To receive the newsletter by e-mail,
sign up today!

The Salem Witch Trials

In January 1692, several young girls in Salem exhibited strange behavior such as seizures, babbling and screaming. No physical cause could be found by the doctors who examined the young girls. Their odd behavior was eventually attributed to Satan. The girls were then pressured to identify the source of the evil that was believed to have afflicted them. They named three women, women who were either different or unpopular. And so began what became the Salem Witch Trials.

The first accused witch to be found guilty and hung was Bridget Bishop. When the accusations and examinations were finished, many innocent people had been jailed. Some of them were released, but twenty-four people died as a result of this witch hunt. Nineteen people were hung, one was pressed to death beneath heavy rocks, and four people died as a result of their imprisonment. On September 22nd, the last of the victims were hung. By year end, public opinion changed, common sense prevailed, and the hysteria died down. Several dozen remaining people accused of witchcraft were released. The Salem Witch Trials had ended.

The three girls responsible for the uproar - Ann Putnam, Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams, went on with their lives. Ann Putnam, who had accused sixty-two people of witchcraft, had a difficult life after the witch trials ended. She lost both of her parents at a young age, and had to raise nine brothers and sisters on her own. She alone of the girls responsible for the Salem Witch Trials apologized for her role in them, doing so in 1706 before her church.

In this mini unit, you can: learn about life in Salem and how children lived, read the transcripts of the witch trials, view maps of Salem and Salem village, see a timeline of events, listen to a multimedia version of the story, test your knowledge with a Jeopardy-type game, complete a wordseek of witch trial terms and play an interactive role-playing game where you are accused.

Reading

Life in Salem

Puritan children

Transcripts of the Salem Witch Trials

Map and Timeline

Timeline of the Salem Witch Trials

Maps of Salem and Salem Village

Fun

The Story of the Witch Hunt

Salem Witchcraft Trials Jeopardy online game

Witchy Wordseek:

Activities

You're Accused! (Role-playing activity)

Recommended Resource

The Salem Witch Trials: An Unsolved Mystery from History

In 1692 Salem, Massachusetts, witnessed one of the saddest and most inexplicable chapters in American history.

When a group of girls came down with a horrible, mysterious bout of illness, the town doctor looked in his medical books but failed to find a reasonable diagnosis. Pretty soon everyone in town was saying the same thing: The girls were ill because they were under a spell, the spell of witchcraft! And still, the question remains: Why did the hysteria occur? The townspeople had many things to worry about back then: smallpox, strife with the local Indians, a preacher demanding higher wages, and the division of land in the community. But did all of those problems justify a witch hunt?

Become a detective as you read this true story, study the clues, and try to understand the hysteria! The Unsolved Mystery from History series is written by acclaimed author Jane Yolen and former private investigator Heidi Elisabet Yolen Stemple. This is an innovative history lesson that's sure to keep kids thinking throughout.

Authors: Jane Yolen, Heidi Elisabet Y Stemple, Roger Roth

Amazon price: $12.71

Read more about the book on Amazon