Did they ever burn ...

[Tender Branson]

Yes, they burned all kinds of people in my area, especially between 1200 and 1800: "witches", red-haired people, "heretics", etc.

I was reading about it recently in the city chronicle book.

[Flake]

Unless native Americans did it then no.

[Supersonic]

Not entirely sure, I imagine so though.

[TDAS04]

Unless native Americans did it then no.

[angus]

Don't know.  This city was founded in 1729 and by then the witch hunt was pretty much over in the Americas, although I understand that in Austria it was still going on at that time.  

About an hour east of here, in the Eddystone borough in what was the William Penn colony (now suburban Philadelphia) in 1683 a witchcraft trial was held.  It was the Penn colony's only such trial.  The convicted paid a fine and promised six month's good behavior.  I think that was the end of it.

[bedstuy]

I don't know about historically. 

But, there have been a few instances of lighting people on fire to kill them in Brooklyn recently.  A few years back a City Marshall was beat and lit on fire when he tried to evict someone.  More recently, a handyman killed a client by lighting her on fire because he thought she stiffed him on payment.  Maybe he also thought she was a witch, I don't know.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/12/18/man-charged-in-brooklyn-womans-burning-death/

[Tender Branson]

Don't know.  This city was founded in 1729 and by then the witch hunt was pretty much over in the Americas, although I understand that in Austria it was still going on at that time.  

About an hour east of here, in the Eddystone borough in what was the William Penn colony (now suburban Philadelphia) in 1683 a witchcraft trial was held.  It was the Penn colony's only such trial.  The convicted paid a fine and promised six month's good behavior.  I think that was the end of it.

The last witch burnings here occurred in the early 19th century.

The years after the 30-Year-War were the worst though:

Alone between 1675 and 1679, 133 people were executed for witchcraft in my state alone (which has only 500.000 people now).

A lot of them were burned, others were wheeled (or whatever the English name for this is), others hanged.

Almost all were severely tortured before.

[dead0man]

No, but we did lynch a black guy within the last century.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

No, but we did lynch a black guy within the last century.

Just one?

[angus]

A lot of them were burned, others were wheeled (or whatever the English name for this is), others hanged.

Ah, the infamous radebreken.  I've read about that.  It didn't see much use in English America, but in French America it was used in the mid-1700s, around New Orleans, for escaped slaves.  Hanging was the preferred method for witches in British North America, I think.

[Lief 🗽]

Nah, we didn't burn witches. Just slaves.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

In most places at least there was a lot less of that kind of thing than subsequent centuries have imagined (and it tended to happen later than often imagined as well).

[Lambsbread]

Not sure actually. Suburban Philly wasn't exactly a breeding ground for religious cultism, but I'm not sure.

[Franzl]

The area that belongs to modern Germany was where the most witch burnings took place, I believe.

[MaxQue]

Given mu city was founded in 1935, clearly not, especially than, then, with all the woodland, people were very afraid of wildfires.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Nah.. they did used to hang criminals here until 1911 or so when one guy's feet touched the ground and the cop had to hold his feet up to kill him.

Obviously it was a ghastly affair and capital punishment was abolished not long after.

In fact, I don't think there ever was an execution in my town.  Even the whites and the Ojibwe got along as well as you could expect considering the history of whites settling native lands.

[minionofmidas]

Frankfurt never burned a witch since preserved records begin (14th century), and in the time of the great German witchhunts of the 16th and 17th century the city prosecution office was proud of the fact. German cities then often asked each other second opinions of legal cases, and Frankfurt had a standard one on witchcraft cases that basically ran "most witchcraft allegations are bullsh!t and we see nothing in your case to suggest different". They did occasionally arrest someone for a few days or weeks whom all the neighbors were saying was a witch, though. The crime of witchcraft was on the lawbooks, after all.

[minionofmidas]

The area that belongs to modern Germany was where the most witch burnings took place, I believe.

More specifically: The smaller protestant cities and principalities; and the ecclesiastical states (or whatever the English term is) which are obviously Catholic. The larger territorial states and the larger cities both were comparatively harmless.

Overall, Catholics and Protestants were about equally likely to hang you for a witch... but Protestants were far more single-mindedly concerned with burning women of the lower orders. Catholic parts had a larger minority of males and of people of status among their victims - including, memorably, a mayor of Bamberg and a chief justice of Trier.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Not sure actually. Suburban Philly wasn't exactly a breeding ground for religious cultism, but I'm not sure.

Philadelphia was founded by people who were considered a religious cult in their day - the Quakers, but that sect didn't have any interest in witch hunting.  According to Albion's Seed, the courts in the Quaker colonies never executed any witches but sometimes the people took the law into their own hands.  There was a riot in Philadelphia over the acquittal of an accused sorcerer in 1749 and a woman stoned to death by a mob in 1787.

In colonial Virginia the courts occasionally punished witchcraft, but almost always by nonlethal means such as corporal punishment and/or banishment. There were many more suits won by accused witches against their accusers than there were guilty verdicts.  This site has lists of witch trials.  In what's now Virginia Beach in 1706 a woman named Grace Sherwood who had already been accused and acquitted along with her husband two times, didn't show up at her trial. They arrested her, gave her a dunking test and shackled her in jail. No record of what happened next but she lived until at least 1733.  She is known as "the Witch of Pungo" after the village where she lived, and gave her name to Witch Duck Point.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Americans didn't live here until the 1890s, so no, we did not.

[Meeker]

We have a not very pleasant history when it comes to Chinese immigrants, but I don't think we ever burned anybody: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~hist32/History/S01%20-%20Wash%20State%20riots.htm

[minionofmidas]

Americans didn't live here until the 1890s, so no, we did not.

of course many Native American peoples also routinely killed witches. But they didn't burn them, I suppose.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

and the ecclesiastical states (or whatever the English term is)

Not sure if there is a term; Durham (which is the English equivalent, as you know) was officially just a County Palatine that happened to be run by a Bishop.

[RogueBeaver]

Don't think so.

[minionofmidas]

Well, I am unsure what term Anglophones use when talking about the German thingies.

Oh, and addendum:

including, memorably, a mayor of Bamberg and a chief justice of Trier.

A chief justice of Trier and avid witchhunter. The man was literally burned by his own witchhunt.