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Politics : Did the Great Experiment Fail? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tom Clarke who wrote (761)	1/10/2014 4:07:05 PM
From: average joe	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 926

More on Bushyhead and Blackbear... firstcoastnews.com 9 Reasons You Might Have Been Suspected of Witchcraft in 1692 The Salem witch trials of 1692 may be the best known outbreak of such a panic but they were not typical of the usual neighborhood suspicions. In " Six Women of Salem: the Untold Story of the Accused and Their Accusers in the Salem Witch Trials" (DaCapo Press) I focus on the tragedy through the eyes and minds of six specific individuals, real women with lives before and (for the survivors) after 1692. The six are: Rebecca Nurse, Bridget Bishop, Mary English, Ann Putnam Sr., Tituba, and Mary Warren. Of these six, five were accused, three were accusers, two were hanged, one escaped. One was Salem's wealthiest woman and one owned nothing -- not even herself. Witchcraft, according to the laws and common assumptions of the era, was the cooperation of mortal humans with devils in order to harm others, a spiteful alliance with the forces of Evil rather than an allegiance to God. Neighborhood discord could lead to suspicions about this possibility (which might fester for years), and such suspicions could lead to accusations -- but not necessarily to a conviction. What did it take to be accused of witchcraft in colonial America? What would your odds have been if you had been there? Granted, the Salem panic was unusual in the number and diversity of suspects as well as in the duration of the crises. In general, however, an assortment of characteristics could get a person accused of witchcraft, according to the 17th century British sources used by Massachusetts courts in 1692 -- Richard Bernard's "Guide to Grand Jury Men...in Cases of Witchcraft," William Perkins's "Discourse of the Damned Art of Witchcraft," and John Gaule's "Select Cases of Conscience Touching Witches and Witchcrafts" -- and more recent studies such as John Demos's 20th century work "Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England" (Oxford). Here are nine of them. 1. You are female. All through western history more women than men have been accused of witchcraft. It took less for a woman to be considered out of line. 2. You are middle aged. Although suspects in 1692 ranged from Mary Bradbury in her 80s to the approximately five-year old Dorothy Good, most supposed "witches" were in their late 40s and 50s. Maybe other adults were resentful of a bossy mother-figure, or maybe not. 3. You are related to or otherwise associated with a known suspect. As William Perkins pointed out "witchcraft is an art that may be learned," so even if you weren't a middle-aged woman you might be accused if you were friends with a suspected "witch" or if the neighbors had had their doubts about your mother, especially in 1692. 4. You are of an English Puritan background. For the most part, the accused came from the same majority ethnic group as the accusers. 5. You are married but have few or no children. Neighbors suffering misfortune might think you were attacking their larger families from jealousy especially if you lacked kin to speak up for you. Unprotected widows were at even more of a risk. 6. You are contentious and stubborn with a turbulent reputation. Where a man might be considered forceful, a women might have been labeled as contentious. The situation would be worse if you were also at odds with your own family. After all, the Devil encourages discord. 7. You have been accused of other crimes before such as theft or slander. As John Gaule put it a "lewd and naughty kind of life" was just the sort of thing that attracted devils. 8. You are of a relatively low social position. Status and rank was stronger in the 17th century. Being too often dependent on the neighbors' help could cause them to resent you. 9. A confessed "witch" accuses you of being a fellow witch. This was a big problem in 1692 when so many suspects "confessed" from fear, confusion, or an attempt to curry the court's favor. These confessing accusers generally named people already under suspicion. The lesson from all this? In 1692 anyone might have been accused of witchcraft. But if you were a widowed middle-aged English Puritan woman with few if any living children and slim financial resources, were known for having a temper and suspected of petty crimes (whether justified or not), and were related to or friends with someone else who was suspected of witchcraft -- watch out for the neighbors.

To: Tom Clarke who wrote (761)	1/10/2014 4:40:44 PM
From: average joe	Respond to of 926

Oct 28, 1905? en.wikipedia.org

To: Tom Clarke who wrote (761)	1/10/2014 5:06:03 PM
From: average joe	Respond to of 926

Family comes face to face with naked Witch Sunday, 12 July 2009 12:15 Editor News By Vincent Gono in Masvingo A Zimbabwean man was stunned to silence after he came face to face with a naked old woman - vampirically sucking his daughter's breast in the middle of the night, The Zim Diaspora can exclusively reveal. The shocking incident has left people in headman Masunda’s area, Chivi district, Masvingo dumbfounded and horrified. Although the case was not reported to the police, headman Chinodya Jongore Masunda confirmed the incident and said he presided over the matter at his community court last week. Headman Masunda told our correspondent during a visit to the district last week that the man claimed to have come face to face with the witch who then quickly vanished into the thickness of the night. The man, headman Masunda said, claims that his daughters were always complaining of breast pain and he decided to visit a prophet who gave him some holy water that he sprinkled in the house before they retired to bed. The holy water was meant to give him power to see the witch when she came into the house. They then went to sleep and at midnight the man claims to have seen the woman stark naked going into his children’s bedroom and he followed her. He claims to have seen the woman kneeling down sucking the breasts of his teenage girl who had allegedly been complaining of breast pain. The man claimed that he moved closer but the woman felt that something was wrong and she quickly got up and vanished into the dark night leaving the man stunned in horror. In the morning, headman Masunda said, the man got up early, took his axe and went to the forest where he cut a branch of a tree known in Shona as "chizhuzhu’’ that he took to the woman’s house and blocked the entrance to her kitchen. The headman told the our correspondent that the branch of the tree had a cultural significance that meant that the man was convinced that the woman was a witch. The headman said the man was therefore accusing the woman of witchcraft. The woman, however, was well aware of the significance of the branch of the tree that had been put by the man and reported the matter to the village head who in turn referred the case further to the headman’s court. Headman Masunda, however, said the man, despite talking with so much conviction, failed to prove his allegations when he was brought to the headman’s court and was charged for witchcraft accusation. He said the problem was that the man failed to catch the alleged witch in the act so this presented a problem to the court. He was initially asked to pay two beasts and 200 rand by headman Masunda’s court but leniency was exercised and the fine was reduced to a single beast and 200 rand. The headman said the man, who believes that he was being punished unjustifiably, had not yet paid anything. "It is true that there was such a case in my area that I presided over. The man, however, failed to prove his case against the woman and my court convicted him. He was alleging that he had so much faith in the prophet who gave him the holy water and was so convinced that he saw the woman kneeling and sucking the breasts of his teenage girl. Asked why he didn’t catch the woman, the man said the woman quickly vanished into the night after feeling his presence,’’ said headman Masunda. The traditional leader decried the increase in the number of prophets in his area saying it had led to an increase in the number of cases involving witchcraft accusations. Attempts by our correspondent to get a comment from the man were fruitless as he was said to have gone to Mashava. zimdiaspora.com