Claire Mitchell

HOW TO KILL A WITCH: A Guide For The Patriarchy Claire Mitchell

As a woman, if you lived in Scotland in the 1500s, there was a very good chance that you, or someone you knew, would be tried as a witch. Witch hunts ripped through the country for over 150 years, with at least 4,000 accused, and with many women's fates sealed by a grizzly execution of strangulation, followed by burning. Inspired to correct this historic injustice, campaigners and writers Claire Mitchell, KC, and Zoe Venditozzi, have delved deeply into just why the trials exploded in Scotland to such a degree. In order to understand why it happened, they have broken down the entire horrifying process, step-by-step, from identification of individuals, to their accusation, 'pricking', torture, confessions, execution and beyond. With characteristically sharp wit and a sense of outrage, they attempt to inhabit the minds of the persecutors, often men, revealing the inner workings of exactly why the Patriarchy went to such extraordinary lengths to silence women, and how this legally sanctioned victimisation proliferated in Scotland and around the world. With testimony from a small army of experts, pen portraits of the women accused, trial transcripts, witness accounts and the documents that set the legal grounds for the hunts, How to Kill A Witch builds to form a rich patchwork of tragic stories, helping us comprehend the underlying reasons for this terrible injustice, and raises the serious question - could it ever happen again? Weve written this book to remember the history of women accused as witches and to highlight that where there is unchecked patriarchal power it ends very badly for women. With a rise worldwide in witchcraft accusations, rolling back on womens rights and persecution of other minority and vulnerable groups, there are more red flags than all the Handmaids gowns stitched together. Now is the time to reflect on our history, so that we dont repeat it. Again. Claire Mitchell and Zoe Venditozzi.