Witchcraft is fantasy to many people in today's world, but in 17th century Bermuda witchcraft was a very real, capital offense.

Now, Bermudian Laura Andrews, a recent graduate of Cambridge University in England, is to give a talk about her dissertation on the witchcraft trials in Bermuda in the 1650s – during these trials 21 people were accused of witchcraft, and five people were executed.

Miss Andrews graduated from Cambridge University last year with a degree in history and became interested in witchcraft trials in Britain during her first year as an undergraduate.

"I wrote about the witchcraft trials for a class assignment," she said. "My director of studies, and supervisor, Malcolm Gaskill, was an expert on the witch hunts in Britain." She said that when she started to study the witchcraft trials in Britain, she didn't automatically think of Bermuda.

"I always wanted to do my dissertation on 17th century Bermuda," she said. "I was originally going to write my dissertation as a comparison with early Jamestown, Virginia, and early Bermuda and look at the relationship between them."

While she was researching this topic at the Bermuda Archives she came across information about the witchcraft trials in Bermuda and became so intrigued she changed her focus.

"In my dissertation, I tried to figure out what the trials were caused by," she said. "I concluded that it was the immediate context of Bermuda."

She said experts on the topic often debate universality versus locality, basically was it something going on globally that caused the persecution, or was it caused by circumstances in a specific place.

"Witchcraft trials happened in loads of different places," she said. "I think it happened here basically because of the tumultuous social, economic, political and religious situation that existed here in the 1640s.

"A lot of people were coming to Bermuda with ideas about witches. They had been around trials in England and Scotland. That was combined with how they understood their world and how they saw God."

She said in the 1600s Bermuda had been a mixture of Puritan and Anglican religious viewpoints, but in the 1640s the Puritans started gaining power.

"They started acting more autocratic," said Miss Andrews. "They made it unbearable for the Anglican ministers to exist here and most left. That meant that some people wouldn't have their babies baptised by an Anglican minister. They were worried that their babies would be taken by the devil.

"The religious turbulence in the 1640s was important," she said. "The Puritans emphasised the presence of sin and the presence of the devil more than the Anglicans."

She said that the trial of Sally Bassett, a slave who was burned at the stake for poisoning her mistress, is sometimes confused with the witchcraft trials of this time period. But, she said, Sally Bassett was never accused of witchcraft. And she was killed almost 100 years after the witchcraft trials ended.

"I don't think the witchcraft trials were about race," said Miss Andrews. "None of the accused were black. They were all white."

And she said, unlike trials that occurred in New England, the Bermuda authorities used women and people of colour as witnesses. One of the witnesses was a 14-year-old black boy who was in jail at the time.

She said that in Bermuda, those found guilty of witchcraft were never burned at the stake. They were all hung.

In all, five out of 21 people accused of witchcraft in Bermuda were hung. Three were Bermudian. There were four men and 18 women who were suspected. One of the five executed was male, John Middleton.

"Most of the majority of the people accused pleaded not guilty and denied the charges," said Miss Andrews. "John Middleton committed secondary deviation. Initially, he said he was not guilty. Then loads of people came forward and accused him. Eleven people made attestations against him. Because there were so many, he didn't have a chance."

John Middleton was put to the water test. "If you are rejected by the water (and didn't sink) you are rejected by an element made by God, and were therefore a witch," said Miss Andrews. "He survived the water test. When he came out he confessed that he was a witch. Maybe people were pressuring him."

But confessing gave John Middleton power he didn't have before. He could now accuse others of witchcraft. "He accused two women who were later executed," said Miss Andrews. "He was also consulted about what marks to look for on the body to show that these women were the devil's minions.

"People believed that witches had an extra nipple to nurse the devil's minions or 'familiars'

"John Middleton's wife Elizabeth was the third person to be accused, and Mr. Middleton was the fifth. He was convicted and she was acquitted. Miss Andrews said people who were considered of poor character in the community were often accused of witchcraft.

"John Middleton was known as someone who not only committed adultery but bestiality," said Miss Andrews. "His wife's statement seemed to confirm this, and would have stiffened their resolve that he was probably guilty."

She said people today sometimes look as the witchcraft trials as silly or an excuse to persecute an unpopular person.

"The belief in witchcraft was in their mentality," she said. "Most people would have believed in witches. Middleton committed lists of sins and was an adulterer and a deviant.

"Those sins would have been associated with the devil, so it would have made sense to them that he was a witch."

The first person to be accused was Jane Gardener in 1651. She was tried in the State House in St. George's. Later, people gathered in Kings Square, St. George's, to watch her execution. It is likely that all those people found guilty were also executed in the same place, but Miss Andrews did not find documents confirming this.

Miss Andrews isn't sure what she plans to do with the information from her dissertation. Next year, she hopes to move to London to work in the film industry in direction and production.

"I think this story would make a good movie," she said. "I find it fascinating that people had a whole different set of beliefs than we do today. The way they understood the world and their philosophies were different from ours."

Miss Andrews will be speaking on Thursday, July 23, as part of the Bermuda Archives 'History Speaks' summer lecture series.

The series is being held in honour of Bermuda's 400th anniversary. The aim is to highlight new research being conducted in the archives by both local and international researchers.

Miss Andrews will be speaking along with University of Alabama assistant professor Heather Kopelson who will be speaking about Quakers in Bermuda in the 17th century. The lectures will be held at the Wesley Methodist Church Dyer Hall on Church Street at 7.30 p.m. Entrance is free.

The next lectures in the series will focus on the establishment of schools at Emancipation, the late 18th and early 19th century humanitarian revolution, and the Norwood Survey.