Research into Scottish Witchcraft in the 16th Century.

by 123bumblebee (student)

Witches, with broom sticks and black cats?

No! Witches as in 1500’s, people who were known for practising magic. Some cases say that they were seen flying and shape shifting but never brooms or black cats well anyway not Scottish witches’.

Ok so what make Scottish witchcraft different to other witchcraft?

Well compared the English, we used different techniques to the get accused witches to admit to their alleged crimes example are we never used the famous swim test and we never set them on fire but we still did use torture to get them to convince.

So what types of torture did we use?

Well we used many types like …….

. Sleep deprivation — seen as an effective way of getting confessions and is still used to day, when you don’t allow the accused to sleep a mental torcher rather than physical. Can last days, Hallucination can occur and is believed the person/s implying the torture convinced them in there hallucinations that they were all guilty.

. Thumb screw- the “witches” put there thumbs in a thumb screw and would be asked a question like have you ever practised witchcraft or have you ever met with the devil they would answer no and then they apply more pressure and repeat the question this would go on until they admitted or until all their fingers were smashed to pieces.

. The float test – yes similar to the swim test but ropes would be tied round there body’s (hardly used in Scotland) if they flouted they were guilty if they sank ...