Before J.K. Rowling begin smatter in the American history of witches , we had our own custom : Native American myths , the Salem Witch Trials , Bewitched , the 1970s revitalization , and the current phenomenon evidence a long tale of witch in America .
First , as in most cultures , the conceptions of witch and witchcraft have been around for a while in the North American region . The witch - like concept of cutis - walkers , oryee nahgloshii , comes from the Diné culture , or Navajo people . However , it can be unmanageable to find selective information about Native people ’ construct and histories of witchcraft , mostly because they ’re not very concerned in going into detail about it with people outside of the refinement . As Dr. Adrienne Keenewrote , “ These are not thing that want or should be discourse by outsiders . At all . I ’m sorry if that seems ' unfair , ' but that ’s how our cultures survive . ”
We do know a lot about American compound conceptions of witchery , if only because it led to a stack of drama and death . But in 1658 , predating the Salem Witch Trials , there wasElizabeth “ Goody ” Garlick , Long Island ’s Witch of Easthampton ( modern day East Hampton ) , who had been impeach by an ill 16 - class - old female parent right before the teenager die . The local magistrates — even then overwhelmed by the gossiping and pettiness of their constituent — deferred to Hartford , Connecticut ’s motor hotel ( at the time , Long Island had administrative tie-up to Connecticut ) . Luckily for Goody , the Governor of the dependency was John Winthrop , Jr. , who saw these accusations of witchcraft as simple community pathology — a point of view he carried throughout all the crone test he oversaw over the next decade .
Salem , Massachusetts , as we all know , was not so lucky between 1692 and 1693 . There have been several reasonscitedfor what take to the witchery hysteria — among them : colonists displaced by King William ’s War pour in from the north;ergot poisoningin the rye whiskey texture ; and Salem Village ’s first ordained minister , Reverend Samuel Parris , who the people of Salem generally thought of as esurient and rigid ( or , in mod twenty-four hour period parlance , a “ hardass ” ) .
So it was particularly fascinating when Parris ’s 9 - yr - old daughter Elizabeth and 11 - year - old niece commence experiencing contortions and fit , or “ fit , ” alongside another 11 - twelvemonth - old young lady . All three were pressed for why , and in turn of events blamed Parris ’s slave , a womanhood name Tituba ; Sarah Good , a homeless beggar ; and Sarah Osborne , a adult female who had a reputation for breaking social norm .
While the latter two char deny being witch , Titubamade up foreign , fascinating storiesthat captivated and go along with the lead questions call for by John Hathorne , the Salem town Justice Department who treat most of the townsfolk deposition .
All three were jailed , though Tituba was the only one who lived ; she was let out of prison house 13 months later . ( Osborne die in prison while Good was hang after give birth in prison ; her baby give-up the ghost before her dangling . ) Meanwhile , extra courts were put in place for these Salem crone trials , and nearly four months after the initial accusations , Bridget Bishop — who was known for her newsy nature and sleeping around — was the first person hanged as a witch . In all , 19 hoi polloi were hanged as witches — including John Proctor , who eventually became the protagonist of Arthur Miller’sThe Crucible — and one was pressed to death before the peculiar courts were disbanded and “ spectral grounds ” ( i.e. dreams and vision ) was no longer usable during trial .
The next time Wiccan were part of pop culture — beyond the condemning of the Salem Witch Trials — was in a much smaller context . In the early 1900s , when woman ’s magazines weregiving adviceon shake off Halloween parties , they were describing an chance for miscellaneous - gender courtship rituals . This entail making constituent of the holiday more palatable to the decade ’s New Woman , show witches as beautiful and tempting instead of terrifying and devilish .
The cute witch style continued into the 1960s withBewitched , a pop television set serial about a then - forward-looking - Clarence Day witch who adjudicate to live on as a suburban housewife . Before the show , the citizen of Salem were ashamed of the trials — to the point that no one would speak to Arthur Miller when he choke there to do research . But withThe Crucible ’s winner , andBewitchedfilming episodes on placement in Salem — including one where main character Samantha Stephens calls out the absurdity of the trials — the city experienced a resurgence , enough to boost the local economy through kitschy acknowledgement of the trial . This included , apropos , astatue of Elizabeth Montgomery , the actress who played Samantha onBewitched .
Around the same time in the 1960s , the independent feminist groupWomen ’s International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell , or W.I.T.C.H. , was founded . ( They also went by “ Women Inspired to Tell Their corporate story , " " Women concerned in tumble Consumer Holidays , " among other figure . ) They were interested in a women’s lib found on several methods of societal change , not just toppling the patriarchy , andviewed witchesas “ the first guerrilla fighters against women ’s oppression . " They disseminate their subject matter by carrying out hag - same promotional material stunts , such as protesting and “ hexing ” Wall Street , apply out garlic clove and cards that state “ We Are Witch We Are Women We Are Liberation We Are We ” at a eating house .
In the seventies , witch collectives start to gather and organize more openly . Dianic Wicca , or Dianic Witchcraft , found by Zsuzsanna Budapest and started on the Winter Solstice of 1971 , is unlike other Wiccan tradition in that it has women - only covens , and worship only a monotheistic goddess ( though it perceives goddesses of any culture just as other incarnation of the principal goddess ) . When asked about this during a 2007 audience , Budapest sound out , “ It ’s the instinctive law , as women fare so come the earthly concern , their tike , and that ’s everybody . If you lift up the women you have lift up humanity . human beings have to learn to uprise their own mysteries . Where is the order of magnitude of Attis ? Pan ? Zagreus ? Not only search it , but then popularize it as well as I have done . Where are the Dionysian rites ? I recollect men are indolent in this aspect by not working this up for themselves . It ’s their own chore , not ours . ”
In 1973 , theAmerican Council of Witcheswas establish and convened in April 1974 to draft a set of plebeian principle of Wicca and Witchcraft in America . Unfortunately , they disband that same year because they could not fit in for farseeing , though they did come up with 13Principles of Wiccan Belief(the first of which is , “ We practice ritual to attune ourselves with the natural rhythm of spirit force marked by the phases of the Moon and the seasonal Quarters and Cross Quarters ” ) , which is still used today . In fact , in 1978 , these principles were put into theU.S. Army’sReligious Requirements and Practices of Certain Selected Groups : A Handbook for Chaplains .
If we ’re go to search at a more advanced witch , we ’d want to turn to Alex Mar , author ofWitches of America , last October ’s cultural account of innovative witchcraft and Wicca in America . According to an articleshe write forCosmopolitan , “ Since the ' 80s , Pagans have been gathering in outdoor festivals and indoor hotel group discussion all around the land , sometimes in groups of a few thousand . And with the rise of the cyberspace in the ' 90s , vast networks have also spread online , making it that much easier for someone Craft - curious , in an area without a seeable Pagan comportment , to relate with a mentor in a chat room . ”
The cyberspace has also definitely changed witchcraft . It ’s become a base ofmodern women’s lib . It ’s lead to combat and discussion about thecapitalist usesof witchcraft , which take merchandising patch on Etsy . ( you could also find a goodwitchy gift ideaon the site , too . ) The websiteBroadly , in particular , has regular beldame news program aboutlocal covens , pagan festival , andguidesto fete the fall equinox .
What about the future of American witches ? Well , next class will seethe release ofBasicWitches : A Guide To muster Success , Banishing Drama and bring up Hell With Your Coven , by Jaya Saxena and Jess Zimmerman .
Suffice to say that witch have come a foresightful way in America .
A version of this clause was in the beginning published in 2017 and has been updated for 2022 .
