Just a bunch of hocus pocus? CSU professor says America’s connection to witches is firmly rooted in history

Contact for reporters:

Stacy Nick
Stacy.Nick@colostate.edu

Note to journalists: CSU Professor Ann Little is available for interviews. More information can be found at https://col.state/IV22n. All assets — including photos and podcast audio/transcripts — are available for media use.

Today, witches are seen as a fun and fantastical novelty, especially around this time of year when the Halloween season has us dressing up in costumes and watching movies like “Hocus Pocus.” But back in the 1600s, it was a decidedly different story where witches were seen as neither fun, nor fantasy. Instead, they were considered a very real threat to society.

CSU’s The Audit podcast  featured an interview with Colorado State University professor Ann Little about our fascination with the witch trials and how society may not have come as far since that era as people think. Little is an expert on early North American history, specializing in the history of women, gender and sexuality. She is also a frequent guest expert on NBC’s “Who Do You Think You Are?,” including a recent episode in which she worked with actor Zachary Levi to uncover the story of his relative who was accused of witchcraft.

According to Little, women were frequently the targets of accusations of witchcraft because they were not supposed to possess much “earthly power.”

“It was the suspicion that they were channeling some kind of demonic force, that they were possessed by the devil, that they were channeling some kind of demonic power that led them to be accused of witchcraft,” Little said. “And this power that people suspected these women were illicitly and illegitimately attempting to wield was manifest in any number of everyday occurrences: the death of a child, especially a very young child; the failure of a pan of cream to turn to butter at the right time; the failure of a cheese to set; the failure of cattle or chickens to thrive. All kinds of everyday occurrences could lead to a an individual — specifically a woman — to be accused of witchcraft.”

The podcast, along with a full transcript of the interview, can be found here.