To most modern eyes, a medieval trial for witchcraft would seem grossly unfair. Those accused of witchcraft were typically women who lived alone and just outside primary social circles, which were dictated by religion. Those accused of witchcraft were portrayed as being worshippers of the Devil, who engaged in sorcery at meetings known as Witchesâ Sabbaths. This is what happened in Salem. âAs with elsewhere in Europe, the vast majority of those accused, some 85 per cent were women. Across Europe, in the years of witch persecution around 6,000 men â 10 to 15 per cent of the total â were executed for witchcraft. So, when the three girls began to show signs of witchcraft, they were an easy scapegoat because of their status in ⦠The execution of the Greensmiths came amid the Hartford Witch Panic in which authorities killed three people as witches in a span of a month in the early 1660s. Accused persons who submerged were considered innocent, and ecclesiastical authorities would proclaim them "brought back", but those who floated were considered guilty of practicing witchcraft, and they were either burned at the stake or executed in an unholy fashion. It lasted several decades and preceded the more famous cases in Salem, Massachusetts, by almost fifty years. Jon Gilchreist and Robert ⦠In early modern European tradition, witches were stereotypically, ⦠We will never know even the approximate total of those accused of and executed for witchcraft in the period of the craze, roughly speaking the years between 1450 and 1750: what is strikingly evident, however, is that in almost every sample of cases for which we have evidence, the majority of those accused and condemned were women. A majority of those accused of witchcraft were women although the records reveal that some men were also persecuted. The convicted were sentenced by civil courts, not the clergy. A James Lerile of Alloway, Ayr, is noted as "clenged", in other words cleaned or made clean. In the mercantile system, colonies were useful to European countries because they. Those accused of witchcraft were portrayed as being worshipers of the Devil, who engaged in such acts as malevolent sorcery at meetings known as Witchesâ Sabbaths. Many people were subsequently accused of being witches, and were put on trial for the crime, with varying punishments being applicable in different regions and at different times. Almost 70% of them personally knew at least one child who had been accused of witchcraft. Their fears manifest in the hearts and minds of the people. While Mr Lerile's fate is unclear, the term probably meant banishment or death. A town beggar, an old villager, and a slave were those deemed to be witches. proportion of women among those accused of witchcraft. Witchcraft is an ancient practice which involes using magic to enhance and/or change occurences in the natural world. Most were women (ratio of 4:1). While European courts targeted and executed overwhelmingly female suspects, often on charges of compacting with the devil, the tsarsâ courts vigorously pursued men and ⦠A majority of those accused of witchcraft were women although the records reveal that some men were also persecuted. In 2014, SCWA supported a piece of research with 1000 pastors in Kinshasa. Men and children were accused of witchcraft alongside women during the centuries of the witch hunts in Europe, and punished horribly in great numbers â but the majority of those accused ⦠The majority of those accused of witchcraft were poor villagers, but the occasional member of the upper class did find him or herself amidst such suspicion. In the courtrooms of seventeenth-century Russia, the great majority of those accused of witchcraft were male, in sharp contrast to the profile of accused witches across Catholic and Protestant Europe in the same period. Jon Gilchreist and Robert Semple, from Dumbarton, are recorded as sailors. They viewed witchcraft as the work of the devil. by Andy Piascik It was one of the most shameful episodes in the long history of Connecticut. It was a period when superstition, patriarchy, and religion-fueled repression were bedrock features of colonial life. Jon Gilchreist and Robert ⦠The peak of the witch hunt was during the European wars of religion, peaking between ⦠During this period in Europe, around 80 percent of those accused of witchcraft were women, and in England this figure stood at around 90 percent. men were actually the majority (90%) of those accused of witchcraft and where the word for witch (galdramadur ) implicated men was Iceland (Hastrup 1990: 227-228; Aöalsteinsson 1996: 49), 60% of the accused in Estonia and 50% in Finland were also men (Briggs 2002: 226). Ultimately, although the predominance of cases were made against women, the witch ⦠Many people were subsequently accused of being witches and were put on trial for the crime, with varying punishments being applicable in different regions and at different times. Those three killings ⦠Most were elderly, and almost none were children. Witch hunters, or witch prickers were employed to hunt out witches by using a sharp tool to prick the bodies of those accused of witchcraft. The evidence suggests a common pattern, mainly involving a quarrel followed by a misfortune. "Confession to allegations of witchcraft were routinely obtained by ⦠The Puritans were very conservative when it came to religion. âAs with elsewhere in Europe, the vast majority of those accused, some 85 per cent were women. provided raw materials and markets for manufactured goods. In many ways the trials helped the Puritan towns to control the ⦠The majority of witches were also poor, and nearly all were poorer than their supposed victims. Historians such as Petherbridge therefore suggest that despite there being both men and children among those who were trialed, âthe majority of those accused of the crime and heresy of witchcraft were women. The death of a large percentage of the European population was believed by many Christians to have been caused by their enemies. In the 15 th century in Switzerland, for example, the majority of those convicted were men, while here, 90% were women. Proportions of accused women were similarly high in New England, where between 1620 and 1755, 78 percent of witches accused (of whose sex is known) were women. Being accused of witchcraft in the Middle Ages meant being labelled as a heretic. In other countries, including some of the Scandinavian countries, men were in a slight majority. Those who were accused of witchcraft were portrayed as being Devil worshipers. mysteriously disappeared and the British government made no real effort to determine the fate of the missing colonists. Much work has gone into the study of the Salem Witch Trials and the many dimensions that it has. This is exemplified in the people who were accused of witchcraft. Those who gained a reputation for being witches tended to also gain the reputation for being loud and spiteful. This was witchcraft and witch-hunting⦠Women who lived independently often earned livings as midwives or as healers. '[1] Can we therefore presume that the witch-hunts were a âgynocideâ driven by misogyny? Not only could a person be accused with very little proof, the majority of those accused were found guilty and many were tortured in order to extract a confession. In the courtrooms of seventeenth-century Russia, the great majority of those accused of witchcraft were male, in sharp contrast to the profile of accused witches across Catholic and Protestant Europe in the same period. Another theme between those first accused was that they were in a lower class of society. Men were generally accused in different ways than women; most importantly, menâs accusations were often linked with other crimes. If they didnât bleed, they were believed guilty and so it was easy for the local courts to both try and convict them. Of those whom were executed only five of them were men, the majority of those accused and tried were women. Although around 80 per cent of those tried for witchcraft in Britain were women, men also suffered at the hands of so-called witch hunters, too. In a few areas (albeit a very few) men comprised a majority of those accused. Judicial records in England reveal two primary facts concerned those accused of witchcraft: the majority were poor, or usually from a lower economic level than their accusers and the majority were women~ often the elderly who are easily conceived of as being burdensome economically. The words of those who sit in power, holds much weight to those beneath them. Jon Gilchreist and Robert ⦠Folk medicine. The witchcraft involved nearly always struck just after a quarrel between witch and victim, and the two were almost always neighbors. Even in England, the idea of a male witch was perfectly feasible. The European-wide average of eighty percent also hides regional differences. However, MacFarlane contended that witches tended to be poorer than their alleged victims, with yeoman making up the majority of the occupations of the husbands listed. Jon Gilchreist and Robert ⦠Although there were many of examples of witch trials before Salem, these set themselves apart in several ways. This reflects the arguments by Hester, Bennett, and others, that the women who were accused of witchcraft tended to be the most vulnerable in the economy- laboring women, widowed, possibly older, and poor; or those ⦠In England the majority of those accused were women. First and foremost is the fact that the vast majority of those accused would never have thought of themselves as witches â and the fact that they were not guilty of the crimes attributed to them. Though some of the earliest â¦