Abstract

Over 12000 executions have been recorded because of witchcraft over the past

thousand years. Accusations of witches commonly happened during the 15th century to

the 18th century. However many are still killed because of others who cry witch and

thus, the people are murdered in this modern age. Witchcraft has come in many shapes

and form depending on the time and place you are looking at. Witchcraft came in many

forms such as societal, religion, medicinal and cultural many in which where in different

time periods.

This topic generates controversy because it is taboo too many religions, for example,

witchcraft goes against the bible and it is seen as a sin, where it is said that whoever

see the dead or gets visions of the future should be seen as a threat and thus have

committed a sin against the catholic and Christian church. It is also seen as a way for

people to feel superior towards other when they call out a witch because whomever

calls out a witch became the leader of many of these groups who have committed

insidious events.

Archeologist still are in search of the answer if whether or not witches are real or

not? They are stumped too believe if witches are not real because in ancient time they

had hieroglyphics of the human being showing off their powers.Thus making

archeologist actually wonder if these women were witches and making them wonder

even more if these images are accurate. Witchcraft has been seen through many

generations and eras.

Historical context
 In the years 1500-1560 was one of darkest moments in which witches were seen as a

threat to human society. These were the time where the hysteria of witches had grew.

Thus creating this chaotic world where they had just made witchcraft illegal and were

creating laws against witches.Anyone seen practicing the craft would go against the

Witchcraft Act of 1542 in which the people practicing would be burned alive for

everybody to see. In 1552 the pope said that witches were a civil matter instead of

church matter creating a bigger riot with witches.

In the year 1580-1600s was the peak in which cases of witches had risen. In the 1580

many witch trials were documented in England and were now a public sentence.

Discoverie of Witchcraft was published in 1584 this book written by Reginald Scott of

Kent, and it created this sort of skepticism of witchcraft claims. In the year 1612, the

Pendle Trial happened in this trial 12 women were accused of witchcraft and were sent

to trial. 10 out of the 12 women were murdered and 1 died in prison, while the other

survived and was sent free with no conviction.

Years after the executions, exactly 11 women were murdered in the witch trials in

1648, Mary Johnson was sent to the gallows and was accused of practicing the craft

she was killed, hyping up again the people of England. This Hysteria keeps been shown

throughout history, that a group of people start gaining power and become crazy with

power starting to show a pattern as it continues.

There were so many trials that in the year 1683 King Louis XIV prohibited witch trials

since too many were dying because of these trials.

In 1692 the New World experience their first witch trial known as the Salem witch trials.

Women were trailed for being accused of witchcraft. No real proof had been given yet
they continued the trial and 12 women were hanged and killed in the stake. This all

started in a colonial village of Britain in which they said to be possessed by the devil and

accused women of being the ones who did that to them.The first to be accused was

named Bridget Bishop she was soon sent to the Gallow in which she was killed. Soon

after 18 others followed the same faith as Bridget Bishop. But it did not stop there the

people had gone mad and kept accusing. 150 people were soon accused of witchcraft

but did not have enough evidence to be sent to the Gallows.

In 2011 Amina Bint Abdulhalim Nassar was accused of witchcraft and was beheaded

in Saudi Arabia for practicing witchcraft. The highest order had given the permission to

allow this action to continue. The charges given did not give enough of detail as to why

she was killed but it has to do with the fact that she was using sorcery. An event like this

had happened a couple of years before that in 2007 in which a woman was also

beheaded for the following reason, she was seen casting a spell. This spell turned out

to be a separation spell in which the lady was trying separate a couple with the spell she

was casting. She soon was caught and by the orders of her own country she was also

beheaded. Apparently, cases like these still happen even in our modern day age.

Research Findings
Through time and time again witches have always been part of history known by

different names, known by different cultures witches have always been there. Yet

people have never encountered a witch in real life or nor has a witch has ever come out
to verify their existences. Even though that's true people have been murdered and

convicted as witches but none of them actually show others their powers even till their

death. So now that makes me wonder if witches are even real or hoax?

This is the beginning of an extraordinary journey in which we seek the truth to see if

witches are real or fake. So to understand whats going to be my point of view I have to

show others point of view. See to really understand witches I have to show the

importances witches were back in the day witches were appreciated they were seen as

a goddess, they even had rankings in the kingdoms that are how powerful they were.In

this documentary Ancient Mysteries Witches, Coraline Fontaine explains the origin of

where witches came from, why they got the bad image of been bad and evil and why

most women are attributed to witches, and why many were killed during the witch trials.

In the film, they talk about many examples and one of them is the origin of witches and

how back in ancient Egypt they were known as the wise women, in this time they were

known as powerful guardians of protection, women of great power and are well known

all around the kingdoms.In the film, they give many examples of the timeline of the

witches in order to give an insight of why witches got a bad reputation later on in time.

There is more examples of witches through history in the film Witches: a century of

Murder in which Suzannah Lipscomb investigates the cases of many witches that were

murdered in the 1800 and 1900s, and why witch hunt had begun during the 1900s and

why many of these so-called witches had confessed to being witches. In this episode,

they talk about witches being hunted down in Scotland and gave an example of one of

the reasons why witches were being killed, and the reason was the book known as

Malleus Maleficarum the book explained that witches were obsessed with killing,
maiming and poisoning giving the witches a bad image.The film gave examples of

witches lives in order to have an insight in these young women's lives so that they can

explain the reason why many of these women were put on trial.

The second part of the tv series goes in deeper to what happened to witches.

Suzannah Lipscomb investigates the cases of witch trials during the 1600s and how

many of these women were tortured into confessing that they were witches.In this

episode they talk about a woman named Elizabeth Clarke a widow who was accused of

being a witch and was tortured into confessing that she was a witch, she was denied

sleep, food, water and was stripped away from her hair making her soon confess to

being a witch. The film gave the life of Elizabeth Clarke as an example in order to proof

that people who were accused of witchcraft were actually tortured into saying that they

were and that witches aren't really witches.

So then I wonder how many people still believed in witches so as part of the survey I

ask how many people believed in witches I ask that in order to understand how witches

are still influential in the lives of the students of medical magnet high school.

See this is important because I had to know how influential the witches knowledge is. I

always wanted to know if they believed witches have actual power so I also put if they

believe in
curses.

So in seek to know if witches are real there was continuity towards the truth of

witches.In Our time, Salem Witch Trial they talked about the outbreak, during the

1700s in Massachusetts where people went mad with power during the witch trials. In

the episode they talked about the people who were accused of being witches were, in

reality, being called witches was because of personal rivalries that caused soon caused

a widespread of everyone accusing each other of witchcraft. They gave my examples of

the lives of many of these people who were accusing in order to give more insight on

the minds of many of these masterminds minds.

In Episode 61 of History Goes Bump Podcast,-Salem Witch Trials. Macleod explains

the hysteria people go through whenever this idea of a supernatural force is spread

through the mind of people and the basic psychology exploring the dark side of

humanity. The narrator, support the idea of a mass hysteria and the connection with

witch hunts by giving an example of witch trials before the original witch trials in

Massachusetts, by relating that current event with one of the years prior and how they

have similar faiths. This is interesting because they go into depth of witches and the

psychology the people went through during this time

In the episode Revisiting the Last Witch Trial, Hansen explains how the jury did not

believe in the defendant because they believe she had sided with the devil.By showing

us how the jury thought, the article uses this as a way to explain how this trial was unfair

and corrupt.The author gave this as an example in order to give us insight to the

unfairness women went through. The author gave an informative tone towards the

podcast, her intended audience would have to be feminists or anybody who believes in

equality.In order to prove her point going bad on one person's farm, and it was next to

land perhaps owned by a widow - a middle-aged widow that didn't get along with the

neighbor, it was an easy step to then say perhaps this woman is in league with the

devil. she does to prove her point of unfairness

In the article The witches Shows Salem in our Blood by Jean Zimmerman she

explains how women had much suffrage during the witch trials of Salem,

Massachusetts. Zimmerman gives us clarity of how the clergymen walked them to the
death of many young intellectual women by telling us how incompetent these leaders

were by listing their flaws as human beings. The article goes into depths of many of the

so-called witches in order to prove that these women had an unfair death. See women

were beneath them at the time and women who wanted to better themselves were lead

to their doom.

All these examples yet no real proof of witches been real until now. In this article,

Witchcraft in Four African Societies, by Nadel purports that witchcraft is still much a

culture for these four societies and is still is alive. Nadel cites a variety of interviews

given to members of these societies explaining how their culture works and what is not

permitted in the culture. The author provides many real life interviews to enhance the

realisticness of these cultures in order to inform readers to acknowledge that witchcraft

is part of many people life.For this article, I assume his intended audience is people that

are exploring new religions or beliefs. For these people witchcraft is real and witches

are as real as the sun. Witches are prominent for these people. They have no religion

except for one Witchcraft.

In this nonfiction book, Religion Online: Finding Faith on the internet (2004), the

author Dawson, purports that there is a connection with modern day witches and

Internet. Dawson gives many examples of why many witches go online to show and

teach witchcraft during these modern days. Online communities dedicated to showing

the people the way of their craft and showing them the way to manipulate the elements

to their will. There were online sources where they taught love spell, voodoo and much

more
In this article, Witchcraft in Ghana, the author Onyinah purports why Witchcraft is still a

popular religion instead of Christianity and other popular religions. The author cites

many interviews that support the idea of why witchcraft is still a popular religion and

explains that famine and other natural disaster has pushed them to witchcraft as a

religion. The author provides these interviews in order to make people aware of the

reason why Christianity has not reach over at Africa and particularly over at Ghana. A

very important aspect of this community is witchcraft something very real to them.

Witchcraft is no joke for them.

The curiosity did not end there and continued in search of answers I asked a professor

Marion Gibson, questions about witches. Instead of asking are witches real I asked why

witches are hated to which she answered that there is my reason why? But a big reason

why witches are hated has to with religion. The Bible says that it is a sin to have contact

with the death (necromancy), fortune telling big ideas that have to with witches power.

This is interesting because in the Salem witch trial witches were the people killed were

doing the work of the devil. Interesting to know religion had a big contribution towards

this.
 Epilogue
Witches real or fake was my original question? Now I finally have an answer. With all

these interviews, stories and tales I believe witches are fake. This is because there was

no real evidence that proves me otherwise. The only cases that showed me witchcraft

were real were tribes and I don't count them as reliable because they have no further

knowledge of their surroundings.See witchcraft is alive in the eyes of these human

beings because they have no superior knowledge in which they can have real validation

on their surroundings

The real reason witch trial ever happen was because of people who liked to gossip

creating this chaos.Yes, people created the witch trials for a selfish reason, they knew

that if they cried wolf the people they would accuse would probably die. This created

this hysteria in which human beings were affected by it. Witches are not real and have

no proof to say otherwise.

Women who were affected by the witch trials were probably women who were
intellectual for their time and were not accepted for their thoughts.See witches were
created to put their hatred on so that they could be blamed for their bad luck and their
tragedy. Witches are just innocent victims who did not deserve to die in all the trials that
happened.Real witches would have fought back instead of letting themselves be
murdered.