October 29

Mary Elizabeth Lease, the International Red Cross, and the first recorded trial for witchcraft

Author

David Barnhart
October 29, 2025

Bolivia, 2006.

On October 29, 1863, eighteen countries met in Geneva, Switzerland and formed the International Committee of the Red Cross. In 1949 as part of the Geneva Convention, it was given an international mandate to care for victims of armed conflict.  

On this day in 1390, the first recorded trial for witchcraft began in Paris, France. Jeanne de Brigue was condemned and executed by burning. Witch trials reflected not only patriarchy but also Christian supremacy, and the brutal treatment of people accused of witchcraft would continue to stain the witness of the church for several centuries in Europe and the lands it colonized. 

Today marks the death, in 1933, of Mary Elizabeth Lease (“Mother Lease”), an advocate for African-American suffrage, women’s suffrage, and economic justice. Her work with the Populist Party in the 1890’s helped shape progressive politics for decades. 

Reflection:

Mary Elizabeth Lease wrote words which are as true today as they were over a century ago: 

“Wall Street owns this country. It is no longer a government of the people, by the people and for the people, but a government of Wall Street, by Wall Street and for Wall Street. The great common people of this country are slaves, and monopoly is the master. The West and South are bound and prostrated before the manufacturing East. Money rules and our Vice President is a London banker. Our laws are the output of a system which clothes rascals in robes and honesty in rags.”

and she lamented the economic inequality created using language which should be familiar to us:: 

“The common people are robbed to enrich their masters. There are thirty men in the United States whose aggregate wealth is over one and one-half billions of dollars.”

Today, that inequality has expanded astronomically: The richest 1% own half of all stocks in the United States, and the richest 10% own one third of all the wealth in the United States. 

Though it cannot be translated directly into policy, this figure is another illustration of inequality: Some estimates say there are 45 homes sitting empty for every homeless person in our country, while billionaire speculation on the housing market continues to drive up prices for home-buyers.

Prayer: God of justice, level the mountains of money and raise the valleys of debt so that all your people can have the opportunity for abundant life. Amen.