1. Salem Witch Trials
O Christian Martyr Who for Truth could die When all about thee Owned the hideous lie! The world, redeemed from superstition's sway, Is breathing freer for thy sake today.
--Words written by John Greenleaf Whittier and inscribed on a monument marking the grave of Rebecca Nurse, one of the condemned "witches" of Salem.

2. Witchcraft in Puritan Massachusetts
June through September 1692
Executions:
At least 19 men & women were hanged
1 man pressed to death
Hundreds were accused of witchcraft
Dozens languished in jail for months
Then it ended
Possibly 13 people died in jail awaiting trial.

3. Why did it occur? Why Salem?
Combination of:
Ongoing frontier war
Economic conditions
Congregational strife
Teenage boredom
Personal jealousies
Gender Issues
Witchcraft?
Strong belief that Satan is acting in the world "The invisible world": disease, natural catastrophes, and bad fortune attributed to work of the devil
2.  A belief that Satan recruits witches and wizards to work for him Prior witchcraft cases in New England (and Europe before)
3.  A belief that a person afflicted by witchcraft exhibits certain symptoms Cotton Mather's Memorable Providences Most symptoms can be feigned
4.  A time  of troubles, making it seem likely that Satan was active Smallpox Congregational strife in Salem Village Frontier wars with Indians
5.  Stimulation of imaginations by Tituba.
6.  Teenage boredom No television, no CDs, and lots of Bible reading Strict and humorless Parris household
7.  Magistrates and judges receptive to accusations of witchcraft See as way to shift blame for their own wartime failures Admission of spectral evidence
8.  Confessing "witches" adding credibility to earlier charges.

4. Trouble Arrives? 1689 Samuel Parris became Village minister
John Putnam invited
Parris had been a marginally successful planter and merchant in Barbados
Parris brought his family
Wife Elizabeth, Betty, niece Abigail Williams, Indian slave Tituba
Is Tituba black?

5. Tidewater (S) vs. Piedmont (SV)
Mercantile elite was developing
Prominent people were less willing to be town leaders
Putnams and Porters were competing for control of town and pulpit
Debate over independence of Salem Village

6. Witches Strike February 1692 Betty Parris became strangely ill
Dashed about, dove under furniture, contorted in pain, complained of fever
Cotton Mather  Memorable Providences
Described suspected witchcraft of an Irish washerwoman in Boston
DEVIL WAS CLOSE AT HAND!

7. Witchcraft Spreads Friends of Betty Parris became similarly sick
Ann Putnam (11)
Mercy Lewis (17)
Mary Walcott (17?)
Dr. William Griggs failed to cure  suggested possible supernatural causes

9. Counter Magic Mary Sibley proposed to Tituba:
Bake a rye cake with the urine of the victim and feed the cake to a dog
This brought more suspicion on Tituba
Had told girls of omens, voodoo, witchcraft

10. Meanwhile Number of afflicted girls continued to grow
Ann Putnam, Elizabeth Hubbard, Susannah Sheldon, and Mary Warren (now 7)
Girls contorted into grotesque poses, fell down into frozen postures, and complained of biting/pinching sensations
Affliction was turning into an village obsession

11. Witch-hunt Begins Between Feb 25-29 arrest warrants for Tituba
Betty Parris, and Abigail Williams named their afflictors
Stories were remarkably similar
Ann Putnam and Mercy Lewis began reporting “witches flying through the winter mist”
Putnam family name gave credibility to accusations and impetus to prosecutions

12. First 3 Accused Tituba Sarah Good Sarah Osborn Indian slave
Beggar and social misfit who lived with various people
Sarah Osborn
Old, quarrelsome, had not attended church for over a year

13. First Examinations Scheduled for Ingersoll’s tavern March 1, 1692
Hundreds showed up so they moved to meeting house
Girls described the attacks by the specters of the accused
When in the presence of the “witches” the girls fell into a pattern of contortions
Other villagers provided stories
Food mysteriously spoiling, animals who were deformed after visits from the accused
Magistrates
Same questions repeatedly asked of each suspect:
Were they witches?
Had they seen Satan?
How, if they were not witches did they explain the contortions seemingly caused by their presence?
Guilty until proven innocent?

14. A Witch! First denied any guilt – afraid of being the scapegoat
Claimed she was approached by a tall man from Boston
Devil
She was a witch!
And she, Good, Osborn, and two others had flown through the air on their poles
Tituba became a central figure in the affair
Confession silenced her skeptics  and led to increased vigor in prosecutions

15. Why the Hysteria Ended
Doubts grow when respected citizens are convicted and executed
Accusations of witchcraft include the powerful and well-connected
The educated elite of Boston pressure Gov. Phips to exclude spectral evidence
Gov. Phips disbands the Court of Oyer and Terminer
“It were better that ten suspected witches should escape than one innocent person should be condemned.”
-Increase Mather
Reason for doubt:
Rebecca Nurse (jury first acquits, then told to reconsider)
George Burroughs (recites Lord's Prayer perfectly at hanging)
Giles Corey (81-year-old is pressed to death)
Powerful accused:
Wife of Governor Phips
Mary & Philip English (and others)
Pressure not to use spectral evidence:
Rev. Samuel Willard and others
Increase Mather points out the Devil could take the shape of an innocent person: "It were better that 10 suspected witches should escape than one innocent person should be condemned."

16. Have We Learned the Lessons of Salem?
What are the lessons?
Have we had "modern-day witch hunts"?
Hysteria happens Children (especially) can be influenced by suggestion and peer pressure to say things that are not true We should be skeptical of confessions when the confessions are the result of torture or when the person has a self-interest in confessing A "cooling off period" can sometimes prevent injustices Trials should be fair: evidence introduced should be reliable, witnesses should be subject to cross-examination, defendants should have legal assistance and be allowed to testify on their own behalf, and judges should be unbiased.
Modern witch hunts:
McCarthy "Communist hunts" of early 1950s (event that inspired The Crucible) Day care abuse trials of 1980s (child witnesses, accusations multiply, people afraid to support accused, unbelievable charges, hysteria) To read about a modern-day trial with many parallels to the Salem Trials, see The McMartin Preschool Abuse Trial (the longest and most expensive criminal trial in American history).
The case started in August 1983 when Judy Johnson, the mother of a 2½ year-old boy reported to the police that her son was abused by Raymond Buckey at the McMartin Preschool in Manhattan Beach, California.[1] After seven years of criminal trials, no convictions were obtained, and all charges were dropped in As of 2006, it is the longest and most expensive criminal trial in the history of the United States.[1] The accusations involved hidden tunnels, killing animals, Satan worship, and orgies.[4] Judy Johnson was diagnosed with acute schizophrenia[5][6] and in 1986 was found dead in her home from complications of chronic alcoholism.[7] Buckey and his mother Peggy McMartin were eventually released without any charges. In 2005 one of the testifying children retracted his testimony and said he lied, to protect his younger siblings and to please his parents.[8]
In The Devil in The Nursery in 2001, Margaret Talbot for the New York Times summarized the case:
"When you once believed something that now strikes you as absurd, even unhinged, it can be almost impossible to summon that feeling of credulity again. Maybe that is why it is easier for most of us to forget, rather than to try and explain, the Satanic-abuse scare that gripped this country in the early 80's — the myth that Devil-worshipers had set up shop in our day-care centers, where their clever adepts were raping and sodomizing children, practicing ritual sacrifice, shedding their clothes, drinking blood and eating feces, all unnoticed by parents, neighbors and the authorities."

18.
Read the Introduction
Read the Prologue
Experience the Trials
interactive
Read the Epilogue
Ask the Expert
Answer questions on following slide

19. Questions What is a “witch cake”?
Describe who were the judges in 1692.
Do you find Richard Trask’s answer about how historians know history satisfactory? Explain.
Who is Richard Trask related to?
What was the population of Salem in 1692?
Combined, how many witches were executed in England and New England?
Why were two dogs hanged?
What is the definition of witchcraft?
Witch cake = flour and urine from afflicted, fed to animal to see if the person was bewitched (making one was also an act of witchcraft)
Judges were prominent political and social people, not necessarily legally trained
John Proctor is his ancestor
Salem’s 1692 population about 550
1500 witches executed
2 dogs believed to be bewitched
Definition of witchcraft: In the 17th century, witches were both male and female persons who had made a pact to serve the devil. In exchange, the devil passed along certain powers to the witches.

20. Warrant Warrant for the arrest of Elizabeth Proctor and Sarah Cloyce

21. Map of Salem Map of Salem: Accusations, households, etc

22. Trial Procedure Procedure used in Salem Trials

23. “Man of Iron” Man of Iron

24. Death Warrants Death Warrants

25. You’re Accused You’re Accused

26. Socratic Seminar Guidelines
You are responsible for the seminar.
Stick to the point currently under discussion; make notes about ideas you want to come back to.
Refer to the text when needed during the discussion.  A seminar is not a test of memory. 
Discuss the ideas rather than each other's opinions.
Do not stay confused; ask for clarification.
Don't raise hands; take turns speaking.
Talk to each other, not just to the teacher or the leader.
Listen carefully and respectfully.
Speak up so that everyone can hear you.
Do not participate if you are not prepared. 

27. Inner Circle/Outer Circle Dialogue
DialogueDebate and/or DiscussionDialogue is collaborative; cooperative; multiple sides work toward a shared understandingDebate is competitive and/or oppositional; two (or more) opposing sides try to prove each other wrong; sometimes Discussion can move in this direction as well In dialogue, one listens to understand, to make meaning, and to find common groundIn debate, (and sometimes discussion) one listens to find flaws, to spot differences, and to counter argumentsDialogue enlarges and possibly changes a participant's point of viewDebate defends assumptions as truth; in discussions, participants may tend to "dig in"Dialogue creates an open-mined attitude; an openness to being wrong and an openness to changeDebate creates an close-minded attitude, a determination to be right;Discussion often tends to lead toward one "right" answerIn dialogue, one submits one's best thinking, expecting that other people's reflections will help improve it rather than threaten itIn debate, and often discussion, one submits one's best thinking and defends it against challenge to show that it is rightDialogue calls for temporarily suspending of one's beliefsDebate, and sometimes discussion, calls for investing wholeheartedly in one's beliefsIn dialogue, one searches for strengths in all positionsIn debate, and sometimes discussion, one searches for weaknesses in the other positionsDialogue respects all the other participants and seeks not to alienate or offendDebate rebuts contrary positions and may belittle or deprecate other participants; a discussion gone awry may end up this way as wellDialogue assumes that many people have pieces of answers and that cooperation can lead to a greater understandingDebate assumes a single right answer that somebody already hasDialogue remains open-endedDebate demands a conclusionDialogue is mutual inquiry; collective knowledgeDiscussion is individual opinions; individual knowledgeDialogue practices a productDebate and discussion produce productsDialogue is divergentDebate, and often discussion, is convergent

28. The outbreak of witchcraft at Salem was simply a religious hysteria
The outbreak of witchcraft at Salem was simply a religious hysteria. Assess the validity of this statement.

29. A Salem witchcraft style hysteria could never happen again
A Salem witchcraft style hysteria could never happen again. Assess the validity of this statement.

30. What aspects of Puritan culture led them to accuse, convict, and execute so many individuals for witchcraft?

31. Why have the Salem Witchcraft Trials remained so memorable?