The English witch hunts, and those of the English colonies, mostly happened because King James I of England (James VI of Scotland) was a bit of a nut on the subject, to the point, possibly, of paranoia. When he went to Denmark to meet the princess to whom he was engaged, his ship was hit by a storm, which he blamed on witches. He wrote a book on the subject of witches, their supposedly evil nature, and how to identify them, and the English were very quickly caught up in the whole thing because of royal encouragement.
Earlier laws forbidding witchcraft in England dated back to the reign of King Henry VIII. There had been Anglo saxon laws as well, though they had fallen into disuse during the Middle Ages. These earlier laws were doubtless used to prosecute a few individuals, but were not use as a basis for wide scale witch hunts, in which people were actively sought and examined to see if they were witches, to be subsequently tried and executed.
Ignorance and bigotry
There are witch hunts in part of Sub-Saharan Africa. India is another place that still practices witch hunts. In 2010, India had an 150 and 200 women killed during witch hunts.
There are actual witch hunts going on today in some parts of the world, though the people of the rest of the world know better than to hunt for actual witches. There are things metaphorically called witch hunts going on today in parts of the world where people know better than to hunt for actual witches. Sometimes the things metaphorically called witch hunts are worse. There is a link to an article on witch hunts below.
In Plilibelpia!
a person employed to carry out witch-hunts and identify witches.
There have been many witch-hunts in history. Obvious examples include: * The witch-hunts in Crowellian England in the 1640s and in Massachusetts in the early 1690s. * Joseph McCarthy's obsession with 'red under beds', c. 1947-54. * The persecution of the Templars in the early 1300s.
Witch hunt actually originates from with hunts in past centuries. From 1480 to 1750 is considered the classical period of witch hunts. The last executions happened in the 18th century.
Do you mean 1692?
Salem, Massachusetts
Innocent people are accused
Old Salem, Massachussetts.
No, there wasn't.