Some like to mention it's a common misconception that witches were burned in the colonies (it was usually hanging). However, they were burned in Europe. Not just women, but anyone who went against the church - including Giordano Bruno, who spoke about stars being suns, heliocentrism & reincarnation.
Giordano Bruno was a nut, and he got executed as a heretic largely because he kept pissing off the people who were putting him up. Don't try and make a scientific martyr out of him--it doesn't really square with reality.
When he was in the UK, he published a leaflet "anonymously" (except everyone could tell it was him) that basically called the intellectuals of England "morons" even though he was being hosted by some of the people he was roasting as morons.
I should also add, just because there is no record of burnings in the colonies, doesn't mean it didn't happen. Also, burnings actually DID happen in the states not all that long ago. Burnings of black people.
Those women endured unimaginable torture before they finally were either drowned, hung or burned.
Most trials were so difficult to pass that merely being accused would have sealed your fate.
Women who loved and healed animals, that would then naturally hang around the healer. Men could not understand how creatures could be tamed without brutal control. Sorcery😱
And hanged, and drowned, and stoned, and crushed to death, and mutilated, ad nauseum all to extend their power out from the castle-protected cities into the countryside where pagan healers still gathered their herbs and practiced their arts
Oh I totally agree. That's the root of the megalomania. But seriously, look at their fathers and tell me they were raised properly. One was an apartheid mine owner that married his daughter. One was a racist NY landlord that made his other son (Fred) kilm himself for being weak.
[...] that many men were burned as sorcerers or atheists as well and that secular authorities and lynch mobs did even more witch hunts than the Church, who became hostile to the phenomenon, unlike the urban bourgeoisie who found a way to exert and demonstrate its new and growing powers.
You know I’ve never thought of it like this. We always use the term burn witches when they were actually just burning women. So sick that we still talk about it like we do. Thank you for opening my eyes.
They were, but more men were “pressed” than hung or burned. Not sure why, I don’t recall there being an explanation. The men were standing up for the women, so it’s likely that for some of them that was their only “crime” but some were thought to worship the devil. No freedom of religion in MA 😆😆
Honestly there were a fair number of men burned for witchcraft, and that’s not counting ones burned for heresy.
The state will kill whichever dissenters they can, and that’s usually people who can be marginalized in all sorts of ways https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_executed_for_witchcraft
You might want to read up on the Spanish Inquisition, which actually occurred in most of Europe. All you had to do to end up tied to a stake in a bonfire was disagree with any official church doctrine. Didn't matter what sex you were.
And a little historical aside, those burned and persecuted were mostly from the generational "type" that is like today's GenXers and they were accused mostly by the generational "type" that is like today's Boomers.
Ever-blamed, never rewarded: the nomad generational archetype.
Strictly speaking, they burned heretics. Witchcraft was not punishable by burning unless the witch was convicted of heresy, that is, saying something that the Church did not agree with.
This is truly the attitude of the modern Trump cult, minus only the flames. We women have been fighting for respect and equality for generations. We made great progress and then got slapped back down. We are strong and determined and will win in the end! Right, ladies!
Consider this: who was considered and labeled a “witch” through history? Independent, loud, intelligent women. People who said no to the wrong man (or even yes to the wrong man). Healers, poor people, rich people, anyone who had something the govt wanted. Or who was in the way. Or weird. Or sick.
I consider the label to be a badge of honor, since many factors would have put me on the stake, too. And I’ll bet lots of people here fall under these categories, too.
There were villages in Germany that lost all their women either to this murderous rampage or because their women fled before getting killed. I’ve seen the torture devices used to get confessions or just keep women from speaking.
That's just one reason why I lost 'faith' in anything called religion many years ago. The sweet, kind, benevolent god of many tells us he/she controls 100% of everything that happens.....why does god then allow such pain, such cruelty, such crime, such hatred??? Kind of a rotten god I'd say.
Caveat it was on the behest of other women, it was mostly women that accused other women of being witch's the church just carry out unrealistic catch 22 tests to confirm
You missed my point completely. Also, if you know anything about history, burning witches was not exclusive to Massachusetts in your country. Go back to sleep
Yeah, sure. No, the targets of witch hunts were people on the outskirts of society who had no capacity to defend themselves. This is just a story you were told based on half-remembered propaganda after the 30 years war that got picked up in the 19th century.
It's 2025,where there are more guns than people.Republicans who are Traitors to America along w/ PutinsBiaatch45 forget that today, even women own guns & are NOT afraid to use them when necessary! So they can FAFO, if they threaten anyone who believes in Freedom,they will catch one to the head! NFA
It didn’t burn either. It hung them. And I don’t like to blame churches. That’s just a building. Assholes that use the bible as a tool to do bad shit hung women.
That and the interrogations were a bunch of torture that the women ended up admitting to be one just for the suffering to stop. Being off dead was better than enduring any more of the interrogation.
Being drowned was often also test and if you swim, you are a witch. If you drown u are not.
It is a perfect characterization of how Christian Nationalists and Trump went after Hillary Clinton in 2016, and Kamala Harris last year. The Salem Witch Trials was still fresh in the memory of people like Thomas Jefferson when the discussion turned to the separation of church and state.
Upset a woman rejected you? Call her a witch.
Upset a women you fancied married a other man? Call her a witch.
Upset the lady at the bakery didn't give you an extra load of bread? Call her a witch.
Angry a lady wouldn't cheat on her husband to sleep with you? Yep witch.
I believe in God & Jesus, and angels.
I DON'T believe in the church, its hell, and its intolerance.
I know several witches, and they're all great people, and a lot of church going "Christians" who are NOT.
Look at Trump's inner circle.
All "good" Christians.
I prefer the company of the pagans.
Our ancestors were neighbors, then! Mine was Anne Foster, who lost her husband then had one of her daughters murdered--and the preachers condemned her because she stopped going to church!
So is the Repub Party.
We have a very dangerous political "Dominionist" movement in this country.
Elon Musk is determined to replace our Constitutional Republic w/ mob rule/majority rule which will bring back "Witch Trials" w/ insane MAGA jurors instead of "due process".
Conspiracy theorist juries.
If you're talking Puritans, the punishment for witchcraft in English law, and hence the colonies, was not burning. If 'maleficium' was proven, it was hanging. Otherwise, imprisonment or other lesser punishment. Either way, not very nice, though!
Men were also persecuted as witches. 20 to 80% of executed as witches were men, depending on the area. I only said this because some people don't know this.
The church knew their enemy... Rationality and progress. Every bloody campaign they waged reflected that. None were justified, but the "witch" hunts were among the most corrupt and insensible.
You poor women have been abused by every religion in the world. You women need to stand back and get ready to destroy them. I'm sick of this cut their dick off now.
and there wasn't a real way to avoid it either
socializing "too much"? witch
being "too alone"? witch
not going to mass? witch
never ever missing mass? witch
the church wasn't actually the main perpetrator of witch hunts since they didn't really (for the most part) believe in them, most executions were town carried, so most accusations came from neighbors, family etc... it was usually towns hiring "finders" and not through the church
Remember the actual teachings of Jesus Christ here:
John 8:7 Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
This was to a group of Jewish people about to stone a woman to death for adultery. This all didnt start with Christians, and women were throwing stones too.
Based on what? Rome went Christian as a last attempt at some kind of united empire, yet even Diocletian realized it was too big. Hence the tetrarchy. Also, you had most folks observing it by then so having it in the pantheon made sense. The victory at the milvian Bridge only pushed things along.
Also, you have accounts of burnings of Christian martyrs from before the edict of Toleration. Yet the persecution was sporadic at best. At worst, they were a group you could go after if your crop failed. Christianity was called superstition then. Shoe was on the other foot later.
This is a great post . I have been awoken to the fact that the whole time I had stripped these women of humanity when through American indoctrination i called these events the witch burnings . When in all reality they were burning our Mother's, Aunts, and Sisters.
Don't forget the" float trials"
the "witch"was weighted down with rocks /chains &thrown into a lake
if she floated she was absolved & not a witch
the church ruled her soul would "go to heaven" as a consolation prize that allowed the community to sleep at night
Or some such stupid fuckingthing
Because this meme is wrong, based on vibes history. Unless we're talking about colonial America, in which case, sure. Then the meme is marginally accurate.
Yes, there were and still are male witches. The correct term for a male witch is witch. comes from old English wicce (pronounced witche, basically just an extra syllable at the end). Warlock has been misused for a very long time and has a different etymology. Witch is actually a gender-neutral term.
No. Not true. There is much more to this story then you are aware of. To understand why this was done, you have to study the flip side of the equation.
The [Catholic] Church never burned anyone for witchcraft. They burned people for being Jews, Muslims, or dissenters against dogma. The witch hunts were a Protestant thing.
That is Conservatism in a nutshell. Those that win “the war” rewrite history to support their injustices. Conservatives want you to fear everything, so you will seek their religions to save yourself. BUT, it will cost you money to be saved.
One of the many reasons I don't like organized religion. Don't get me wrong whatever floats your ship is fine with me, ALBEIT YOU DON'T HARM ANYONE OR FORCE YOUR BELIEFS ON THEM.
First, I am a devout Christian. But I bought my daughters the shirts. For me it's about being a true follower. Trump and his worshipers are NOT TRUE BELIEVERS.
It's important to remember in days like these that THE CHURCH actually BURNED PEOPLE ALIVE!!! Fuck the church, fuck them all. Burn down the churches!!!
I've known that rule for decades, but here's something I've never thought of: if you take a dead body and hang it, is it hanged or hung? (I'm persuaded that "First they hanged him, and then they took the body and hung it up." is a correct sentence.)
I believe you are correct due to the person/body becoming the object, rather than the subject, of your sentence.
Ex.-- The pirate hanged for his crimes. / To reinforce how pirates would be punished in the future, soldiers took the body and hung it near the pier for all to see.
Christians burned everybody. It was their go to spectacle for Christ. This was after they horribly tortured the person in incredibly painful ways to get them to confess. You know, for the love of Christ or what the fuck ever.
And…my grandfather told me when he was growing up in Maine -signs everywhere “Catholics” not allowed,
Priest tarred and feathered - yep early 1900’s America - yet the Federalist society -SCOTUS & Leo’s Bros have bought the country for cheap
Throwing them in the water was one test to see if a woman was a witch or not. If she drowned she wasn't a witch if she floated she was a witch. Women have always had impossible standards.
It wasn't out of fear. Mostly, it was about control. In England, for example, "witches" were midwives and healers, and the Church didn't want people going to them for aid. The Church wanted to be seen as the ultimate authority on all aspects of life and worship.
Didn’t stop until the persecutors were accused of being witches than it was a issue kinda like what’s going on now they voted for this imbecile and now he’s betraying all of them
So true! It’s not just Witches either, look at what the Catholic Church did to the Indigenous here in Canada. So many children died in residential schools😭😭😭
Awful, just awful! How can people be so evil, doing evil things that claim to be followers of God!
Intelligent, strong, compassionate leaders of community who exposed the bullshit of organized religion with the only law of the land... Nature. Those women ....
No cells back then.The spoken word survived in those that witnessed the Salem "Witch"Trials & burnings. Many historians went on to write of those atrocities against women. Indeed, it was a great need for some insecure men's desire for power & control. Unfortunately,not much has changed for women.
These were Conservatives raping, torturing, and murdering women, because the women knew more than white men, and in their simple little minds, these intelligent women had to be “Witches”, and so we must rape and burn them alive.
And one of the things that they knew, that men didn't, was that there's no such thing as witches. I agree with all the rest, but don't doubt their sincerity or idiocy.
Comments
Sounds like he was the bigger moron, to me.
But yes, mostly women and girls.
Most trials were so difficult to pass that merely being accused would have sealed your fate.
Women who were different, smart, maybe who didn't color inside the lines, neurodivergent ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_witch_hunts
Also, if you do some research, you will learn than many "witches" were denounced by jealous women rather than angry men [...]
I’m sure some men were burned too but not many if any!
The state will kill whichever dissenters they can, and that’s usually people who can be marginalized in all sorts of ways https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_executed_for_witchcraft
Ever-blamed, never rewarded: the nomad generational archetype.
Midwives.
Either way, they ended up dead.
Christianity, the religion of peace...
@fakehistoryhunt.bsky.social
I know that some were burnt alive. More were killed by hanging.
Being drowned was often also test and if you swim, you are a witch. If you drown u are not.
*
I think Trump is a witch.
I'd smirk, but it's not funny.
Upset a women you fancied married a other man? Call her a witch.
Upset the lady at the bakery didn't give you an extra load of bread? Call her a witch.
Angry a lady wouldn't cheat on her husband to sleep with you? Yep witch.
It makes me wonder how
I DON'T believe in the church, its hell, and its intolerance.
I know several witches, and they're all great people, and a lot of church going "Christians" who are NOT.
Look at Trump's inner circle.
All "good" Christians.
I prefer the company of the pagans.
Religion is poison. We can never, ever forget what was done to those people 💔
We have a very dangerous political "Dominionist" movement in this country.
Elon Musk is determined to replace our Constitutional Republic w/ mob rule/majority rule which will bring back "Witch Trials" w/ insane MAGA jurors instead of "due process".
Conspiracy theorist juries.
https://listverse.com/2018/05/19/10-horrifying-ways-americas-puritans-persecuted-the-quakers/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_burned_as_heretics
I hate Bliesky’s formatting of threads. Makes it so difficult to see what is linked to what.
I love Bluesky
socializing "too much"? witch
being "too alone"? witch
not going to mass? witch
never ever missing mass? witch
John 8:7 Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
This was to a group of Jewish people about to stone a woman to death for adultery. This all didnt start with Christians, and women were throwing stones too.
the "witch"was weighted down with rocks /chains &thrown into a lake
if she floated she was absolved & not a witch
the church ruled her soul would "go to heaven" as a consolation prize that allowed the community to sleep at night
Or some such stupid fuckingthing
we burn them"
MONTY PYTHON
They’ve always known women are superior so they have to physically control them.
They burned lots and lots and lots of men
#BurningWitches
- me
Ex.-- The pirate hanged for his crimes. / To reinforce how pirates would be punished in the future, soldiers took the body and hung it near the pier for all to see.
Woman
In
Total
Control of
Herself
They absolutely burned witches. They had brains.
Needless to say it was still done by “Puritan” men
Priest tarred and feathered - yep early 1900’s America - yet the Federalist society -SCOTUS & Leo’s Bros have bought the country for cheap
Not to make light of their vile behavior and hatred.
1 man in Salam Witch Trials didn't say Yes/No. This is bc the Salam couldn't proceed without an answer. They began to press him, him for a response.
Stoned him to death! Still said nothing. He did this so his kids would get $ not them. Only 1 to be stoned
Maybe you can use this? I’ve been using it for years.
Exceptionally:
In Iceland 90% were men, and in Finland 70%(convicted).
https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noitavainot#cite_note-15
Awful, just awful! How can people be so evil, doing evil things that claim to be followers of God!
May I use this image?
Thank you!🙏🏼
I was tour guide at the last place a “witch” got drowned in Scotland tho.
My flatmate arranged for the first Pagan chaplain at Glasgow Uni at the same time tho, so universe/the Fates are cool…
Conservatism Kills!!