Name: ________________________________________________ Date: _____________________________ Class: ____
The Witches of Salem
In 1692, a group of adolescent girls
Although an isolated incident, the
Salem
episode
has
long
fascinated
in Salem Village, Massachusetts, became
Americans. Most historians agree that Salem
subject to strange fits after hearing tales told
Village in 1692 experienced a kind of public
by a West Indian slave. They accused several
hysteria, fueled by a genuine belief in the
women of being witches. The townspeople
existence of witchcraft. While some of the
were appalled but not surprised: Belief in
girls may have been acting, many responsible
witchcraft was widespread throughout 17th-
adults became caught up in the frenzy as
century America and Europe. Town officials
well.
convened a court to hear the charges of
Even more revealing is a closer
witchcraft. Within a month, six women were
analysis of the identities of the accused and
convicted and hanged.
the accusers. Salem Village, as much of
The hysteria grew, in large measure
colonial New England, was undergoing an
because the court permitted witnesses to
economic and political transition from a
testify that they had seen the accused as
largely
spirits or in visions. Such "spectral evidence"
community to a more commercial, secular
could neither be verified nor made subject to
society.
objective examination. By the fall of 1692, 20
representatives of a traditional way of life
victims, including several men, had been
tied to farming and the church, whereas a
executed, and more than 100 others were in
number
jail (where another five victims died) –
members of a rising commercial class of
among them some of the town's most
small shopkeepers and tradesmen. Salem's
prominent
citizens. When
threatened
to
agrarian,
Many
of
the
of
Puritan-dominated
the
accused
accusers
witches
were
were
the
charges
obscure struggle for social and political
beyond
Salem,
power between older traditional groups and
ministers throughout the colony called for an
a newer commercial class was one repeated
end to the trials. The governor of the colony
in
agreed. Those still in jail were later acquitted
history. It took a bizarre and deadly detour
or given reprieves.
when its citizens were swept up by the
spread
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communities
throughout
American
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Name: ________________________________________________ Date: _____________________________ Class: ____
conviction that the devil was loose in their
homes.
6. Based on your knowledge of these events,
do you believe that the accusers believed
The Salem witch trials also serve as a
in the truth of the accusations they made?
dramatic parable of the deadly consequences
Explain your answer.
of
______________________________________________
making
sensational,
but
false,
charges. Three hundred years later, we still
_______________________________________________
call false accusations against a large number
______________________________________________
of people a "witch hunt."
_______________________________________________
______________________________________________
1. Salem Village was located in what colony?
_______________________________________________
a. Delaware
______________________________________________
b. Massachusetts
_______________________________________________
c. New Hampshire
______________________________________________
d. Virginia
_______________________________________________
______________________________________________
2. In America and Europe during the 1600s,
belief in witchcraft was very uncommon.
_______________________________________________
______________________________________________
a. True
_______________________________________________
b. False
______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
3. What was “spectral evidence”?
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
4. At the time of the Salem witch trials,
Salem was growing in religiosity.
______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
a. True
______________________________________________
b. False
_______________________________________________
______________________________________________
5. Today, we call false accusations against a
_______________________________________________
large number of people a _____.
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
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