Witchcraft and children

Children have been accused of witchcraft, both historically and in contemporary times, in societies that harbour beliefs about the existence of witches and black magic.

In sixteenth-century Europe, older children sometimes comprised a special category of witch hunters, bringing accusations of witchcraft against adults. In 1525, the traveling judge in the Navarrese witch hunt utilized two "girl witches" whom he felt would be able to identify other witches. He hung about forty of these "witches" based on the testimony of the two girls.

Child witch hunters sometimes accused their family members of being witches.

The most renowned trials caused by child accusations occurred in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Children were viewed as having an important role in convicting witches, due to their being able to identify people impulsively. Children who made such false allegations often directed them at adults with whom they had strained relationships such as teachers or puritanical neighbors.

By the start of the seventeenth century, many children were being punished and put in prison for taking part in witchcraft. This usually occurred because of their alleged participation in Sabbats. It was a common belief that witches' children inherited witchcraft from their parents. It was often the practice to charge a whole family of witchcraft, even if only one individual was suspected. Witches who confessed often claimed that they learned witchcraft from a parent.

Pierre de Lancre and Francesco Maria Guazzo believed that it was enough proof of a witch's guilt if they had parents who were witches. They believed witch parents introduced the children to Satan, took the children to Sabbats, married children to demons, inspired the children to have sex with Satan(devil) or had sex with Satan with the child present. Many times the child accused of witchcraft, due to being shunned, threatened community members, thereby enforcing their beliefs that the child was a witch.

There are several cases of witchcraft in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries that involved children as witches. In Sweden in 1669 a large number of children were included in a witch hunt and in Würzburg as in Salem in 1692, children were the focus of witch hunts. In Augsberg, beginning in 1723 an investigation into twenty children between the ages of six and sixteen resulted in them being arrested for witchcraft. They were held for a year in solitary confinement before being transferred to a hospital. The last child was freed in 1729.

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