What is this a picture of?

The Salem Witch Trials (1692-3):

Over 100 people put on trial: Salem, MA

Accused of witchcraft

Forced to name others

150 arrested; 20 people executed; 4 died in prison

Historians see it as a period of hysteria and scapegoating.

(Pass out video questions for Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdX1vK03hRw )

How could this happen?• Can rumors get out of control and cause people to treat

others differently?

• Did you hear any rumors today? Did you believe the rumors?

• Essential Skills:

• 1) Explicitly assess conditions in New England leading up to the trials, and draw conclusions about causes

• 2) Reflect upon the impact of conformity and scapegoating on others

• Vocabulary Terms:

• Conformity: changing one’s actions to go along with a group

• Scapegoating: blaming another group of people for your problems

Background:

•Witch started in Europe 300 years earlier

•Since the Middle Ages up to 40,000 people executed as “witches” and for “doing the devil’s bidding”

•1484: Pope Innocent VIII declared witchcraft a heresy (Inquisition tortured and killed heretics)

•Villagers used witch hunts to get at their enemies.

•Witchcraft seen as threat to Church and treason against the Monarch of England, head of the church.

Salem, Massachusetts

•What do you notice about the accusers and the accused? •What do you think might explain this?

What conflicts & tensions in New England led up to the trials?

1.King Philip’s War (1675-1676)2.Dissenters Challenging Puritans3.King revoked MA charter in 16844.Women seen as sinful5.Salem was divided – tensions b/w East & West;

wealthy and poor 6.Puritans had little tolerance for diversity7.Puritan beliefs: Strict Behavior and…8.Predestination (a Puritan belief that God had

decided who was “saved”, that one could not earn salvation by good deeds)

1692 Salem: Witchcraft accusations, trials, hysteria

Consequences of the Salem Witch Trials

• 150 people arrested & imprisoned• 20 people executed as “witches” & 4 died in

prison • The witch hunts were short lived but

showed how hysteria, scapegoating, and conformity can affect a society.

Find a partner, and share an example of conformity or scapegoating from your lives.