The ‘swimming’ of Mary Sutton (1615)   

The swimming of witches was practiced officially up to the end of the 18th century in England. A suspect would be stripped naked and thrown into a deep stream or pond three times. If she sank and drowned she was innocent – if she ‘fleeted’ (floated) she was ‘guilty’.

The invention and persecution of witches is an essential component of class warfare.

Drowning Witches is a tribute to the citizen journalists who painstakingly make informed resistance possible in a plutocracy where we are suspected of being surplus –  and presumed guilty.

The site masthead is from Dissidents, oil pastel on cartridge, 2013 by Waqas Ahmed.

Drowning Witches is grateful to the folk over at  mcnultyMEDIA for their quite remarkable help and encouragement.