Witches :: essays research papers

WitchesAmerican history has few subjects as elicit as catchcraft, becauseit confronts us with many Ideas about women. It confronts us with fears aboutwomen, the locate of women in society, and with women themselves. Also, itconfronts us with violence against women and how the problems of society wereoften blamed on women. Even though close to men were executed as during periods ofwitch hunting, witches were generally thought of as women and most who died inthe name of witchery were women. In the United States, witchcraft took placeamong too educated of volume to dismiss it as mere "superstition." (P.10)The first person that was executed, as a witch, in America was MargaretJones, in 1648. Jones was a midwife and lay healer, who was impeach of severaldifferent practices. Minister John pull, who witnessed Joness hanging in capital of Massachusettswhen he was a boy, later give tongue to that she "was suspected partly because that subsequentlysome angry words passin g between her and her Neighbors, some slipperiness befellsuch neighbors in their Creatures, or the like and partly because some things divinatory to be bewitched, or have a Charm upon them, being burned, she came tothe give the bounce and seemed concerned." (P.20) Hale included neither of these charges inhis list of the evidence presented against Jones, provided suggested that the crimeshad to do with her medical practice. She was accused of having a "malignanttouch," Hale noted, and her medicines were said to have "extraordinary violenteffects." When people refused to take her medical advice, he added, "theirdiseases and hurts continued, with relapse against the ordinary course, andbeyond the apprehension of all physicians and surgeons."(P.21) Hale toomentioned that Jones was believed to possess psychic powers "some things whichshe foretold came to pass accordingly other(a) things she could mark of ... shehad no ordinary means to come to the kno wledge of."(P.20) John Hale pointed outthat several of Joness neighbors tried to get her to confess and repent. Oneof them, he said, "prayed her to consider if God did not bring this punishmentupon her for some other crime, and asked, if she had not been guilty of stealingmany years ago." (P.22)Jones admitted the theft, but she refused to experience it asa reason for her conviction as a witch. Hales writings, on the other hand,showed that stealing, and other crimes such as fornication and infanticide, wereregularly associated with witchcraft, by both the clergy and the largerpopulation . . . " (p. 22)     This first account, in Karlsens study, brings to the surface some of