Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The most notable witch trial that occurred in colonial Virginia is the case of Grace Sherwood of Princess Anne County, the only Virginia woman to have ever been found guilty of witchcraft. In 1698, her neighbors first accused Sherwood of having “bewitched their pigs to death and bewitched their Cotton [crop]”.
[8] [9] A 24-member jury was convened, and the witch trial heard testimony from numerous county residents. [10] [11] All records regarding his charges have been lost. [12] [13] [14] On November 20, 1656, Harding was found guilty of the charges, sentenced to 13 whip lashes, ordered to pay all court costs, and formally banished from the county.
A Virginia witch trial loosely based on the story of Joan Wright is featured in a 2017 episode of the British drama television series Jamestown. [19] In 2019, an original play, "Season of the Witch" premiered at the Jamestown Settlement. The play is a dramatic retelling of the witch trials in Virginia, with a focus on the story of Wright. [20]
The Malleus Maleficarum, or The Witches’ Hammer, is published as a treatise on the persecution of witches. For over two centuries, it serves as the definitive guide to catching, identifying, torturing and killing witches.
Grace White Sherwood (1660–1740), called the Witch of Pungo, is the last person known to have been convicted of witchcraft in Virginia.. A farmer, healer, and midwife, she was accused by her neighbors of transforming herself into a cat, damaging crops, and causing the death of livestock.
Beyond black hats and broomsticks, here's what to know about witches, witchcraft, spells, magic, covens, Wiccans and beyond. Learn about the facts and history.
Puritan pilgrims carried these beliefs to the American colonies, and during the hysteria over witchcraft in the 1500s and 1600s, black cats were feared and vilified, believed to be witches in ...
In 1648 Margaret Jones 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. [30]