A month ago, on the 8th of March, Nicola Sturgeon issued a formal apology to those who were accused of witchcraft in Scotland between the 16th and 18th centuries. The pardoning was particularly pertinent as it occurred on International Women’s Day, and as is well known, the vast majority of those persecuted in the witch trials were women – in Scotland, women represented an overwhelming 85% of those accused of witchcraft. In a statement at Holyrood, Sturgeon said:
“Today on International Women’s Day, as first minister on behalf of the Scottish government, I am choosing to acknowledge that egregious historic injustice and extend a formal posthumous apology to all of those accused, convicted, vilified or executed under the Witchcraft Act of 1563.”
Yet, despite this apology being sorely needed for centuries, and requested by Zoe Venditozzi and Claire Mitchell QC, the founders of the ‘Witches of Scotland’ campaign designed to ensure justice for the Scottish witch trials’ victims, many responded to the apology with disdain. Hundreds of scathing comments mocked the First Minister’s decision to issue the apology in 2022, three centuries after the witch trials occurred when all of those affected are now dead, and there are more pressing issues at hand, like the war in Ukraine. Others saw the apology as superfluous virtue-signaling; pointless verbiage espoused by the SNP to cover up perceived government ineptitude.
These comments were mostly written by men, who not only criticised Sturgeon as a political leader, but also questioned her sanity, and accused her of being a ‘witch’ herself. In other words, the same misogynistic criticism that has been leveled at women for centuries. One particularly vile response suggested to ‘chuck her in the nearest loch’ to see if she floats, a well-known test used in the witch trials to determine who was and who wasn’t a witch. If the woman sank and drowned, she was considered innocent, if she floated, she was declared a witch, and executed shortly after. However, this was not a commonly practiced method for finding witches and it was not used in Scotland at all during the witch trials.
Besides the misconstrued historical inaccuracies of the negative responses to Sturgeon’s apology, these comments also highlight why such an apology is crucially needed, even in 2022. If a person’s first reaction to the words of a female political leader is to insult her sanity, question her leadership, and call her a ‘witch’, that clearly points to misogyny, plain and simple. This is the same reason why the majority of those accused and executed in the Scottish witch trials were women. Not just old women who lived in an isolated cottage on the outskirts of the villages and ate the flesh of babies, but rather, any woman, no matter if good or evil in reality. All women were potential witches in the Scottish witch trials – old and young, rich and poor, God-fearing or not. All it took for a woman to be deemed a witch was an initial accusation and a guilty verdict issued by powerful, privileged Christian men of the upper classes, who presided over their trials. The system was stacked against them.
Moreover, all of this was legal. Whether it involved torturing women to make confessions with sleep deprivation or four-inch-long needles known as ‘witch prickers,’ murdering women for witchcraft was enshrined in law. The Scottish Witchcraft Act, passed by King James VI of Scotland in 1562, deemed the practice of witchcraft, or convening with a witch, a criminal act. In the eyes of those who accused and executed the victims of the Scottish witch trials, such women were criminals, with witchcraft having been seen as one of the most heinous crimes committed.
This vilification of women, and witches, continues today – whether in the ‘evil witch’ film trope, anti-pagan Christians, or the comments mocking Sturgeon’s formal witchcraft apology. Women are still the main victims of murder and sexual violence perpetrated by men, and they still face societal discrimination. Sturgeon’s formal apology to the victims of the Scottish witch trials was an important step in the right direction. However, until misogynistic attitudes and the Christian understanding of witchcraft change, those victims will still be ‘evil witches’ in both culture and law – innocent women found guilty of an imaginary crime they didn’t commit.