Thousands of people were accused of being witches in Scotland, from dancing with the devil to cursing the king's ships.
Many were executed. Three centuries after the repeal of the Witchcraft Act, a group of people are campaigning to get pardons and official apologies for witches who were executed and burned.
Witches of Scotland notes that signs associated with witchcraft, such as broomsticks, cauldrons, black cats and black pointed hats, were also associated with "alewives", the name for women who brew weak beer to combat poor water. Beer was on sale, the cauldron to brew it, the cat to keep mice down, and the hat to distinguish them from the market were all on the broomstick sign. Once it became profitable, women were replaced by men.
There is a page on the internet with a list of people who have been executed. The number of people executed for witchcraft in Europe and America is between 40,000 and 50,000 according to modern scholars.
The head of the pro-pardon advocacy group Witches of Scotland made a statement recently. During the 16th and 18th century, Scotland executed five times as many people as the rest of Europe, and the vast majority of them were women.
