Salem’s history to address a higher concept, the McCarthyism,...
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...there were professional magicians who were found all over even in king’s courts. The magicians even could take apprentices. They were a significant part of the society. As the European society became more self-conscious and articulate, the notion that magic was a science began to fade and was linked with heresy and other negative thoughts like sorcery. The society came to reject the notion of safe and learned magic. There was even a purge to get rid of all magicians that were in England. If one were caught, practicing magic, spiritual and temporal punishments was accorded to them. The magician became to be treated and known as the latter day witches. The book looks into the complex that came from the transformation from the magician, to the witch and the various laws that came into effect during the Medieval times about the two. The book aids us in placing our understanding of medieval magic that was later known as witchcraft. Although heresy was part of the bad image that magic was furnished with hearsay, another was the long-standing Christian teachings that were about magic especially the learned magic that was rampant during the time. This led to later developments of magic turning into witchcraft. The earlier magic was tied to the culture and the way a people flourished. It was through the fear of persecution of magicians that led to a later day persecution of witches. The real stage that was the persecution of magicians set the stage for the purge of the witches especially...
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...As we are living in the 21st century, it is now proved that the witch hunts held in middle ages were quite absurd, and that the victims of witch hunts were unjustly executed by underdeveloped science and religious beliefs of the times. Some factors of the witch hunts mentioned in the video left some questions. Of many, the main question was, has the witch hunt really been rooted out and completely ended? The answer was no. It is ironic how even if we learn from history or even from our own experiences that the witch hunt is wrong, innocent people are still being unfairly accused, or even worse. But why is that? Even with the development of science, unveiled misconceptions of magic and enlightened religions, being different from another or being a minority is still considered wrong. We care about other people’s affairs, but we don’t care ‘that much’ to find out the truths about them. Instead, we enjoy being a majority and throw rocks at minority. It is cruel nature deeply embedded in human which is hard to be eradicated, and this may be the reason why witch hunts of the innocents have always been in existence with human throughout the centuries. It only got deepened with the growth of mass media and people’s consciousness and rationalization of witch hunts. Then, how do we solve this problem? With the answer above, it remains unsolved. In terms of witch hunts, rules, justice, and attentions we now have aren’t enough. We have to actually ‘grow up’, understand the seriousness and...
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...A Witch Hunt or Not Today, we are exposed to many details pertaining to a time when superficial abilities/powers were thought to be real and practiced. One of these situations was known as a witch hunt. A witch hunt was commonly known to take place when there was a search for those that were supposedly witches. Once caught, these individuals were usually persecuted. As time has passed, witch hunts have evolved and are looked at differently. Witch hunts now are viewed as campaigns against a person or group holding unorthodox or unpopular views which leads to persons with any known reasons wanting to punish another sometimes even for personal gains. This leads me to my question: Were people too quick to judge and given too much freedom to decide the fate of individuals whose actions were unproven, deemed against the law, or just misunderstood? It is hard to comprehend sometimes the decisions made by people and their effects on others. When decisions/judgments are made based on nothing but assumption and emotion, they can be sickening when we think about the pure injustice on the obvious innocence of the victims. These types of situations are considered, witch hunts. Sometimes, the very officials that proved whether or not the accused were guilty or innocent, forged evidence to support their own claim. Honestly, I have a difficult time looking into these stories because of how “stupid” (in my opinion) some of these people were and how outrageous their claims...
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