Salem Witches

NC H.2.1 Explain the impact of economic, political, social, and military conflicts on the development of North Carolina and the United States.

Warm Up : Witch Hunt Activity "Role Play"

* Students will receive a random character card (Links to an external site.). Objective is to determine who among them has the witch card/s. Each card has an occupation and likely statement made by the role.

Lesson

Witch Hunt Debrief (Links to an external site.)

The infamous Salem witch trials began during the spring of 1692, after a group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcraft. As a wave of hysteria spread throughout colonial Massachusetts, a special court convened in Salem to hear the cases; the first convicted witch, Bridget Bishop, was hanged that June. Eighteen others followed Bishop to Salem’s Gallows Hill, while some 150 more men, women and children were accused over the next several months. By September 1692, the hysteria had begun to abate and public opinion turned against the trials. Though the Massachusetts General Court later annulled guilty verdicts against accused witches and granted indemnities to their families, bitterness lingered in the community, and the painful legacy of the Salem witch trials would endure for centuries.

Assignment:

1. What was the cause of the Salem Witch Trials?

* *Fear of the different, Religious Intolerance

2. How did our activity create hysteria / panic / chaos?

* The witch hunt simulation allowed for students to experience first hand the disorder and chaos making false accusations of their peers being witches, when in reality the were just weird and different than the traditional social norms. 

3. What would happen to those accused of witch craft?

Recorded Lesson 9/14/2020