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witches

woodcut of a witch feeding animals
Animals

Remember Rutterkin? Witch’s Familiars, Religious Reformation, and Sexy Beasts in Early Modern Europe

Toads, dogs, cats, ferrets, rats, and occasionally even butterflies were depicted in the 16th and 17th centuries as “witch’s familiars” throughout Europe. A servant of the witches, whose purpose was to help them stir up trouble and cause harm in their enemies, familiars were particularly important in English witch lore. Read more…

By Averill Earls, 9 months9 months ago
Scene in Longfellow's play "Giles Corey of Salem Farms" showing Rev. Cotton Mather encountering Tituba in the woods, as Mather travels to Salem Village to investigate the witchcraft accusations.
Bad Women

Tituba, The “Black Witch” of Salem

Anyone who’s read or seen Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible likely remembers Tituba, the enslaved woman who sets off the 1692 witch panic in Salem, Massachusetts. In literature and history, she’s been depicted as both a menacing Barbadian voodoo queen and a Black feminist touchstone. Who was the real Tituba? Read more…

By Sarah Handley-Cousins, 1 year1 year ago
W.I.T.C.H. counterprotesters
Witches

WITCH: Women’s International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell

On a brisk autumn day in New York City, 1968, roughly 13 women spent the morning of October 31st dressing in black cloaks and dresses. They stuck feathers, leaves, and furs in their long hair.  One woman grabbed her enormous hat, roughly in the shape of a costume witch hat, Read more…

By Elizabeth Garner Masarik, 2 years1 year ago
Henry Fuseli, The Three Witches Appearing to Macbeth and Banquo | Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons
Witches

“Wicked Practises and Sorcerye”: Cunning Folk, Witch Trials, and the Tragedy of Joan Flower and Her Daughters

In 1618, the Earl of Rutland and his wife accused three women of bewitching their family. They believed that bewitchment was the cause of death of their first son, and the long-term illness of their second. The women in question were former servants of their household at Belvoir Castle near Read more…

By Averill Earls, 2 years1 year ago
Witches

Both Man and Witch: Uncovering the Invisible History of Male Witches

Since at least the 1970s, academic histories of witches and witchcraft have enjoyed a rare level of visibility in popular culture. Feminist, literary, and historical scholarship about witches has shaped popular culture to such a degree that the discipline has become more about unlearning everything we thought we knew about Read more…

By Marissa Rhodes, 2 years1 year ago
A woodcut of a witchy looking woman holding two tankards of ale
Creepy, Occult & Otherworldly

Witches Brew: How the Patriarchy Ruins Everything for Women, Even Beer

An old woman with a pointy hat, cauldron, broom, cat, and smelly brew? Why, she must be a witch! This tableau has titillated and thrilled and terrified Europeans and Americans for centuries. But this woman is not communing with the devil or cursing her neighbors. She’s not even making herbal Read more…

By Averill Earls, 4 years2 years ago
A painting of many small, ominous fairies with small horses carrying off a changeling child
Crime

A Changeling or His Wife? The Brutal Murder of Bridget Cleary in 1895 Ireland

After Michael Cleary murdered his wife Bridget Cleary, he wandered the Tipperary countryside in his best suit, telling everyone he met that he was going to reclaim her from the fairies. Three nights he waited for her to come out of the local fairy fort – the ring of stones Read more…

By Averill Earls, 5 years1 year ago
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Top Posts & Pages
  • Puritan Sex: The Surprising History of Puritans and Sexual Practices
    Puritan Sex: The Surprising History of Puritans and Sexual Practices
  • Photos of the Dead: Victorian Postmortem Photography and the Case of the Standing Corpse
    Photos of the Dead: Victorian Postmortem Photography and the Case of the Standing Corpse
  • Selling Sex: 19th Century New York City Prostitution and Brothels
    Selling Sex: 19th Century New York City Prostitution and Brothels
  • Women, War and Bananas
    Women, War and Bananas
  • The Demonologist and the Clairvoyant: Ed and Lorraine Warren, Paranormal Investigation, and Exorcism in the Modern World
    The Demonologist and the Clairvoyant: Ed and Lorraine Warren, Paranormal Investigation, and Exorcism in the Modern World
  • Rebel Slaves and Resistance in the Revolutionary Caribbean
    Rebel Slaves and Resistance in the Revolutionary Caribbean
  • Tituba, The "Black Witch" of Salem
    Tituba, The "Black Witch" of Salem
  • Marie Laveau: The Voodoo Queen and the Laveau Legend
    Marie Laveau: The Voodoo Queen and the Laveau Legend
  • Dancing Toward Wounded Knee: The Hope and Tragedy of the Ghost Dance Religion
    Dancing Toward Wounded Knee: The Hope and Tragedy of the Ghost Dance Religion
  • Both Man and Witch: Uncovering the Invisible History of Male Witches
    Both Man and Witch: Uncovering the Invisible History of Male Witches
Copyright

This podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. For permission to publish any Dig: A History Podcast or History Buffs Podcast episodes in whole or in part, contact the Executive Producer at hello@digpodcast.org

© 2015-2035 DIG: A HISTORY PODCAST.

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topics
18th century 19th century 20th century history 20th century history abortion America American history APUSH birth control black history british empire british history buffalo christianity civil war colonialism death early modern early modern europe eugenics European history gender history of childhood history of medicine histsex imperialism ireland local history medicine military history native american history new york politics race religion Religious history science sex sexuality slavery US history western new york women's history women's rights world history
Copyright

This podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. For permission to publish any Dig: A History Podcast or History Buffs Podcast episodes in whole or in part please contact the Executive Producer at hello@digpodcast.org

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