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American Studies
Introduction You and your group are going to become the court that decided the fate of many men and women who were accused of being witches or having some association with the devil. You will each have a position to fulfill in making the final decision. Just remember that if found guilty, these men and women will be hung or burnt at the stake and the decision is yours to make! Are you up for the challenge? Task In this WebQuest, you will research historical witchcraft
trials and especially the 1692 Salem Witch Trials and create
your own court pertaining to the way you think things should
have turned out. After some preliminary research, some groups
will be encouraged to investigate other historical witch trials,
in order to expand our knowledge of the historical context for
the Salem Witch Trials.
The Process 1) You will get into a group of 5 people and divide yourselves into the following positions. * The Judges (there will be 3) The person who accepts "The Accused" task will pick someone, who in 1692, was accused of witchcraft to represent. This person must an actual person from Salem in this time period who was accused of associating with the devil. You can find names as well as biographies on these people at the following sites. * Accused
of Witchcraft - To see the biographies of these people,
click on their name. There will be pictures and other information
on each person.
The person who accepts "The Afflicted" task will pick someone who was supposedly "afflicted" by the devil to represent. This person, too will have to be a real person from Salem. You can find the names as well as biographies of some of these people at these sites * The
Afflicted - A list of the afflicted persons. The 3 people who accept "The Judges" task will select a judge from the list below and represent them. * Judge John Hathorne - Biography
2) Once you have picked the person you wish to represent, you will research them using the links given and other links in the resource section. For the afflicted and accused, you will do a lengthy research on your character and decide whether or not you think they were guilty of witch craft and write a report on your decision. This report will be submitted to the judges, who will have the final say in deciding the fate of your character. You should ask yourself the following questions when making this decision. Remember, you are trying to prove that your character is innocent and trying to get the judges to see this too. * What kind of life did this person lead? 3) The accused and afflicted will then write their report on the innocence of their character and submit it to the judges, who will make a decision on the fate of your character (the verdict). The judges will be responsible to decide if the character is innocent or guilty of witchcraft and why? They too, will write a report on why they think this person is guilty or innocent. They will base their decision on the questions above for the afflicted and accused. The judges will also get to decide what happens to this person. Will they be set free or killed? Hung or burnt at the stake? The 3 judges should make their decisions together and write 2 reports (one for each character) together. These reports will be written to represent the verdict in court. *Note: All written reports will be summarized and presented in the multimedia (PowerPoint) presentations.
The Original Resource Page: Great Source of Resources on the history of Salem, a chronology of events, maps, and information on the aftermath of the events.
A Quote on Responsibilities: "The three groups most responsible for the trials included the young girls claiming to be bewitched; ministers of the Congregational Church (the official church of the colony), and government officials: the governor, William Phips, and the magistrates. Betty Parris, the minister's daughter, raised the initial charge. She was soon followed by five other girls, most of whom had some allegiance to the Putnams. Class warfare may have been vital to the spread of the accusations: The Putnams (representing the poorer farmer class) may have encouraged the girls to focus their efforts on those associated with the Porters (representing the wealthier merchants). Ministers, including Parris of Salem and Cotton Mather of Boston, fearing that the colony was under attack by evil forces, permitted the scare to become hysteria. The governor, hoping to calm public panic, authorized the trials. The magistrates, manipulated by fear, fashioned testimony (so as to mold it into accepted categories), and pressed for convictions. Thus, personal animosity (the Putnam clan), a true belief that Satan was on the attack (the ministers), and political advancement (the governor and the magistrates) all contributed to the hysteria.
Maps
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