Chapter 3: American Societies Take Shape, 1640-1720





The following activities accompany the Legacy for a People and a Nation on "Witch Hunts" in Chapter 3. Refer to page 85 of Norton, A People and a Nation, Sixth Edition for the complete text of this Legacy. There are three parts to this web page: Questions to Consider, Investigation, and Further Exploration.




Questions to Consider
1. In the West, we frequently pride ourselves on the assumption that our arguments are based upon facts. How did Salem, Massachusetts defy this assumption?

2. Why did the slave woman, Tituba, escape death even though she confessed to being a witch? Did her confession and ethnic background contribute to the hysteria in Salem?

3. How do the accusations, evidence, and societal context of excessive worry or hysteria in the Salem Witch Hunts in 1692 compare to Senator Joseph McCarthy's hunt for communists two and a half centuries later?

4. Do we find a common context between our two examples, where Americans throw out scientific evidence and accept unsubstantiated allegations?

5. How has Salem, Massachusetts profited from this past?


Investigation
See the original documents and later depictions of the trial by visiting Famous Trials. Developed by a law school professor, this site contains a number of famous trials in U.S. history including Amistad (1839-1840), Scopes Trial (1925), and the O.J. Simpson Trial (1995) for comparative analyses. As a writing exercise, compare the Salem trial with the O.J. Simpson one. How did each trial galvanize public opinion? What did the trials indicate about American society at the time they took place? Write 2-3 paragraphs answering these questions.




Further Exploration
1. Visit The Salem Witch Museum, a museum dedicated to the alleged Salem Witches. See where the victims lived in Massachusetts, read a short history, and see how a region profits from this short, but memorable event in U.S. history.

2. For numerous and diverse primary materials on the Salem Witch Trials, Witchcraft in Salem Village is an essential visit. You can search the text for words and phrases enabling a quick content analysis of the trial records. A complete list of participants from the accused to the judges is also provided. Note the names of prominent Americans like Cotton and Increase Mather.

3. The National Archives Records Service offers access to primary materials (telegrams) from Senator Joseph R. McCarthy to President Harry S. Truman. Read through these records to get a sense of similarities and dissimilarities between the evidence and accusations in 1692 and 1950. To reach the telegrams, go to NARA Archival Information Locator (NAIL) and click on NAIL Standard Search. Enter “Joseph McCarthy telegram” in the Keywords field and click “Display Results.”