Thousands of women accused of witchcraft between the 16th and 18th centuries and later executed will receive official apology as well as pardons from the Scottish government. Majority of those women accused of witchcraft faced allegations including cursing the king’s ships, dancing with the devil and shape-shifting into birds or animals. These allegations caused ‘satanic’ panic at the time.
The Witchcraft Act was repealed three centuries ago and campaigns have been organized to win pardons as well as official apologies for over 3,837 people who were tried as witches out of which two-thirds were either burnt or executed.
The Witches of Scotland Group conducted a campaign which led to the passing of a member’s bill by the Scottish government to clear the names of all the accused. This is according to the Sunday Times newspaper.
This is not the first time that this has happened, in 2001 the Massachusetts House of Representatives in the United States of America declared the victims of the Salem witch trials innocent.
Between 1563 and 1736, Scotland made a hot pursuit of witches and during that period, the Witchcraft Act was enacted. Later it was repealed after a series of countrywide trials.
James VI of Scotland sanctioned the earliest witch-hunts and later James I of England and Ireland who believed that witches had made a spell on his Danish bride by summoning storms to sink his ships. In 1590 Geillis Duncan admitted under torture of being a witch and meeting the devil to destroy the king’s ships.
Agnes Sampson was also accused of being a witch, she confessed that over 200 women witnessed the devil preach at North Berwick on Halloween and during that meeting the king’s destruction was planned.
Other cases of witches include Lilias Adie who was accused of casting a spell to cause her neighbor to have hangover. In 1629, Issobell Young was executed in Edinburgh Castle. She had shape-shifted into an owl and she was also accused of having an assembly of witches.
At the time, witchcraft was a capital crime. Those who were convicted, they were strangled to death then burnt to leave no body for burial. Most of the accused confessed under torture which included pricking the skin using needles to find out whether the accused bled, sleep deprivation and pulling or crashing fingernails.
Now the Witches of Scotland have a website that states that signs associated with witchcraft such as pointed hats, broomsticks, black cats and cauldrons were also in the past associated with “alewives”. That is the women who brewed weak beer in order to deal with poor water quality.
The broomstick was a sign used to make people aware that beer was on sale while the caudron was used to brew the beer and the cat was used to control the number of mice and finally the hat was used to distinguish the beer brewers at the marketplace.
The Witches of Scotland campaign is led by Claire Mitchell QC, she stated that they are seeking pardons, national monument and apologies for the mostly women victims of witch-hunts in Scotland.
“Per capita, during the period between the 16th and 18th century, we [Scotland] executed five times as many people as elsewhere in Europe, the vast majority of them women,” Claire Mitchell QC told the Sunday Times.
“To put that into perspective, in Salem 300 people were accused and 19 people were executed. We absolutely excelled at finding women to burn in Scotland. Those executed weren’t guilty, so they should be acquitted.”
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In some parts of Africa, people are still lynching the alleged witches and wizards, the most recent examples happened in Kisii and Kilifi. The Kilifi one, the elderly pple are accused of being witches and burnt to pave way for inheritance of their properties! Sad ):