Witch-Children: From Salem Witch-Hunts to Modern Courtrooms

by Hans Sebald

The period of persecution and execution of so-called witches stands as a venomous chapter of Western civilization. The participation of small children and adolescents, whether as the accused or as the accusers, was pivotal. It linked the power of the inquisitor to the fates of many unsuspecting men and women - people who often became hapless victims, devoured by a ravenous inquisition that stretched across two continents.Dr. Hans Sebald maintains...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0879759658
• ISBN13: 9780879759650
• Release Date: March 1995
• Publisher: Prometheus Books
• Length: 258 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A devil's playground

In 1995, the year "Witch-Children" was published, a New Mexican father decided his sons were possessed by the devil and chopped off the head of his 14-year-old. We can assume he was deranged, either by an organic brain defect or injury or by chemicals, but the form his madness took was not internal and original. He learned it. His teachers deserve a big share of the blame for this atrocity. We have such teachers all around us, still in the 21st century, and they remain dangerous, although not as dangerous as when they controlled the civil and religious judicial power, as Hans Sebald relates in his sickening book. "The classical Salem syndrome is anything but past history," Sebald writes. "It is . . . frequently re-enacted in the modern courtroom as a time-honored tradition." But Sebald's analysis is more than just an attack on atrocities committed in the name of Christianity (and equally common in non-Christian religions, although his history does not extend that far). A retired professor of sociology at Arizona State, Sebald asks how it comes about that children are demonized. And he points out that in the demonological system, children become persecutors as well as persecuted. We see it in the hysteria about child sexual abuse, which has resulted in such horrors as the McMartin preschool case. "Questioning children's innocence is not popular," Sebald says, and before the secularization of government it was often suicidal, but he shows how in fact a belief in Satanism permits the powerless to manipulate others, including their parents, even unto death. Sebald's prize case is Witch-boy, whose real name and fate are unknown, though his fate is easily guessed. Sebald brings a unique background to the history, as an American academic born in Franconia, Germany, which at one period was probably the worst place in Europe for the judicial murder of witches. Sebald was able to read the 1629 court records (in a local dialect practically inaccessible to non-Franconians) of Witch-boy's statement. It was taken as a confession, but as Sebald shows, Witch-boy did not simply confess under torture. He manipulated the system, he fantasized, lied, accused, broke down and recovered, taunted. He was a feisty delinquent caught up in a horrible system created by maniacs, and he caused the deaths of many innocent people. "Witch-Children" makes grim reading. "It seems that children's activities, especially in peer context, form a constant throughout history," Sebald says. "Their playing, roaming, exploring, bravado, pranks and delinquent behavior have changed little over the ages. The major changes have been in the way people view and interpret their activities." Once interpreted as influenced by Satan, "today the scientifically-minded would interpret the same behavior within a social-psychological framework." Some of us would. Too few. This book is enough to scare any rational parent.

Well done -- children can be victimizers!

The author's term "witch-children" is most insightfuland applicable to situations where children are under pressure andinterrogation. The book deals with the mindset of children who accuse adults of wrong-doings and how such children sense what the interrogator (once inquisitor; now lawyer, counselor, therapist) wants to hear. Leading questions encourage descriptions of adults' criminal acts that, in reality, don't exist. The book starts with examples from the time of the witch persecution (American as well as European) when children's accusations were taken as facts and led to severe punishment, including being burned alive. A latter part of the book deals with the psychological dynamics of children seeking revenge or aggrandizement by playing important and powerful roles in our modern life. It shows how the atmosphere of the modern courtroom resembles the old witch-hunt and how innocent people can be punished on the basis of children's fanciful denunciations - including accusations of sexual molestation, satanism, and even still witchcraft. There are two things that may disturb some readers. One is the author's prejudice when he blames religious beliefs for much of the historical persecutions. The other is his portrayal of children which strays far from our culture's stereotype of the innocent child. Nonetheless, I think this book is a worthwhile read -- interesting, insightful and of great value to counselors, therapists, teachers, and parents. END