Session 1: Salem, 1692: the real story

• Salem is a Puritan community in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Life is strict, winters are hard, and neighbours quarrel over land.
• In early 1692, two girls in the house of the minister Samuel Parris, his daughter Betty and his niece Abigail Williams, start having strange fits. A doctor suggests an "evil hand".
• The first three women accused are Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba, an enslaved woman in the Parris household. Tituba confesses and names others.
• A special court, the Court of Oyer and Terminer, is set up in 1692. It accepts "spectral evidence": a girl says she sees the spirit of the accused attacking her.
• More than 200 people are accused. Nineteen are hanged, among them the farmer John Proctor in August 1692. Giles Corey, who refuses to plead, is pressed to death under heavy stones. Several others die in jail.
• In 1711, the colony reverses many convictions and pays compensation. In 2022, Massachusetts officially cleared the last convicted woman, Elizabeth Johnson Jr.

Pre-reading: a Puritan sermon

Jonathan Edwards preached this sermon in 1741, half a century after Salem, but it shows the Puritan vision of sin and God.

1. Underline the images of fire and danger. What do they make the listener feel?
2. Find the simile. What is the sinner compared to? Why this animal?
3. Which verbs and adjectives show God's anger?
4. Quickwrite (five minutes): how would a community that hears such sermons every week react to a rumour of witchcraft?

Game: How Puritan are you? (Salem, 1692)

Imagine you are a villager in Salem in 1692. This quiz is about the period, not about your own life. Answer yes or no for your character, then count the points.

1. Your character works hard six days a week and rests on the Sabbath.
2. Your character goes to the meeting house every Sunday for a sermon of several hours.
3. Your character dances in the forest at night.
4. Your character reads the Bible at home with the family.
5. Your character wears bright colours and lace to show off.
6. Your character reports a neighbour who misses church.

Score: one point for each yes to questions 1, 2, 4, 6 and for each no to questions 3 and 5. The higher the score, the more your character fits the strict rules of Salem. Then discuss: was it easy to be a good Puritan? What happened to people who did not fit?

Puritanism stations

Groups move around four tables, five minutes each, and fill in a note sheet: one fact, one keyword, one question.

1. Faith: Puritans wanted to purify the Church of England. Many sailed from England to build a godly community in New England; the Massachusetts Bay Colony was founded in 1630.
2. The Sabbath: Sunday is a day of rest and prayer. Work, games and travel are forbidden. Absence from church is noticed.
3. Community and control: the church and the law are closely linked. Neighbours watch each other, and sin is a public matter.
4. Punishment: public punishments such as the stocks shame wrongdoers in front of everyone. Reputation is everything.

Pairs: Student A is a reporter from Boston, Student B is a Salem villager in 1692. The reporter asks about the girls, the accused and the court. The villager answers, frightened and convinced.