Witchcraft and Witch Hunts in Early Modern Britain and America

During the early modern period, episodes of feverish witch hunts gripped both Britain and America.

In this interdisciplinary course, students explore three of the most infamous and well-documented witch crazes, specifically: North Berwick, Scotland in 1590; the multi-year campaign led by Matthew Hopkins (the self-styled Witchfinder General) across East Anglia during the period 1644-1647; and Salem, Massachusetts in 1692-93.

Panic and violence seemingly erupted out of nowhere, hundreds of individuals (overwhelmingly women) were accused, tortured, and executed in gruesome fashion.

Students examine the episodes but also dive into the pre-existing social and economic conditions as well as prevailing ideologies that undergirded these spasmodic hunts.

Students analyze a rich array of primary sources (including The Malleus Maleficarum (1486), King James I's best-selling book Daemonologie (1597), trial accounts, and images of witches, witchcraft, and executions) as well as recent scholarship and modern film and television adaptations to see how modern-day filmmakers have reimagined and retold the stories of witchcraft hysteria to a wide audience.