11/02/2024
Remember the Witches 31: Day 30
Belated but we're almost there! Robyn is back with that beautifully light catching face for day 30!
We've discussed the victims of the witch trials and how in almost all cases, they were innocent and blameless of their supposed crimes. While the persecution of women is bad enough, nobody was discriminated from suspicion, including children. In North America the youngest known accused was the 4 year old daughter of another accused. Dorothy would survive, but her life would never recover, even at only 4 years old. She moved from home to home, her Father found her ungovernable, she would have 2 children outside of marriage and was warned out of town as an adult. When children weren't directly arrested for being a witch, they were often used to manipulate into building the case of other witches. There's a record from 1525 of a European hunter who used two little girls to confirm and accuse more than 40 witches, some of whom were just teenagers. The hunter had over 40 "witches" hanged with the help of the two little girls he believe to also be witches, bargaining their own young lives for incriminating information on the others. Children could be jailed, beaten, accused and executed if found guilty of witchcraft no different than any adult. Accusations of children were also taken very seriously with regards to the witch hunts. Children could be considered witch hunters and we have many instances where children saw to the hanging of their own family. One instance of a child witch hunter in Europe saw a child have their sister, brother, mother and grandmother. In North America, the Salem witch trials all begun with charges of young girls from the town. Earlier than Salem In Sweden in the mid 17th century almost 40 children were executed as witches that we know of, the number is suspected to be higher. Historical context certainly accounts or a lot of it as teenagers were considered adult at a younger age, but children under 10 were still commonly accused and punished. Much like the adults, the children accused were largely comprised of girls and we can't imagine the terror they must have felt as small children ripped from their families. Our hearts and thoughts are with them as we remember them adn hope they have found peace.