Woodcut of witches flying
In the early modern Atlantic World, witchcraft was woven into the fabric of cultural beliefs, traditions, and behaviors. At the core of the witch-trials was the prominent belief that the physical, material world intertwined with that of the spiritual. This belief in divine and evil intervention in the material world played an integral role in the harm associated with witchcraft. People used this intervention to explain the unexplainable: sickness, environmental phenomenon, and unusual beliefs or rituals deemed heretical.
