In 1604, King James I of England, the same guy whose name is on English translations of the Bible, past his Witchcraft Act.
Under this act, the punishment for using witchcraft became hanging. Previously in England, this crime, entailed one year in jail. This act also associated witches with the devil and made any act of consorting with the devil a crime punishable by death.
But James went one step further. He is said to have changed the Bible. Where the text once read, "Thou shalt not suffer a poisoner to live," in his translation it says, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."
By the end of his reign, King James I had changed his mind about witches. After talking to a number of witnesses who admitted they had given false testimony and faked the physical ailments the accused witches had caused them, James I decided that witchcraft didnt exist.
Despite the change in his veiws, the law he had enacted remained in effect after his death in 1625.
The English witch trails of 1612, 1616, 1633, 1645 and 1649 were all prosecuted under this act, witch was finally repealed in 1736.
In 1692, America was still a British colony, and so lived under Britsh laws. King James I's Witchcraft Act of 1604 was used to prosecute the individuals accused of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts.
By the time the Salem witch scare was over, almost 150 people had been arrested an 31 people tried. Eventually, 19 people, 13 of them women, were hanged, and 1 old man was crushed to death with rocks. The five women who confessed to witchcraft at their trials were given reprieves. An additional two people died in jail.
Fourteen years after the trials, Ann Putnam, the youngest accuser, admitted that the people she had accused were innocent.
The terror that had engulfed Europe and New England simmerd down, and the last execution for witchcraft took place in Poland. But neither the faith nor the magick died out completely. Pratitioners of witchcraft stayed hidden and kept their knowledge and power secret.
