Based on the richest archive of witchcraft trials found in Europe, this book paints a vivid picture of life amongst the people of a small duchy on the border of France. Robin Briggs' examination of their beliefs in phenomena such as shapeshifting and werewolves proves a vital contribution to historical understanding of witchcraft.

"Brujas, Witches of Color are ancestral magical beings and the world we live in has tried to silence our voices. . . . This book is such a beautiful tribute to the different stories and experiences we go through as brujas. . . . Amplify the voice of Witches of Color by reading their stories." —Juliet Diaz, author of Witchery and Plant Witchery There is a new kind of witch emerging in our cultural consciousness: the bruja. Witchcraft has made a comeback in popular culture, especially among feminists. A growing subculture of BIPOC witches, led by Afro-Caribbean immigrants, Indigenous Americans, and other witches of color, is reclaiming their ancestral traditions and contributing their voices to the feminist witchcraft of today. Brujas chronicles the magical lives of these practitioners as they develop their healing arts, express their progressive politics, and extend their personal rituals into community activism. They are destigmatizing the "witch" of their ancestries and bringing persecuted traditions to the open to challenge cultural appropriation and spiritual consumerism. Part memoir, part ritual guide, Brujas empowers readers to decolonize their spiritual practices and connect with their own ancestors. Brujas reminds us that witchcraft is more than a trend—it's a movement.

This collection of trial records, laws, treatises, sermons, speeches, woodcuttings, paintings and literary texts illustrates how contemporaries from various periods have perceived alleged witches and their activities.

Men – as accused witches, witch-hunters, werewolves and the demonically possessed – are the focus of analysis in this collection of essays by leading scholars of early modern European witchcraft. The gendering of witch persecution and witchcraft belief is explored through original case-studies from England, Scotland, Italy, Germany and France.

Bringing together scholars from Europe, America, and Australia, this volume explores the more fantastic elements of popular religious belief: ghosts, werewolves, spiritualism, animism, and of course, witchcraft. These traditional religious beliefs and practices are frequently treated as marginal in more synthetic studies of witchcraft and popular religion, yet Protestants and Catholics alike saw ghosts, imps, werewolves, and other supernatural entities as populating their world. Embedded within notarial and trial records are accounts that reveal the integration of folkloric and theological elements in early modern spirituality. Drawing from extensive archival research, the contributors argue for the integration of such beliefs into our understanding of late medieval and early modern Europe.

Tens of thousands of people were persecuted and put to death as witches between 1400 and 1700 – the great age of witch hunts. Why did the witch hunts arise, flourish and decline during this period? What purpose did the persecutions serve? Who was accused, and what was the role of magic in the hunts? This important reassessment of witch panics and persecutions in Europeand colonial America both challenges and enhances existing interpretations of the phenomenon. Locating its origins 400 years earlier in the growing perception of threats to Western Christendom, Robert Thurston outlines the development of a ‘persecuting society’ in which campaigns against scapegoats such as heretics, Jews, lepers and homosexuals set the scene for the later witch hunts. He examines the creation of the witch stereotype and looks at how the early trials and hunts evolved, with the shift from accusatory to inquisitorial court procedures and reliance upon confessions leading to the increasing use of torture.

The terrible history of witch hunts, torture and executions continues to fascinate. History of witches is a contested topic bound to attract attention. Fresh approach with new evidence will generate reviews and publicity. Written with the general reader in mind jargon-free and accessible. Full of illustrations. This is a compelling and contentious history of witches and witch-hunts in early modern Europe and America. Tens of thousands of people were persecuted and put to death as witches between 1400 and 1700 - the great age of witch-hunts. Why did the witch-hunts arise, flourish and decline during this period? What purpose did the persecutions serve? Who was accused, and what was the role of magic in the hunts? This important reassessment of witch panics and persecutions in Europe and colonial America both challenges and enhances existing interpretations of the phenomenon. Locating its origins 400 years earlier in the growing perception of threats to Western Christendom, Robert Thurston outlines the development of a 'persecuting society' in which campaigns against scapegoats such as heretics, Jews, lepers and homosexuals set the scene for the later witch hunts. He examines the creation of the witch stereotype and looks at how the early trials and hunts evolved, with the shift from accusatory to inquisitorial court procedures and reliance upon confessions leading to the increasing use of torture Robert Thurston is Professor of History at the University of Miami.