When looking more into the local history of transgender people from the 1920s-1930s I found that there was often mention of witchcraft and how superstitious Jersey was as an island back in the 15th and 16th centuries. They would carry out so many witch hunts and have ceremonies on the beaches. I really took an interest in this and think that I could reflect more on this and possibly come up with a few different shoots for it too. I find it so interesting to find out more about this island and how the people of the past thought and the way that anyone who was slightly different was cast out and made to feel less than human. I don’t want to relate witchcraft with the topic of transgender people but I think the prejudice comes from a similar kind of place, with people not really understanding those that are different and trying to eliminate anyone that is different or that stands out in an unconventional way.

During the 16th and 17th century witchcraft became widespread across Jersey. In this era Catholicism [Catholic faith] was being challenged by Calvinism [reformed Protestantism], Anglicanism [Christianity within the Church of England among others], this made it harder for people to practice their religion out of fear, rumours and suspicion of others. Witchcraft is also known as devil worshipping and so following any kind of religion that was different to Catholicism could be a sign of witchcraft as obviously those belonging to the Church of England would practice their faith differently. Citizens often feared those that could possibly worship the devil and so communities made it of importance to seek out and destroy them. Unsurprisingly, there is no real evidence found in Jersey of devil worshipping or worshipping the pagan Gods (Gods not belonging to the Christian faith were seen as devils). It really interests me to find out more about these stories and get to really know the ins and outs of why people had this major paranoia and how much religion did dominate the world compared to nowadays.

I’ve always been extremely scared of the idea of witches and the way they are seen in films. It really intrigues me, the amount of people who are shown as witches in film, are always women. Somehow this doesn’t surprise me as I feel that as a society we are so quick to judge women and never allow women to really have a strong voice without there being something wrong with them or without them being perceived as a witch, evil or too unlikable. Women in film are never really shown to be bosses unless there are the leaders of an evil cult that set out to kill and destroy the lives of others. I have never watched a film with a male witch, only ever a male protagonist who is the head of the witch hunt. There is so much stigma put on witches and that they are so horrible, ugly and scary but when looking more into this I found that usually it is just ordinary women. After reading more into the history of witches I have found out the cruel and inhumane ways that these people were treated. They were often hanged, burned alive, thrown of a cliff or left to drown in a river. I really do not like how these people were treated with such brutality and that those purging them got away with it and seemed to think that ‘God’ would still accept them even though they had sinned and taken someone else’s life. Obviously those people did not see what they were doing as murder but instead they saw it as purifying the land and ridding the devil worshippers of the earth.

Trials were carried out in Jersey. The trial by water meant the placement of a heavy weight at the bottom of a cauldron of water that was then brought to boiling point. The accused was then forced to plunge their hand in the cauldron to retrieve the weight and then carry it a long distance. After which the accused hand would be wrapped and sealed and had to remain like this for three nights. If after this time the hand was healthy the accused would be judged to be innocent and if there were signs of scalding they were proved to be guilty. A trial by the cross was to see who could hold their arms up in a cross-like shape for the longest was most likely innocent. The trial by fire was similar to that of water but the accused had to carry a red hot iron for nine feet before having their hand bandaged. This is so ridiculous and I cannot actually believe that people thought this proved anything at all. I feel that I would be able to make a photographic response to this, possibly with some hard-hitting images that make my spectator question what they thought about witchcraft. There is proof of trials being carried out at Gorey Castle as well as interrogation between the lesser courts. There is also evidence that people were shaved in order to find witches marks which would have been extremely humiliating and degrading. They were left in damn dungeons and so were freezing. There are also stories about how those accused of sorcery were cast from a high cliff. Other stories of witchcraft mention how many people genuinely feared witches and would carry acorns in their pockets as it was thought to guard against evil and an acorn design was widely incorporated into the stonework and entrances of old buildings.