Section II. Essay: Case Study Using the Primary Source-
"The
Trial of Agnes Sampson, 1591." (100 points)
Instructions
Carefully analyze the primary source below and prepare to write a well-organized short essay in which you address the following questions for the primary source below. Your essay must demonstrate a synthesis of knowledge gained to date from the course textbook, assigned readings lectures, class discussions, class exercises, document analysis presentations, etc. Avoid writing a mere summary of loosely related details or an essay of unsubstantiated opinion. And please remember that this examination is a closed-book/closed-notes examination. Your essay will be written in the bluebook provided."The Trial of Agnes Sampson, 1591."On January 27, 1591, the following court pronouncement was made:"For which cause the said Agnes was ordained by the justice pronounced by the mouth of James Shiel, dempster, to be taken the castle of Edinburgh and there bound to a stake and worried [i.e., strangled] while she was dead, and thereafter her body to be burned in ashes and all her moveable goods to be escheat and in brought to our sovereign lord's use.
1.Analyze the primary source entitled "The Trial of Agnes Sampson, 1591" and answer the following questions:
A)
Using the primary source "The Trial of Agnes Sampson, 1591" as a
whole: How and why was Agnes Sampson convicted of witchcraft? What crimes
related to witchcraft did the authorities accuse her of committing? How were
such "crimes" then "proven?"
B)
Using the "profile of the witch" from Levack's textbook and discussed
in class, analyze the case of Agnes Sampson. Specifically, your answer should
consider the following common characteristics of the "profile of the
witch:" "Sex" (Gender), Age, Marital Status, and Social and
Economic Status as they apply (and perhaps in some respects do not apply) to
the case of Agnes Sampson.
2 The
Trial of Agnes Sampson, 1591," in The Witchcraft Sourcebook, 2nd ed., ed.
Brian Levack (London: Routledge, 2015), 253.
Agnes Sampson became
convicted of witchcraft primarily based on the prevailing ideals and fears
surrounding accusations of sorcery in the sixteenth century. The primary supply
indicates that she was accused of accomplishing activities associated with witchcraft,
although the specific charges are not specified. Witchcraft accusations during
this era frequently concerned allegations of malevolent acts, which included
causing damage to others through spells or invoking supernatural forces
(Levack, 2015). Authorities, driven with the aid of an aggregate of nonsecular
fervor and societal fears, sought to remove perceived threats to the community
via the persecution of people like Agnes Sampson.