Pottermore Reveals Magical History of MACUSA

by · October 6, 2016

There’s just over a month to go until we get to enjoy the full magic of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and find out just what Newt Scamander got up to in New York in 1926. Today, Pottermore has given us a more detailed look into the history of MACUSA, the Magical Congress of the United States of America. The new writing from J.K. Rowling concludes the “Magic in North America” series from Pottermore.

We’ve previously seen glimpses of MACUSA in the film trailers, and we’ve learned a little bit about 1920s MACUSA President Seraphina Picquery in the lead-up to the film release, but now we finally get to know more about the early beginnings of MACUSA. In the new history on Pottermore, which charts the beginnings of MACUSA, J.K. Rowling states that

MACUSA was modeled on the Wizards’ Council of Great Britain, which predated the Ministry of Magic. Representatives from magical communities all over North America were elected to MACUSA to create laws that both policed and protected American wizardkind.

The name of the first MACUSA president is revealed as President Josiah Jackson, and the names of the first 12 Aurors that made up the law enforcement are also listed, including some with curious connections to wizards we already know through Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts. 

Of these twelve, only two survived into old age: Charity Wilkinson, who would become MACUSA’s third President, and Theodard Fontaine, whose direct descendant Agilbert is the present[-]day Headmaster of Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Also of note are Gondulphus Graves, whose family remains influential in American wizarding politics, and Abraham Potter, whose distant relationship to the famous Harry Potter would be uncovered by eager genealogists centuries later.

The history gives us details about how and why MACUSA was forced to move all over the country looking for a permanent home.

America remained one of the most hostile environments for magical people, mainly because of Scourer descendants who had vanished permanently into the No-Maj community and who kept suspicion of magic alive. Unlike most Western countries, there was no cooperation between the No-Maj government and MACUSA.

Plus, we learn how the magical community dealt with Muggle and No-Maj conflict, such as in 1777 when

thousands of witches and wizards from all over America descended upon MACUSA to attend this extraordinary meeting, for which the Great Meeting Chamber had to be magically enlarged. The issue for discussion was: did the magical community owe their highest allegiance to the country in which they had made their homes, or to the global underground wizarding community? Were they morally obliged to join American No-Majs in their fight for liberation from the British Muggles? Or was this, simply put, not their fight?

Bringing us up to the 1920s, it is also revealed that

Rappaport’s Law was still in operation in the 1920s and several offices in MACUSA had no counterpart in the Ministry of Magic; for example, a sub-division dealing with No-Maj Fraternisation and an office issuing and verifying wand permits, which everyone, citizen and visitor, was supposed to carry within the States.

Let’s hope that there aren’t too many consequences for Newt Scamander following his adventures in New York in Fantastic Beasts!

We also find out just how we’re meant to be pronouncing MACUSA, which is

commonly pronounced as: Mah – cooz – ah.

You can read the full history here.

What do you think of the new history? What did you find most fascinating, and what do you think will have an impact upon Newt’s adventures in Fantastic Beasts? Let us know in the comments!

PRESS RELEASE

POTTERMORE PUBLISHES NEW WRITING FROM J.K. ROWLING
WITH REVEALING DETAILS ABOUT THE MAGICAL CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

WRITING AND VIDEO PROVIDE IMPORTANT BACKSTORY
TO THE UPCOMING FEATURE FILM FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM

London, England, 6 October, 2016 – ‘The Magical Congress of the United States of America,’ the third and final instalment in a collection of new original writing by J.K. Rowling entitled Magic in North America, was published on pottermore.com today. This latest writing explores the roots of America’s secret wizarding governing body, the Magical Congress of the United States of America (MACUSA). It is available exclusively on pottermore.com.

‘The Magical Congress of the United States of America,’ together with the short video, offers insightful background details for the upcoming Warner Bros. Pictures feature film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The film, which marks J.K. Rowling’s screenwriting debut, is set in New York in 1926, and will be released worldwide on 18 November 2016.

The new writing reveals how MACUSA was formed and tracks the odyssey of its various headquarters as it moved from an enchanted edifice in the Appalachian Mountains to Williamsburg, Virginia; Baltimore, Maryland; Washington, D.C.; and, finally, to New York City, where it was magically modified to be hidden from No-Majs (the American term for Muggles).

‘The Magical Congress of the United States of America’ also examines MACUSA’s place in American history, including the infamous ‘Country or Kind’ debate during the Revolutionary War, when members of the U.S. magical community questioned to whom they owed their allegiance. Another facet of the story looks at how the Statute of Secrecy—the law preventing wizards and witches from revealing the magical world to No-Majs—evolved.

Pottermore published two previous instalments of Magic in North America earlier this year, including ‘History of Magic in North America’ in March. This first piece of writing in the series revealed the history of North American witches and wizards, and in June, Pottermore unveiled the second instalment about Ilvermorny, the North American school of magic founded in the 17th century.

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About Pottermore

Pottermore, the digital publishing, e-commerce, entertainment and news company from J.K. Rowling, is the global digital publisher of Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World. As the digital heart of J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World, pottermore.com is dedicated to unlocking the power of imagination. It offers news, features, and articles as well as new and previously unreleased writing by J.K. Rowling.

About J.K. Rowling

J.K. Rowling is the author of the bestselling Harry Potter series of seven books, published between 1997 and 2007, which have sold over 450 million copies worldwide, are distributed in more than 200 territories and translated into 79 languages, and have been turned into eight blockbuster films.

She has written three companion volumes in aid of charity: Quidditch Through the Ages and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them in aid of Comic Relief; and The Tales of Beedle the Bard in aid of her children’s charity Lumos.

In addition to making her screenwriting debut on the film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, J.K. Rowling collaborated on a stage play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts One and Two, which opened in London’s West End in the summer of 2016. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a new play by Jack Thorne, based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany.

In 2012, J.K. Rowling’s digital entertainment and e-commerce company Pottermore was launched, where fans can enjoy her new writing and immerse themselves deeper in the wizarding world.

Her first novel for adult readers, The Casual Vacancy, was published in September 2012 and adapted for TV by the BBC in 2015. Her crime novels, written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, were published in 2013 (The Cuckoo’s Calling), 2014 (The Silkworm) and 2015 (Career of Evil), and are to be adapted for a major new television series for BBC One, produced by Brontë Film and Television.

J.K. Rowling’s 2008 Harvard commencement speech was published in 2015 as an illustrated book, Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination, and sold in aid of her charity Lumos and university–wide financial aid at Harvard.

About Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is an all-new adventure returning us to the wizarding world created by J.K. Rowling. Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) stars in the central role of wizarding world Magizoologist Newt Scamander, under the direction of David Yates.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them opens in 1926 as Newt Scamander has just completed a global excursion to find and document an extraordinary array of magical creatures. Arriving in New York for a brief stopover, he might have come and gone without incident…were it not for a No-Maj (American for Muggle) named Jacob, a misplaced magical case, and the escape of some of Newt’s fantastic beasts, which could spell trouble for both the wizarding and No-Maj worlds.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them also stars Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Samantha Morton, Jon Voight, Carmen Ejogo, Ron Perlman, Jenn Murray, Faith Wood-Blagrove, and Colin Farrell.

The film marks the screenwriting debut of J.K. Rowling, whose script was inspired by the Hogwarts textbook Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, written by her character Newt Scamander.

The film reunites a number of people from the Harry Potter features, including producers David Heyman, J.K. Rowling, Steve Kloves and Lionel Wigram. Tim Lewis, Neil Blair and Rick Senat served as executive producers.

Opening November 18, 2016, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.