Historical Witchcraft & Trials
Between superstition and survival lies a history written in ashes. This archive chronicles the witch hunts and trials that scarred the early modern world — Salem, Pendle, Bamberg, Bideford, and countless unnamed villages where fear became fire.
These pages are not for spectacle, but remembrance. Here you’ll find trial records, testimonies, and the evolution of how society defined “witch.” Each story is a haunting reminder of what happens when mystery meets intolerance — and why reclaiming the word witch is an act of defiance.
🔥 ENGLISH & SCOTTISH TRIALS
The Pendle Witches (1612, England)
Twelve accused from Lancashire — families tangled in suspicion, poverty, and politics. Ten hanged, one imprisoned, one died awaiting trial.
The North Berwick Trials (1590, Scotland)
Confessions of storms raised against King James VI; torture birthed witchcraft hysteria that spread like wildfire across Scotland.
The Bideford Witches (1682, England)
The last recorded witch hangings in England — three women condemned by fear and rumor, still memorialized in Devon.
The Chelmsford Trials (1566–1589)
A series of English prosecutions where “familiars” and black cats entered the courtroom for the first time as evidence of witchcraft.
Isobel Gowdie’s Confession (1662, Scotland)
One of the most poetic, detailed self-confessions in history — a witch’s tale of faerie covens, shape-shifting, and sensual power.
⚖️ EUROPEAN WITCH HUNTS
The Bamberg Witch Trials (1626–1631, Germany)
Over a thousand lives claimed in Bavaria’s fever of fear — entire towns purged under the guise of godliness.
Würzburg Trials (1626–1631, Germany)
Parallel to Bamberg — even children accused, their names forever etched into the chronicles of hysteria.
The Torsåker Trials (1675, Sweden)
The largest mass execution for witchcraft in Sweden: seventy-one accused beheaded, their ashes scattered on consecrated ground.
The Valais Witch Trials (1428–1447, Switzerland)
Among the earliest large-scale persecutions in Europe — where the template for later inquisitions was written in fire.
Loudun Possessions (1634, France)
A convent scandal turned state trial — exorcisms, politics, and public burning masked as divine justice.
🕯️ AMERICAN & COLONIAL WITCHCRAFT
Salem Witch Trials (1692, Massachusetts)
Perhaps the most infamous of all — a storm of fear, faith, and accusation that ended with 19 executions and a legacy of moral reckoning.
Connecticut Witch Trials (1647–1697)
Predating Salem, these lesser-known trials set the stage for America’s witch hysteria — the first execution: Alse Young, 1647.
Pennsylvania Witchcraft Cases (1700s)
Folk-magic “powwow” traditions blurred the line between healing and heresy in the new world.
The Barbados Witch Trials (1650s)
A chilling prelude — enslaved women accused of Obeah and “devil’s work” by colonial powers terrified of rebellion.
The Suriname Witch Cases (1700s)
Syncretic traditions from African, Indigenous, and European roots collided under colonial persecution.
🌑 FOLK MAGIC, SURVIVALS & RECLAMATION
The Cunning Folk
Practitioners who healed, charmed, and divined — persecuted as witches yet sought out in secret. The paradox of fear and need.
The Witchfinder General (Matthew Hopkins)
Self-proclaimed hunter who terrorized East Anglia; his zealotry birthed a national witch panic and a lasting cultural archetype.
Witch Bottles & Poppets in Archaeology
Artifacts found buried beneath homes — quiet evidence of lived folk magic, protection, and private power.
Malleus Maleficarum (1487)
The hammer of witches — a treatise that justified centuries of violence, its shadow lingering in modern misogyny and moral panic.
Reclaiming the Word “Witch”
Modern witchcraft turns oppression into empowerment — the title once used to condemn now used to create.
To remember them is to free them — and to promise it will not happen again. The witch trials are not merely cautionary tales; they are mirrors reflecting our ongoing struggle with fear, gender, and power. Light your candle for those silenced, and let your craft be their echo.
If you know of regional witchcraft history or ancestral stories worth recording, share them below — every voice restores a name once erased.
Help us preserve this work by supporting the archives on Ko-fi or exploring our historical essays and case studies on Patreon.
To read more reflections on persecution, survival, and empowerment, visit the Blog Archive.
For every witch condemned, a thousand rise remembering.
