Witch-hunt

A witch-hunt is a search for people believed to be witches, individuals allegedly possessing supernatural powers that can damage others. Although belief in witchcraft and witch-hunts occur all over the world, in Europe the history of witch-hunting is usually limited to the early modern period, the "classical period of witch-hunting", when thousands of people where accused of witchcraft and executed as a result of fear, panic and organised persecution. The North-American witch-trials of Salem at the end of the 17th century were on a lesser scale but the trials were triggered by the same mechanics of fear and mass hysteria. In another modern sense, the term witch-hunt is used to describe the persecution of individuals or groups who after creating a climate of panic are discredited and accused of crimes against society. The best known example is probably the McCarthyist search for communists during the Cold War. Other contemporary witch-hunts occur in many African societies where the fear of witches causes periodic witch-hunts during which specialist witch-finders identify suspects, after which they often are put to death by a mob.

Witch-hunts in Early Modern Europe: 1500-1800

In early modern Europe there were two different concepts of witchcraft: the popular belief in witches and the intellectual concept of witchcraft that involved Satan and nocturnal meetings called Sabbaths.