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History
Standard 3 Resource
The Salem Witch Trials
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| Benchmark Addressed:
History 3 (Interpretation) |
| Suggested Task 1:
Read each paragraph
and summarize (paraphrase) each thesis.
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| Thesis
1
Witchcraft
did exist
and was widely
practiced
by New Englanders
during the
seventeenth
century. The
young girls
living in
Salem did
not "fake"
their afflictions,
but rather
they suffered
from mental
illness. Members
of the clergy
reacted to
the excitement
in a restrained
manner, and
some of them
even tried
to put an
end to the
witch trials.
The witch
trials occurred
in reaction
to the public's
real fear
of witchcraft.
Salem was
not unique,
witch hunts
occurred throughout
Europe and
the colonies
and resulted
in the persecution
and execution
of hundreds
of people.
From Witchcraft
at Salem (1969)
By Chadwick
Hansen
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| Thesis
2
Social
and economic
tensions motivated
the witch
trials that
took place
in Salem,
Massachusetts
during the
1690s. When
adults within
the community
observed the
crazed behavior
of several
young girls,
they determined
the girls
were not witches,
but rather
they were
afflicted
by the witchcraft
of others.
Those adults
encouraged
the girls
to identify
their political,
economic,
and social
rivals as
witches. Political
developments
in Boston
and London
both preoccupied
and interfered
with the power
of local
authorities
to stop the
trials and
executions.
By September
1692, hundreds
of people
had been arrested
as witches;
nineteen of
them were
convicted
and executed.
From Salem
Possessed:
The Social
Origins of
Witchcraft
(1974)
By Paul Boyer
and Stephen
Nissenbaum
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Suggested
Task 2: List and explain possible reasons
for the differences in the interpretations that
appear above.
Grades
4-5: relate answers to "the evidence presented
or the point of view of the author."
Grade 6-8: relate
answers to the historians "choice of questions
and use of sources."
Grades 9-12: relate
answers to the historians' "choice of questions,
use and choice of sources, perspectives, beliefs,
and points of view."
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