How to Kill a Witch: The Patriarchy's Guide to Silencing Women

The chapter opens with a portrait of Agnes Finnie, a woman who lived in mid-1600s Edinburgh and who described herself as a witch. A local healer with a famously rude bedside manner, she was nonetheless often sought out for help. When some of her patients began dying or growing sicker, the community turned on her, formally accusing her of witchcraft—likely in an effort to assign blame. Agnes was incarcerated for nine months before she was executed.

The authors spoke to a researcher named Judith Langlands-Scott to learn more about the process of being accused and what would follow. Judith’s focus is on the area of Forfar, which saw several spikes in witch hunts throughout the mid-1600s and following a period of civil unrest (due to an invasion), failing crops, and extreme cold. The authors also learned that accusations often began at “Kirk sessions,” or church meetings, where elders would bring “news” of witchcraft to the minister. Elders were often also court officers, which is how these accusations transferred from the church to the law. Judith proposes that many of these officers likely held grudges and used their positions of power to make false accusations.