HOM-601 Lessons

The professor stood at the front of the classroom analyzing maps of the world that she had put onto the board at the front. “17, -10 to 30, -43…nope, definitely not.” She marked a red X on an area in the Atlantic Ocean before moving back to Europe and muttering what sounded like nonsense. She was so engrossed that she failed to notice the Year Six students filing into the classroom. At the sound of her name, the professor straightened up and turned around before chuckling. “Ah, sorry, sorry to keep you waiting. Let’s begin!”

Last week we discussed the indigenous tribes of North America and how they utilized magic in their daily lives. We also briefly touched upon some interaction between the indigenous people and foreign Europeans immigrants. Today, we’ll be backtracking a bit and learning more about the “discovery” of the Americas.

Magical Connection to the New World

Muggle historians would have many of us believing that there was absolutely no contact between Europe, Africa, and the Americas - among other continents - until those areas were discovered or conquered. Nothing could be further from the truth! We have discussed many ancient civilizations and modern civilizations, such as certain tribes from last lesson, who focused and relied heavily on divination. Thus, it should come as no surprise that there was communication through divination across continents. No, I am not saying that people talked through a bowl of water or sent messages using spirits. It was usually in a passive manner and those involved rarely realized that some prophecies received were not for them.

Divinatory Communication

Think back through what you have learned in the last five years in History of Magic, Ancient Studies, and Divination, if you chose to take the latter two. Hopefully, you’ve noticed that many older and ancient civilizations believed they could receive messages from their gods through various forms of divination, like the visions of the oracles, battle arithmancy, or interpreting omens and signs. The reason this comes into play in our discussion today is that Dr. Andrew Lostrev, a magilinguist and historian who studied the writings of many civilizations  in 1763, proposed that all divination, past or present, could take two forms: active and passive.

Now, it is important to keep in mind that Dr. Lostrev, like many other historians, is not considered a divinatory expert. Therefore, please recognize that this is simply a theory and is not widely accepted among professional seers and diviners. However, because his theory has more substance and better evidence to support it, it is a commonly-held belief among magical historians today - myself included. 

Active divination is classified as intentionally seeking answers to a particular question or surrounding a particular idea, person, or event. Therefore, much of the divinatory pursuits of ancient civilizations above -- particularly the act of receiving instructions from gods or nature regarding a given circumstance -- falls under this category. Passive divination is far less straightforward. In passive divination, the answer the diviner receives is not necessarily in a response to a direct question, nor does it necessarily focus on people, places, or events that have any relation to the diviner. Dr. Lostrev included visions and premonitions as the types of divination that frequently fall in this category. It is the combined reports of seers, historians, and archaeologists that have helped develop support for passive divination. 

Lostrev wrote about one such incident of passive divination and explained it as follows: 

“The art of knowing, yet not knowing, is the fundamental difference between active and passive divination. When one receives a vision they may not know who it is for. Will it come to pass or can they change the future? Oftentimes, one may conclude that because the events in the vision did not come to pass that the future was changed. I propose another theory: the events did happen, but to another magical civilization.”

I won’t bore you with the many examples he provides, but I will explain one that I believe sums up passive divination nicely. Magiarchaeologists have found pottery and drawings on cave walls, primarily in modern day Tennessee, depicting Native American symbols of death on a large scale. Testing of the broken pottery and substances used to draw on them dates them back to sometime in the 1200s. However, we know that there were no events that resulted in a large number of indigenous casualties until the 15th century and onwards when European travelers came and settled in the new world. If you’ll think back to Year Three of History of Magic, the Black Death was an overwhelming problem in 1349 and occured much closer to the period of time in which these inscriptions were made.

Intercontinental Apparition 

Although many magical historians hold to the divinatory communication theory, some -- like Dr. Angelo Martinez -- believe differently. Known as the Father of Apparition Mapping, Dr. Martinez proposed that communication between continents before their discovery by the Muggles was already well-established, though for reasons other than the Inner Eye. He believed it possible to traverse entire oceans through the use of Apparition alongside accurate mapping. Early critics of this theory claimed that it would be impossible for anyone to Apparate across these distances largely due to not having a specific location to focus on in the middle of the ocean. While this is true, Dr. Martinez proposed the use of the latitude and longitude coordinates on a map to provide the exact location.

Originally this theory did not include extreme trips from Europe to the Americas, but began by looking at Indonesia and apparition from China (above Thailand) to what is now known as modern day Australia. In the map below, no doubt you’ll notice a large number of islands between them and this afforded Dr. Martinez’s theory some credibility. By utilizing maps of these areas and determining the longitude and latitudes of these islands, even the smallest ones, he believed you could map out a series of Apparition points with stops at certain islands that would decrease the chances of things going wrong. By wrong, I mean prevention of drowning primarily, but also to help with Splinching.

Although this theory may sound grand -- I mean, really, who wouldn’t want to participate in inter-continental Apparition -- logistically speaking, many people feel there are too many flaws in it that could easily result in death. The biggest critique many magihistorians have of this theory is that maps are not always accurate with regard to distance, especially given the timing of this theory’s origin, in 1400 C.E. Having studied maps of the 15th century and comparing them to current maps of the world today, historians agree that the available coordinates and calculations were often off by hundreds of miles, which would leave a witch or wizard stranded in the ocean! I’ll leave you to decide which theory you agree with, if any, but considering Martinez’s reluctance to test his own hypotheses, that may shed some light on the legitimacy of that one. Though Dr. Martinez died sometime in 1476, his theory continues to amass followers, many of whom still hold to this notion today. 

Discovery of America

Merchant’s Tales

Putting aside all of the musings regarding the theory of inter-continental magical travels, another group of sailors had traversed the freezing waters of the Atlantic in search of a new world nearly 200 years prior to Martinez’s communication theory. In 985 C.E., while sailing from Iceland to Greenland with a fleet consisting of nearly 700 settlers and 25 ships, a merchant named Bjarni Herjolfsson was blown off his course to Iceland and three days later, sighted land to the west of the fleet. More interested in arriving at his father’s farm in Iceland to gather supplies for trade, Bjarni paid little attention to the new land and left a few days later, successfully returning to Iceland where he recounted his story to those who would listen. It was not until after Bjarni’s death, and a lack of resources, that Greenlanders took an interest in his tales of a coastline rich in woodlands. Not long after, Leifr Eiriksson, son of the Greenlandic leader Eric the Red, bought Bjarni’s ship and set out to journey to this new world himself.

The Land of Wine

Following the routes and landmarks Bjarni had discussed in his tales, Leifr sailed approximately 2000 miles to the west of the land, falling upon land which he described as “level and wooded,” naming it Vinland. Due to the raging seas during the winter and dangers of sailing home, Leifr and his crew settled down in 1001 C.E. for a few months. Meanwhile, they enjoyed the native berries that earned the land its name after Leifr’s foster father became drunk on fermented wild berries that he described as wine. When the seasons changed, Leifr returned to Greenland with ample bounty of berries and other spoils, but could not resume exploration and had to assume his father, Eric the Red’s, duties.

However, the Norse journeys to America were far from over. In 1004 C.E., Leifr’s brother, Thorvald Eriksson sailed to Vinland and spent the following winter at the camp established prior to his arrival. Unfortunately, Thorvald lacked the etiquette of his brother and made the foolhardy mistake of attacking and killing eight unarmed members of a northern indigenous tribe who were sleeping. We are not sure what caused Thorvald to initiate this attack, yet we do know the indigenous people returned the favor with force. Magiarchaeologists have been instrumental in piecing together the history of the hostility between the indigenous people and Thorvald, uncovering arrowheads with unique lettering and inscriptions found in the Americas. It is also believed that the indigenous people put their extraordinary potions skills to work and brewed poisonous concoctions, which they spread over the berry bushes near the beachfront where the ships were anchored. This caused a large portion of Thorvald’s crew to become sick and die in the Americas or on their journey back. Of the 30 men who embarked on the journey, only seven returned to Greenland unharmed, not including Thorvald, who was killed by an arrow.

The Norse made one last effort to settle in the Americas in 1009 C.E. when Thorfinn Karlsefni, better known as Thorfinn the Valiant, took three ships with approximately 200 men and women to Vinland and created a settlement in what many historians believe was a fjord -- a narrow inlet with steep cliffs on the sides -- for protection. Unlike the stories of his predecessor, Norse sagas about Karlsefni’s exploits speak of peaceful relations between the indigenous people and Karlsefni’s settlement, including trading of animal skins for milk and cloth of the Norse. However, these peaceful negotiations do not explain the retreat of the Norse in 1010 C.E. It is believed the indigenous people were biding their time for one final attack to prevent the Norse foreigners from setting foot in the Americas again. As with all mythological stories and sagas there is an aspect of truth and that is what many magihistorians have used to fill out the details of  the story of the final Vinland battle. The story that Karlsefni spread after his return describes the indigenous attack:

“Three days later and the skrælingi (indigenous people) returned with a large sphere upon a pole; it was dark blue in color, and the size of a sheep’s belly.”

To this day, we remain unsure of what Karlsefni was describing, though some believe it may have been an enlarged, staff-like version of a ball club (pictured to the right) or perhaps he saw a large stone in a slingshot or catapult-like device. Magiarchaeolgists believe it may have been a battle staff with a large gemstone that was used as a foci to release significant amounts of magic. A large number of historians also hold to this theory as it would explain why the Norsemen retreated back to Greenland. After their victory, the indigenous people of North America had peace for another 300 years. 

It may seem that the only magical group of people we discussed were the Native Americans, but that would be far from the truth. We, unfortunately, did not have time to discuss the intricacies of Norse magic, including their seafaring, which is really quite fascinating. If you find yourselves interested, I would highly suggest taking Professor Morgan’s Ancient Studies class, where you will delve deeper into the Norse magical practices. 

European “Discovery” of America

During the 11th and 14th centuries, battles between Christians and Muslims dominated much of Europe, making it a very dangerous place for wizarding families to reside if they did not live in all magical wizarding villages. Europeans had become accustomed to a variety of exotic goods from the east, but territorial conflicts made journeys to obtain these goods dangerous. In an effort to avoid these dangers and find a faster route, Christopher Columbus -- inspired by the tales of Marco Polo’s travel to Asia -- devised a plan to find a westward route to Asia. On August 3, 1492, his wishes were granted and he was supplied with three small ships and a crew of about 90 sailors. 

Fellow crew members did not know that approximately 1/6th (or approximately 15 crew members) were wizarding world members. Not all of them were respected members of the wizarding society either. What Columbus didn’t know was that of those 15, three to five may have been unregistered wizarding criminals looking to start a new life away from the magical authorities in Europe. Regardless, we can confirm the identity of one wizard who was aboard the Santa Maria, Roderigo de Triana, the navigator of this ship. Many magihistorians believe that Triana worked with Columbus to create the Four-Point Spell, a variation to Columbus’s own Versusio, to ensure the three ships continued in the same direction and did not veer too far off course. This would also explain why it only took them approximately two months to find the new land, despite a long respite in the Canary Islands to make repairs and gather supplies. With jubilant cries of “Tierra, tierra,” Columbus led a party ashore, naming the new land San Salvador, convinced he had found the East Indies, despite geographical differences. Now we know that Columbus had actually discovered the Bahamas. 

He established a settlement there with 40 of his men, including some wizards and spent the winter months exploring the land before returning to Spain the next year with exotic spices, gold, and captives. Yes, you heard me correctly. Unfortunately, the relationships between the indigenous people of the Bahamas and Europeans were not friendly and led to a number of conflicts until there were few indigenous people left. Similar to North America, foreign disease and skirmishes led to a significant decrease in the indigenous population. Over the next four voyages, Columbus brought more people, including wizarding families, over to the new world and created colonies in Northern America, leading to further violent encounters with the indigenous people, some of which we learned about last lesson. Even though some indigenous populations attempted to fight back (Powhatan and Croatans), they quickly came to realize that some of the potions were having no effect on the new settlers. Though they may not have known why, we recognize it was likely because these individuals were witches and wizards who had already been exposed to magic and furthermore could create anitotes or elixirs to offset symptoms. Granted, developing such elixirs typically included guesswork due to their lack of knowledge of these foreign plants, but it was better than nothing! It was not uncommon at this time for many witches and wizards to become the new healers of the colonies as their accuracy with cures increased over time and with more experimentation.

Native American Slavery

European colonization caused a striking increase in slavery as new demands rose for captives to assist with resource exploitation. Colonists would purchase or capture tribal members and force them into labor for tobacco, rice, and indigo cultivation. Unsurprisingly, the first decade of colonization was difficult for the Europeans and many accounts refer to crops failing as the cause for this. However, magihistorians have considered alternative reasons for crop failings, including magical poisons or other spells that were cast in an attempt to destroy these settlements and run the Europeans out of the Americas. As settlements continued to grow, many Native American tribes moved farther west, away from the Europeans. This movement occured because as colonies grew, it became more difficult for the Native Americans to cause enough harm to actually affect the growing colonies with potions or curses. However, their distancing from the settlers had repercussions due to a lack of interaction and fables spread by colonists that painted the indigenous people as dangerous savages. This wrongfully-held belief led to fear and eventually to the events surrounding the Trail of Tears in 1832, which forced many indigenous people out of their homelands. To this day, the treatment of Native Americans remains unjust and bleak, though many hold to hope that things will change for the better. 

Difficulties of Witches and Wizards in the New World

Though originally wizarding criminals looking for a new life were the most popular settlers to come to the new world, wizarding families began to make the journey in an effort to protect themselves from the witch hunts taking place in Europe at the time. Unfortunately, what many failed to take into account were the challenges associated with living in unfamiliar territory, surrounded by Muggles, and without the usual amenities that were readily accessible in Europe.

Though many wizardkind were able to protect their secret by taking on the role of healers (and thus making themselves indispensable) during the developmental years of the new colonies, it became increasingly difficult for new witches and wizards traveling over to protect themselves. Now, you may be wondering why they simply didn’t join the natives who were also magical. The answer may seem unexciting, but it’s not quite that simple. As you know, just because two people are magical doesn't mean they always get along. Furthermore, there were immense barriers of language and culture, which would have made even the most desperate immigrant wary of committing to living among the Native Americans. However, perhaps the most important reason was the simplets; they didn’t know. Imagine joining a settlement that deemed all native americans as dangerous and untrustworthy, recounting stories of bloodbaths and poisoning. Would you have wanted to interact with them either? If you were honest with yourself, the answer would likely be no. 

Thus, many wizarding families actually assisted the European settlers in making increasing settlement defense, developing medicines, and providing food. Although magical settlers never truly left the No-Maj settlements, magiarchaeologists and some magihistorians believe that there were sections within these settlements that were primarily magical, giving these families some protection, though nothing to the extent of wizarding villages they had in Europe.

With small pockets of the wizarding community spread throughout multiple colonies, communication and reliance upon one another was practically non-existent and led to an overall fragmented community. Furthermore, there was a complete lack of wizarding government in North America, though the No-Maj had formed their own. Remember those wizarding criminals I mentioned earlier? With no magical law enforcement to hold them back, they began to band together and form groups known for their betrayal of their own kind. These people were called Scourers. Originally, there were multiple bands spread throughout the colonies acting as a mercenary group of vigilantes and bounty hunters who used magic to track down wanted criminals for the No-Maj government or other individuals for a hefty reward. Their methods were… crude to describe it mildly, and often required members to engage in torture or even murder.

By the late 17th century Scourers began trafficking their own kind in addition to the No-Maj. Witch hunters had become very popular during this time and Scourers would capture their own kind (or an innocent No-Maj), passing them off to No-Maj witch hunters for hefty bounties. How did this happen? Why wouldn’t fellow wizards do something about it? Unfortunately, many Scourers had risen in the No-Maj ranks and many magihistorians believe that some judges presiding over the Salem Witch Trials were actually Scourers attempting to settle personal vendettas. The lack of wizarding laws and governmental systems, and the rise of Scourers in America created a hostile environment for wizarding kind and many families in Europe were dissuaded from emigrating to North America.

Thanks to the work of Theophilus Abbot, an American magihistorian, we have records of several families whose ancestry can be traced back to some of the original Scourers. These Scourer-founded families  had the unique philosophy of belief in the existence of magic coupled with an intense hatred of it and those who practiced it. Wizards and witches of this belief would  marry No-Maj men and women and abandon their magical offspring altogether in order to protect their cover and avoid the wrath of MACUSA, who did not look highly on No-Maj and magical relations, even before Rappaport’s Law was enacted. The dissociation from magic kept them safe from harm, but did not stop them from hunting their fellow wizards down with prejudice and frightening accuracy. This activism regarding the hatred of witches and wizards has been credited as the reason for why No-Maj are, according to Abbot, “harder to fool and hoodwink on the subject of magic,” than other populations who were simply removed from magic, as we see in Europe.

An example of a Scourer bloodline is the  Barebone family, with the notorious Mary Lou Barebone, as one of its most prominent historical members. Mary Lou was a descendent of Jonathan Edwards Barebone, a Scourer who had integrated into No-Maj society by marrying Angela Mible,  a No-Maj woman,in 1678. Notoriously famous in the wizarding world for their hatred of, yet unshakeable belief in magic, the Barebone family remains under the watchful eye of MACUSA even today. Perhaps the most vocal of all Barebones, Mary Lou became the leader of the New Salem Philanthropic Society and could often be found preaching to the public about the dangers of witchcraft in New York. More commonly than not, such public meetings were held after unexplainable disasters, such as the Obscurus havoc in 1962, warning people and inviting them to join the “Second Salemers” in the fight against wizardkind. Though this is not as big a problem now as it was during the early colonial period, it is important to recognize that some dangers are still very prevalent in wizarding society! 

I’m afraid I will have to stop for today before I ramble on and ruin the surprise for our next lesson! You have two essays, along with an extra credit assignment, to complete for next week. Please take these assignments seriously as one is to test your knowledge regarding the information provided in today’s lesson and the other to get you thinking about our topic for Lesson Three. Until then, enjoy the rest of your week!

Original lesson written by Professor Samuel Becker
Image credits here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here