Witchcraft in North America

The Cherokee have traditional monster stories of witches, such as Raven Mocker (Kâ'lanû Ahkyeli'skï) and Spearfinger (U'tlun'ta), both known as dangerous killers.[13][14]

Among the Cherokee, the medicine people are seen as a "priesthood caste",[11]^: 3 known to work together in groups to help the community. As in other Native communities, they are defined as the opposite of witches, who are seen as criminals,[11]^: 4-6

In contrast, the traditional Cherokee witch lives alone, eats alone (fearful of being poisoned), and commits heinous acts alone, surreptitiously under the cover of darkness. Jealous and hypersensitive by nature, the Cherokee witch lives in the ever-fearful grip of being publicly exposed.[11]^: 4-6

Cherokee healers have "doctored" dogs so the dogs can help them detect witches.[11]^: 4-6

As in the other tribes that have agreed to talk to anthropologists, witchcraft has been traditionally punished by death in Cherokee communities. In 1824 the western Cherokee passed new laws "forbidding the wanton killing of suspected witches",[11]^: 5 however, this attitude and retribution appears to have continued at the same rate in both the Cherokee and Creek communities throughout the 19th Century.[11]^: 5 In the twentieth century, many communities responded to allegations of witchcraft with mental health treatment, including medication. But despite changes in laws and perspectives, Kilpatrick (quoting Shimony (1989)) wrote in 1998 that one does still occasionally read about "the demise of a suspected witch in Native American communities" but that most of these deaths take place "only while the witch is in animal guise (by shooting) or by means of counter-witchcraft".[11]^: 4-6

The Hopi have many beliefs and concerns about witches and witchcraft.

To the Hopis, witches or evil-hearted persons deliberately try to destroy social harmony by sowing discontent, doubt, and criticism through evil gossip as well as by actively combating medicine men.[4]

Suspicious deaths are often blamed on witchcraft, with members of the community trying to figure out who might be a witch, and who might have caused the death or other misfortune.[4]

They are called popwaqt, the plural of powaqa, "witch" or "sorcerer." They are unequivocally evil, casting spells, causing illness, killing babies, and destroying the life cycle. They practice powaqqatsi, the "life of evil sorcery." The Hopis call them kwitavi, "shit people."

....

a witch is a person who kills close family relatives in order to prolong his or her own life by four years. By killing, I mean causing through occult means an unnatural death, such as stillbirth, infants dying of ordinary illnesses, or healthy adults suffering from strange illnesses. Witches are also the occult cause of unusual circumstances, such as hailstorms on a sunny day, extreme drought, or people suffering bad fortune.[4]

There are several varieties of those considered to be witches by the Navajo. The most common variety seen in horror fiction by non-Navajo people is the yee naaldlooshii (a type of 'ánti'įhnii),[15] known in English as the skin-walker. They are believed to take the forms of animals in order to travel in secret and do harm to the innocent.[15] In the Navajo language, yee naaldlooshii translates to 'with it, he goes on all fours'.[15] Corpse powder or corpse poison (Navajo: áńt'į́, literally 'witchery' or 'harming') is a substance made from powdered corpses. The powder is used by witches to curse their victims.[5] Traditional Navajos usually hesitate to discuss things like witches and witchcraft with non-Navajos.[16] As with other traditional cultures, the term "witch" is never used for healers or others who help the community with their ceremonies and spiritual work.[12]

Photograph of the Old State House, Hartford, Connecticut, that was built in 1796. This was the site of Meeting House Square, possibly where Alse Young was hanged.

Alse Young was the first person on record to be executed for witchcraft in Colonial America. She was a resident of Windsor, Connecticut, and was hanged at a meetinghouse. Alse would be the first of many more who were condemned in Colonial America for witchcraft.[20]

There was a woman who claimed to have seen her dead baby in a dream and was accused of witchcraft and ultimately killed.[21] Connecticut's witch trials were among the first trials in New England, but often get overlooked by the more numerous and publicized trials that occurred after. Connecticut had over 40 witchcraft cases which resulted in 16 executions. Witchcraft in early colonial America was never overlooked because those who participated were thought to have an agreement with the devil, therefore choosing him over God and obtaining supernatural powers.[22]

Alleged witches being accused in the Salem Witch Trials

In 1645, Springfield, Massachusetts, experienced America's first accusations of witchcraft when husband and wife Hugh and Mary Parsons accused each other of witchcraft. At America's first witch trial, Hugh was found innocent, while Mary was acquitted of witchcraft but sentenced to be hanged for the death of her child. She died in prison.[23]

In 1648 Margaret Jones (Puritan midwife) was the first person to be executed for witchcraft in Massachusetts Bay Colony. From 1645 to 1663, about eighty people throughout England's Massachusetts Bay Colony were accused of practicing witchcraft. Thirteen women and two men were executed in a witch-hunt that lasted throughout New England from 1645 to 1663.[24] The Salem witch trials followed in 1692–93. These witch trials were the most famous in British North America and took place in the coastal settlements near Salem, Massachusetts. Prior to the witch trials, nearly three hundred men and women had been suspected of partaking in witchcraft, and nineteen of these people were hanged, and one was "pressed to death".[25]

Despite being generally known as the Salem witch trials, the preliminary hearings in 1692 were conducted in a variety of towns across the province: Salem Village (now Danvers), Salem Town, Ipswich, and Andover. The best-known trials were conducted by the Court of Oyer and Terminer in 1692 in Salem Town.[26][27] The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1692–93.

In Maryland, there is a legend of Moll Dyer, who escaped a fire set by fellow colonists only to die of exposure in December 1697. The historical record of Dyer is scant as all official records were burned in a courthouse fire, though the county courthouse has on display the rock where her frozen body was found. A letter from a colonist of the period describes her in most unfavourable terms. A local road is named after Dyer, where her homestead was said to have been. Many local families have their own version of the Moll Dyer affair, and her name is spoken with care in the rural southern counties.[28]

Margaret Mattson and another woman were tried in 1683 on accusations of witchcraft in the Province of Pennsylvania. They were acquitted by William Penn after a trial in Philadelphia. These are the only known trials for witchcraft in Pennsylvania history.

Some of Margaret's neighbors claimed that she had bewitched cattle.[29] Charges of practicing witchcraft were brought before the Pennsylvania Provincial Council in February 1683 (under Julian calendar).[30] This occurred nineteen years after the Swedish territory became a British common law colony and subject to English Witchcraft Act 1604.[31] Accused by several neighbors, as well as her own daughter in law, Mattson's alleged crimes included making threats against neighbors, causing cows to give little milk,[32] bewitching and killing livestock and appearing to witnesses in spectral form. On February 27, 1683, charges against Mattson and a neighbor Gertro (a.k.a. Yeshro) Jacobsson, wife of Hendrick Jacobsson, were brought by the Attorney General before a grand jury of 21 men overseen by the colony's proprietor, William Penn. The grand jury returned a true bill indictment that afternoon, and the cases proceeded to trial.[30] A petit jury of twelve men was selected by Penn and an interpreter was appointed for the Finnish women, who did not speak English.[33] Penn barred the use of prosecution and defense lawyers, conducted the questioning himself, and permitted the introduction of unsubstantiated hearsay.[32] Penn himself gave the closing charge and directions to the jury, but what he told them was not transcribed. According to the minutes of the Provincial Council, dated February 27, 1683, the jury returned with a verdict of "Guilty of having the Comon Fame of a Witch, but not Guilty in manner and Forme as Shee stands Endicted."[32][34]

Thus Mattson was found guilty of having the reputation of a witch, but not guilty of bewitching animals. Neither woman was convicted of witchcraft. "Hence the superstitious got enough to have their thinking affirmed. Those less superstitious, and justice minded, got what they wanted."[35] The accused were released on their husbands' posting recognizance bonds of 50 pounds and promising six months' good behavior.[36][30]

A popular legend tells of William Penn dismissing the charges against Mattson by affirming her legal right to fly on a broomstick over Philadelphia, saying "Well, I know of no law against it."[32] The record fails to show any such commentary, but the story probably reflects popular views of Penn's socially progressive Quaker values.[37]

Accusations of witchcraft and wizardry led to the prosecution of a man in Tennessee as recently as 1833.[38][39][40]

Colonial Virginia seemed a scary place that held spirits in its dark forests.[41] When the colony's English settlers first came to the New World, they believed strongly in the devil's power. They believed Virginia Indians to be devil worshippers and were accusing one another of practicing witchcraft.[18] Witchcraft in Virginia was less common compared to neighboring states, but nevertheless, evidence still shows that over two dozen trials were still taken place between 1626 and 1720.[18] Judges were even administering water tests in order to find out if the accused were actually guilty or not. Records even show that the last witchcraft trial that took place on the mainland colonies happened in Virginia around 1730. Since then, the trials that occurred in Virginia are often forgotten as a key aspect of witchcraft in Colonial America.