Theme 4 Chapter 1 : The Salem witch hunt (1692-1693): a glimpse of colonial America

Theme 1: Evolutions and changes in the societies of the 17th and 18th centuries

Chapter 1: The Enlightenment and the development of sciences

Salem is the most known, most studied and most deadly of all British colonial witch-hunts. Witch-hunting in New England started in 1647 in Connecticut but mostly took place in the second half of the 17^th century and was at its peak in the 1690s. The Salem witch trials between 1692-1693 have become infamous: indeed, altogether 185 people were accused of practicing witchcraft during the Salem hunt, although only 59 were tried and as a result 20 died. Prior to the hunt of the 1690s, only 93 cases had been heard by a court in the previous 50 years in New England, of these around a fifth (16 persons) had resulted in individuals being executed. Before 1692, witchcraft cases in America had usually involved only one or two people. Furthermore, there had been no death sentence for witchcraft in the region since 1663 except for a case in Boston in 1688.

What did happen in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692-1693? What can we learn about colonial America through these facts?

Une étude de cas pour aborder en SELO ou en DNL en 2nde la société américaine pré-coloniale et les cultures populaires à la fin du XVIIème siècle. La leçon mêle des activités de compréhension orale, écrite et des travaux de recherche.

En documents attachés, plusieurs fichiers qui sont proposés dans un format ouvert afin de permettre leur modification par l’utilisateur :
– un fichier leçon

– 4 fichiers activités

– quelques éléments de correction

On pourra également s’appuyer sur le documentaire de National Geographic pour quelques extraits : The Salem witch trials que l’on peut consulter en suivant le lien suivant :

Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ddKfab3exg