To think it is time to quash all convictions for all convicted witches in the UK

[duvetcovereddissident]

Around 3500 executions, and many thousands more tortured and convicted after "confessing" - more than 90% of them women. Most of these in the 1600s.

These are women convicted on evidence such as loving their cats, and having hairy chins.

AIBU to say all these convictions should be quashed. It would have mattered to those who were convicted, and it matters as an illustration of the way our country has treated women, and still does, in allowing these convictions to stand.

The word you are looking for is exonerated.
I think it’s a pointless waste of time and virtue signalling nonsense.
It’s not going to make any difference to women murdered 400yrs ago that we are saying now, oops you were innocent. They knew that already.

It’s a dark bit of our history changing legal records just sound very whitewashing. What’s next? Change all the records showing the sales of slaves to retroactively free them when it’s centuries too late?

Not quite, they only issued an apology. I remember rolling my eyes when Nicola offered the apology, Russia had just invaded Ukraine and there were fierce battles reported all over the news and she had nothing better to do than this.

You say (and I agree) that we know there are no such things as witches. But hundreds of women on this site believe that there are! Look at the number of people on threads over the years that have said they have been to visit "white witches". And fortune tellers, psychics, etc.

Why do you think it'll make any difference to them?

No idea why people want to rewrite far off history

And everyone knows they were innocent women anyway

Witch trials are one option on A level syllabi now; it's an increasingly popular theme of novels; someone (sorry can't recall who) has recently written a really interesting sounding book, reviewed in the Times about how the "Karen" thing is the 21st century version of witches, the demonisation of powerful, or at least capable, confident women over 25. Why don't we invest resources in eradicating that? Over on another thread, I and a few others have been battling a really unpleasant little man about the fact that single mothers are by and large screwed over and demonised. I'd love to see more light shone on that than a 400 year old issue that there's no real debate over.

Clear their name? Who the hell do you think believes they're actually guilty?

Utter waste of money even if they could do it for £10

Witches do exist. Witch comes from Wicca, and Wiccan is a religion in which its practitioners call themselves witches. They often say “white witch” to let the ignorant know that just like Glinda in Oz, white witches are GOOD, not evil.

Well, speaking as a card carrying hedgewitch, most other witches I know don't give a rat's arse about 'pardons', we just potter on under the wire the way we've always done for generations.

The ones over the wire are probably Gardnerians (Gerald Gardener devotees) the nouveau cult that came into being when witchcraft was decriminalised in 1951 in England. Total nutters.

However, that aside, I'm more concerned about Bible thumping christians who believe every word and base their lives on its 'teachings'. I've had some very interesting chats with them on how far they'd be willing to go with Exodus 22:18. Don't worry about looking it up, it's 'suffer not a witch to live'. :-)

I don't think that convictions for witchcraft from the 1600s should be quashed.

The witchcraft trials are an important part of our history, and serve as a reminder of the misogyny and horrors that women have faced.

Women's rights have come a long way since then, but not far enough, and we need to remember how far we have come, in order to progress.

Although there were men accused of Witchcraft, the vast majority were women.

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/histories/eight-witchcraft-myths/

People who can do magic don’t exist. Some people like to call themselves witches because it floats their boat. I could call myself a unicorn but it wouldn’t make me a horse with a magical horn. Because unicorns, and real witches, don’t exist.

I agree. The word witch is derived from the word wicca which also has roots in the word wizard and the word wise.
Witches do exist in the pagan tradition. A witch is a wise woman who is in tune with and worships nature. Unfortunately the word has been associated with satanism and devil worship (probably started back in 1600s), mainly by men who wanted to control and manipulate in the name of religion.

OP I see what you’re saying and I think it would be lovely but like others have said, there are probably more prsssing matters. I think some of us really feel the ‘witch wound’ (misogyny) more than others though so I can see how you feel so passionately about this x

You do realise you’re insulting people’s religion now don’t you? AFAIK Unicorn isn’t a religion.

I meant to also say that they were wise women or healers using what herbs and plants they had at their disposal in mainly rural parts of the UK/world at a time when only rich people had a physician and at a time when medicine as we know it didn’t exist. In some ways this was/is seen as ‘magic’ as often times in worked. They didn’t go around claiming to be able to perform magic, they just gained that reputation over time. It was very misunderstood.

Thousands?

Most were never formally tried by a jury or magistrate. It was mob justice. The Monty Python skit is pretty accurate tbf.

Many of them would have gone to their deaths in the hope that their names would one day be cleared.

The last thing on my mind if I had been tortured to confession and knew I was going to a painful death would be hoping my name would be cleared one day.

There is no benefit to this and much more important things to focus on. Why do you have an interest in this particular niche subject area?

Then there's no formal conviction to be quashed and nothing for government to apologise for.

The Monty Python skit is bloody funny though 😂

I shouldn't laugh but

Exodus 22:18 ‘s original text was “You shall not let a sorcerer live”

The “Wicca” then “witch” bit was added in later translations in this part of the Christian dominions to wipe out the remnants of the pagan Wiccan religion by claiming it was linked to dark magic from Satan.

As a pagan I have experienced discrimination and prejudice which is rooted from the historical Christian persecution of witches. I think it would mean a lot to the families of the women convicted and it would also mean a lot to the growing number of pagans, wiccans and druids in this country.

That was very clever of them since the Wiccan religion only dates from the 1950s!

The modern version yes, but it is a reinvention of an older pagan religion based on the remnants that survived. The word Wicca is actually Old English of Anglo-Saxon origin and “Wicca” referred to practitioners of this pagan religion. They were falsely accused of practicing magic/sorcery.

Not read the whole thread so sorry if already covered but the Scottish Parliament pardoned all Scottish witches and apologised last year.

I though it was a bit pointless but hey ho.

With pointing out though that witches don't actually exist.

These were all innocent women who were killed.