Witch-hunt in Scottish society - Speech or Presentation Example

As such, when a new team of leaders took office in the 1649-1650, whereby the new leader Kirk Party attempted to clean out all the sorcery and witchcraft within the society by making it a godly state, these witches faced total extermination (Davies & De Blecourt, 2004: P.150). Any witch identified within the society was brought to court for judgment, and killed through hanging if found guilty. He therefore ordered a continuous hunt for all witches, and those found faced judgment and prosecution at ad hoc courts (Dingwall, 2003: P.78). Most of these witches who found guilty died in the hands of their prosecutors.

These ad hoc courts eliminated most f the witches found because they did not have any lawyers to defend them at these hearings. This was the Great Scottish Witch Hunt, which occurred between the periods of 1649-1650, consisting of a number of witch trials across the land of Scotland. This is among the five major witch-hunts identified within the country in the modern days of Scotland that recorded the largest volumes of executions within a single year (Ewan and Nugent, 2008: P.49). This paper covers the events that took place during this witch-hunt period, the effects of these events as well as the challenges and successes recorded at the culmination of these events.

A number of resources deal with this topic on the witch-hunt period in Scotland (Goodare, 2002: P.15). However, most of them are not clear as to what exactly happened, i.e. not all of them give a clear account of events as they happened after the radical Kirk party took leadership and empowered the Presbyterians church leaders to hunt out for witches within the community and bring them to justice. This is because they felt these witches and wizards were the main cause of calamities and suffering within the community (Graham, 2008: P.160). One single author by the name Brian Levack produced a complete count of events on the witch-hunt period of the Scottish land, especially dealing with the concepts of law, religion and politics that in one way or another propelled these activities (Henderson, 2008: P.179). In addition, the author covers on some topics the reasons why witchcraft was so widespread in the society, as well as the effects of these black-magic activities on the land (Larner, 1981: P.32). However, there are other sources, though skeptical in a way, that cover the topics raised on witch-hunt in the Scottish land.

These topics cover a few concepts on the occurrences during this period as well as put across a clear account on all events that occurred during the period (Levack, 2008: P.92). As such, it was very challenging to conduct this research especially because no single book, article, or journal covered conclusively all the events that took place during the Scottish witch-hunt (MacDonald, 1997: P.358). Most of these resources only provided sketchy topics on the events, or a particular opinion of an individual, which might not necessary portray the real factors the led to or caused the events under consideration (Notes and Comments, 2002: P.240). Furthermore, they do not provide the effects of these ad hoc court trials, especially since the accused did not get an opportunity to plead their case.

They only chance they have to exonerate themselves from the accusations placed against them were to provide proof of their lack of participation in these activities (Toivo, 2008: P.67). However, this led to even more bloodshed in the society as these accused witches pointed out on their friends and other counterparts, which expanded the witch-hunt in Scotland (Whatley,