14. If you were sexually progressive: Sex outside of marriage has long been frowned upon, but in the 17th century, it could get you hanged for being a witch
For most of history, women were expected to follow strict roles. This was especially true when it came to sex and sexuality. Transgressing from these was a sure-fire way of earning the suspicion of your neighbors and being accused of being a witch. The Malleus Malifcarum¸the 16th-century guide to spotting witches was hung up on sex. It noted that women were naturally temptresses, capable of leading good men astray. It also warned that witches had insatiable carnal lusts – as such, a woman having sex outside of wedlock was almost certainly involved in some kind of black magic.
Certainly, this was the case for Alice Lake. A resident of Dorchester, Massachusetts, she was a young mother of five. In 1651, her youngest child died of unknown causes. The grief-stricken Lake claimed she could sometimes still see and hear the infant. This was enough for her neighbors to accuse her of witchcraft. Then, when the prosecutors revealed that she had had children out of wedlock, she was found guilty and executed. As the court noted, Lake “played the harlot…being with Child.” It’s said she even confessed to being in legion with the devil before she died – though the ‘confession’ would have been given under extreme duress.