My Second History Presentation: The Witch Hunt in Edinburgh

Do you know Joan of Arc? As you may all know, she was the woman soldier of France. When other countries attacked France, Joan of Arc fought bravely for her country. She was the hero of France. However, the Frenches did not praise her. They even thought that Joan of Arc was a witch with a horrible magical power. The citizens dreaded Joan of Arc and eventually decided to burn her. Joan of Arc was a great woman. However, she was also the sacrifice of witch hunt.

In fact, there were so many sacrifice of witch hunt, except Joan of Arc, especially in Scotland. The witch hunt of Scotland started in 1550 until it finally ended in 1700s. Scots thought that witches sold their soul to devils. In 1563, witchcraft became illegal in Scotland and people started to catch witches. About 1500 people were arrested so far. But, in fact, most of them were innocent women and men. They did not know why they should be punished and why they should be blamed but were killed very cruelly. They were burned alive at the stake.

Edinburgh was the capital city of Scotland. It played crucial role in Scotland's witch hunt. Besides, Edinburgh was where the King James VI, the king of Scotland, killed about seventy people because of a ridiculous reason. He visited other country and was returning to his kingdom by a ship. Unfortunately, his ship was caught in storm and he became very furious. He thought that witches created the storm to kill him. Therefore, King James VI of Scotland ordered to catch the witches. Seventy people were arrested. The innocent people were tortured and most of them died. Since then, about 300 people were burned in Edinburgh because of the witch hunt.

It was a misbehavior. Scots should not do witch hunt. They murdered so many innocent women and men who were the precious moms, dads, children, friends, and neighbors of many other people. It was ridiculous to kill the people only because they might be witches. The kings of Scotland did not have any right to destroy the happiness of their nation. They should make Scotland a better country, not kill innocent people.

What I want to emphasize through this incident is the 'herd behaviour'. The herd behaviour means thinking like what others are thinking and acting like what others are acting. There might be many people who knew that witch hunt is ridiculous and the burned people were actually innocent. However, because of the herd behaviour in their mind, they ignored the horrible facts and followed what other people did. Of course, the ordinary people just followed the governemnt without any doubt. They believed other people's thought, they followed other people's action and they did not even try to follow their own inner voice. They were like 'Springbucks'.

Springbucks are the sheep which are living in Africa. They eat grass and always move with their group. Sometimes, one of them want to eat more and run to other pasture. Other springbucks try to run after they see they running springbuck. Soon, all the springbucks start to run without knowing the reason why they run. They are just following other springbucks' action. And, when they reach a cliff, all of them fall and die. In fact, the Scots' fate was very simillar to the destiny of the springbucks. Some of the people who ignored the horrible fact were killed because of the witch hunt. If they had not followed other's action and opposed to the cruel witch hunt, the tragics might not be so serious.

King James VI's crazy thought and the herd behaviour of ordinary people made the dreadful incident. Because of the witch hunt, so many Scots suffered so much. Therefore, we should not repeat the misbehavior of Scots. The horrible people made the horrible history. So let's make the rest of the history better, brighter and happier. Thank you very much.