Couldn’t make it. Scottish witches get pardon.

PlayYouLikeAShark well said.

The figure of 4,000 out of a population of 1 million is popping up. Over the entire period the average figure would be just over 19 out of a population of 1 million.

Obviously 19 too many but to try to equate that to "generational trauma" is absurd.

"Generational trauma because witchcraft accusations were often made when a man wanted to take inherited land/wealth from a woman. So there are family lines which were driven into poverty that have been deprived of wealth which would have been handed down through generations. There are people who don't exist today who would have existed had people not been murdered.

There are people who were tortured and forced to accuse family members who were then murdered and those hurt people raise hurt people who raise hurt people.

Is this actually the feminism board?"

Sorry but this is bollocks. You are mapping a framework from other significant historical events onto this & extrapolating just made up nonsense. Scottish society now isn't scarred by this. Families aren't riven with the impact of this. The fact you have to imagine what 'generational trauma' actually could be as opposed to any evidence of the impact on women today or wider society today illustrates this. Burning witches was a brutal representation of extreme hatred & dehumanisation of women when it occurred but hatred towards women today doesn't stem from burning witches.

This is the feminist board & we don't need to make up utter nonsense to make a point.

Generational trauma from slavery or the holocaust is easily demonstrated & understood. Appropriating that terminology in this instance is crass & pretty poor taste. We can all learn more about Scottish women accused of being witches & the brutal treatment they were subjected to without trying to invent a 'generational trauma' that doesn't exist.

Sorry that was a quote fail

The campaign and podcast actually uses a lot of the research carried out by Edinburgh University. They also speak to historians etc it's very well researched. When I talk about deprivation of land and wealth I don't mean by the witch hunters or the state. Witch Hunters were true believers. I mean that when women of means were accused they were often accused by men who would benefit from their death, eg a brother, uncle or inlaw.

The podcast covers a lot of individual cases where details exist and goes into more of an explanation of why people were accused.

That link is really interesting @KimikosNightmare and I've just read it. But, ya know, so what? The numbers were slightly lower, their wealth wasn't a factor - great. I still care. I'm still raging. I still support the campaign. I'm from East Lothian and I know witch-hunting was used as a method of control for generations. I suspect you're using it in a 'calm down dear' fashion, which is unlikely to succeed round these parts.

As for loss of land and wealth , please read this analysis by Edinburgh University

www.shca.ed.ac.uk/Research/witches/introduction.html

I think you can recognise this is a campaign with merit and that those women (and some men) deserve to be pardoned while still saying that the SNP are harming women today.

www.shca.ed.ac.uk/Research/witches/introduction.html

I didn't know this had not come from the government. That does put a different complexion on it. It would be good if the government could actually think about the current parallels.

I'm actually finding this thread quite hard to read. I know ScotGov and its enforcers are actively taking part in witch-hunts today so I get the hypocrisy. But this isn't a ScotGov campaign. This is a passion project led by two women who care about a historical wrong. They care that approximately 4,000 women were killed because of land, or sex, or just because. And yes, of course there was generational trauma - people's mums, grans, aunts, sisters were killed and everything they owned was taken from them.

4000 people out of a pop of around 1 million is a lot of people.

Yes, it's an easy tick for the govt. Pinkwashing, if you will. But this is our history and too few people know it. Obvs I don't need to draw the parallels for posters on this board! But none of that that shouldn't take away from celebrating the work of two women who have campaigned tirelessly for years on this issue

It all comes back to virtue signalling.

It is massively hypocritical given the witch hunt being visited on Scottish women today by the SNP and the police.
Totally agree about the loss of land and property down the generations and the terrible trauma to families.
I often wonder about this wrt the raging against historical slavery (which was terrible, but it happened and we should all learn) and the apparent lack of concern about modern slavery and trafficked women (see Holbeck in Leeds) right now.
Interestingly, if women had had the vote, slavery would have ended decades before it actually did., there is lots of evidence for this in the writings of women of the time, many of whom, of course, could not publish. William Wilberforce's bill depended solely on the votes of men.

The history of witchcraft is fascinating and grim, and undoubtedly a useful subject to study for the parallels between misogyny now and then. We could do well to look at mob rule, the use of religion and state power and superstition as well as various other aspects of the time.

But revisionism and sentimental indulgence is absurd. That wouldn't matter so much if it didn't actually distract from the injustices and absurdities happening today in the name of 'the right side of history'.

I'm sure the 'witches' are greatly relieved to have been pardoned. I looked into some of these a while ago just out of interest and a lot of it was people with an axe to grind against neighbours or even ministers against parishioners.

there are family lines which were driven into poverty that have been deprived of wealth which would have been handed down through generations. There are people who don't exist today who would have existed had people not been murdered.

Are you actually suggesting reparations for people who don't exist?!

There are people who were tortured and forced to accuse family members who were then murdered and those hurt people raise hurt people who raise hurt people.

Is this actually the feminism board?

"the very real wrong perpetrated against women and the generational trauma this caused"

Can someone explain this 'generational trauma' here? This makes zero sense to me & is very meaningless 'sound bite' language, inappropriate & frankly bizarre

It's completely meaningless.

"the very real wrong perpetrated against women and the generational trauma this caused"

Can someone explain this 'generational trauma' here? This makes zero sense to me & is very meaningless 'sound bite' language, inappropriate & frankly bizarre.

I mean, burning or drowning women is quite obviously a 'real wrong' on the basis of them being accused of witchcraft or whatever. That's a 'no shit Sherlock' statement that requires no campaigning whatsoever. But 'generational trauma'? Seriously?

SNP are engaging in a feminist version of greenwashing. Commit publicly to something feminist that in practice requires no change in your current extremely unfeminist activity.

Witchwashing.

I think the campaign is a good thing- it gets the witch trials back in the news. You’d be surprised how little history some people know.

Yes, the hypocrisy of it is...interesting.

An interesting account of the last Scottish Witch to be burned, nearly 300yrs ago, before Culloden. There were many injustices that would get the death sentence in those days or transportation into slavery which amounted to the same thing.

www.spookyisles.com/janet-horne/