Profs & Pints Baltimore: What Drove Witch Hunts

Profs and Pints Baltimore presents: “What Drove Witch Hunts,” on past centuries’ persecution of those accused of sorcery, with Larissa "Kat" Tracy, medievalist and visiting assistant teaching professor of English at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/what-drove-witch-hunts .]

The witch trials of late medieval and early modern Europe and early colonial America have inspired fear and horror for centuries. They left behind questions we still struggle to answer, such as: What sparked belief in witches? What compels societies to seek out and persecute those supposedly in command of darkness?

Hear such questions tackled by Dr. Larissa Tracy, a medieval literary historian who has appeared on several History Channel documentaries on medieval torture and brutality and given several excellent Profs and Pints talks in the past.

Although the witch hunts have been metaphors in the modern era for tyranny and corruption, the real history of witchcraft and the witch hunts lies in the desire for power and control, as well as genuine fear that the Devil walks among us, she’ll explain.

Although we frequently think of the witch hunts as a medieval phenomenon, accusations of witchcraft escalated after the Reformation, during the early modern period. Dr. Tracy will discuss how kings, queens, and witch-finders general all played a role in the torture and execution of innocent women and men. Those targeted included herbal healers, religious heretics, dissidents, social rivals, and marginalized members of society.

Exemplifying the darker aspects of human society, the witch hunts culminated in some of the most tragic events in history. The history of them still holds important lessons for today. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Bar doors open at 5 pm. The talk starts at 6:30.)

Image: A 1655 Ralph Gardiner illustration of the hanging of witches in England. (Public domain.)