HoM || SUMMARY || Lesson 2

Witch-Hunts

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This lesson we talked about a dark part of our History. The witch hunts were no joke and it is a main cause for our split from the Muggle world.

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Most important information of this Lesson:

:sunny: In Europe and colonial North America witch hunts took place roughly from the 14th century until the 18th. In some regions it continued until the 20th century.

:sunny: Those found guilty of witchcraft were typically sentenced to death, often by being burned alive at the stake.

:sunny: Many Witches survived these persecutions because of the Flame-Freezing charm. A famous witch, known for surviving these burnings at least 47 times is Wendelin the Weird, she enjoyed the tickle-ish feeling of the fire.

:sunny: As the witch-hunts grew ever fiercer, British wizarding families began to live double lives, using charms of concealment to protect themselves and their families. By the seventeenth century, any witch or wizard who chose to fraternise with Muggles became suspect, even an outcast in his or her own community. Wizarding families were prone to losing younger , whose difficulty in controlling their magic made them noticeable to wary Muggles.

:sunny: Even if witches and wizards survived the burnings, they were still being chased.

:sunny: It is important you do not underestimate the heaviness of this subject. Some witches and wizards still lost their lives and a lot, and I mean A LOT, of innocent Muggles have lost their lives because of these burnings too.

:sunny: Scourers were a band of rogue wizarding mercenaries who operated in what would become the United States during the 17th century. Formed due to the lack of any form of wizarding governance and law enforcement in the New World, the Scourers began as a combination vigilante group and bounty-hunting service, tracking down both wanted criminals and anyone for whom a reward was offered. With time, they became increasingly corrupt and brutal, resorting to torture and murder.

:sunny: Some of their descendants, such as the Barebone family, acquired an intense hatred of all things magical. The Scourer descendant Bartholomew Barebone prompted a brief resurgence of witch hunting in the 1700s when he tricked the American witch Dorcus Twelvetrees into divulging many secrets of the wizarding world in America, including the locations of both Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and the headquarters of MACUSA, and used this information as well as the wand he stole from her to try and expose the existence of wizards.

:sunny: The Salem Witch Trials occurred in the settlement of Salem in colonial Massachusetts in 1692 and 1693 and resulted in the executions of twenty people accused of witchcraft, most of them women. 2 judges at the trials were claimed to be Scourers.

:sunny: For next lessons, bring warm coats and good shoes to walk in!

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