It depends on what you mean by "Witch". If you mean practitioners of what is called "folk magic", then there were lots of "Witches" in Salem. It was from our point of view a very superstitious time and belief in hexes, sympathetic magic, curses existed in all sections of society. But I would hardly call such beliefs a religion or anything much like modern Wicca.
What the Judges of the Salem Witch trials had in mind when they accused people of being Witches was not so much the practice of "folk magic" but of them being members of a counter church - the church of Satan. Basically in this mythos Witches were worshippers of Satan, members of counter church seeking to destroy Christianity and along with this belief came the idea of a pact with the Devil, the Witches Sabbat and of course sex with the Devil. Witches were members of a vast Satanic underground that sought to undermine Christianity etc.
What was the evidence of such a Satanic cult? Well basically nothing. Through torture, coercion and leading questions the Witch hunters built up the myth of the Satanic Church and Diabolic religion. The Salem Witch Hunters were heirs to this tradition and the results were tragic.
The Witch, Satanic religion basically never existed and was concoction of the Witch hunters devised from their fevered minds. Modern Wicca is indeed quite modern, based on surviving practices of "folk magic" and a whitewashed version of the diabolic religion conjured up by the Witch hunters.
As for any of the accused Witches judicially murdered at Salem. It is unlikely that any of them were Witches in the sense of being practitioners of a Witch religion. It is of course possible that some may have practised "folk magic". The trials themselves were farces even by late 17th century standards. The "evidence" against the witnesses a joke and the confessions basically worthless. I note that the authorities in Boston put a stop to the procedures and then ordered the remaining suspects freed. Further the entire episode became very quickly an embarrassing episode in memory. Those found guilty and executed were eventually exonerated, a bit late.
So it is very doubtful that any of the people executed in Salem was in fact a Witch at all.
Pacal, thanks for your input. I did try to put C17 into context for NotEvenWrong but was told to desist from 'a historical diatribe'. The thing is, whether we scoff or not, Wiccans take their beliefs very seriously indeed; for them it is a lifestyle, and they have outdoor Wiccan weddings, etc. We are tolerant of civil partnerships, but to deny that Witches are/were serious people is equally intolerant - and they have always been there throughout history (John Dee, Madame Blavatsky, Aleister Crowley, and even JJ Tolkein based his
Lord of the Rings on Finnish folk myth [
The Silmarillion]) Thus, it is not possible to say 'it is untrue any of the Salem defendants were witches'.
We have to remember that in 1620's-commencing early colonisation of the East Coast America, the first settlers were a mix of (a) venturists - company men, there to make money, (b) transported prisoners, (c) supporters of the executed Charles II - the losing Cavaliers against the puritan Roundheads (Oliver Cromwell himself banned all festivities, including Christmas) (d) other political dissenters, such as the Levellers (e) a huge military presence to fight off the French [the Redcoats] and, not least, (f) a very large body of Puritan Christians who came over over with the Mayflower. William Penn, an eminent Quaker (puritan) founded the famous Mason-Dixon line in Pennsylvannia, after which he was named (North and South Carolina being named after Charles, whose supporters were known as Carolinians - the latinised form of his name). In addition to all this, there were regular scuffles with the native Amerindians, who embarked on regular scalping raids on Georgetown (_?), one of the earliest towns, Virginia.
Thus the background of the Salem trials is within a landscape of great danger, Puritan priggishness and extreme austere values, kangaroo-style courts and a relatively barbaric community. Having had to leave their homeland in England under conditions of great persecution, yes, they were exceedingly paranoid about anyone not following their rigid codes of behaviour and faith.
To our C21 eyes, the Salem witch trials seems absurd and preposterous, and of course, the courts were not courts as we know them today.
So to ask, is it a judicial truth the witches tried at Salem were really witches, is not to ask a like-for-like analogy to the Kercher case.
For a start, no-one has accused Amanda of being a witch, apart from some barrister-style theatrical rhetoric from Patrick's counsel, Pascali (_sp?) who called Amanda a 'Lucifinera' she-devil. I doubt he meant it literally, but rather, as a metaphorical flourish.
