The Witchcraft Persecutions

Edel O’Donovan

  1. Title:

The Witchcraft Persecutions.

  1. Duration:

The module takes between six to eight weeks, with three forty minute classes per week. It is preferable to have one double class a week to facilitate internet and project work. In particular, this time is needed for work on the webquest section of the course, which requires sustained work on the computers for a number of weeks.

  1. Aims/Objectives:

The aims of the module are:

  • To teach in broad outline the causes and consequences of the witchcraft persecutions of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
  • To accustom the students to incorporating ICT into their historical investigations.
  • To make the students aware of the interdisciplinary and metaphorical uses of history through the use of Arthur Miller’s play ‘The Crucible’.
  • To raise questions about the use of film as an interpreter of history.
  • To foster an awareness of the relevance of history to contemporary life.

On conclusion of the module the students should:

  • Have developed their internet research skills.
  • Have examined the topic using a variety of primary sources.
  • Have developed their critical and analytical skills, in particular with reference to allegedly ‘historically accurate’ films.
  • Have a more autonomous approach to their studies.
  1. Teaching and Learning Strategies:

Group work on primary sources is a key element of this module, allowing the students to ‘discover’ much of the information themselves.

The video of ‘The Crucible’ is central to the latter half of the module.

Debates and Role-playing are used, particularly while teaching the interrogation methods and trials of the witches. This allows the students to see how a person could be ‘trapped’ into a confession. Don’t allow them to torture each other though!

Web-quests. Following on from the video, the students participate in a web-quest, which fosters research and group-work skills, while allowing them to apply what they have learned in a wider context. More information on this can be found in the content section.

  1. Content:

The following is only a broad outline of one possible approach to the topic, and should not be viewed as in any way comprehensive. While all of the topics could be covered in one forty minute class, the teacher should be guided by the students’ interest, and if possible expand their study of a particular area if the enthusiasm of the students warrants it:

a)A brief overview of the society of the sixteenth century (much of this is Junior Cert revision), with particular focus on the changes which were de-stabilising that society e.g. Renaissance, Reformation, Exploration etc. In particular, focus on the changes in Church, Town, and Kingdom. Examine how all of these institutions came under attack.

b)The reaction to these changes. Gradual acceptance that the devil is at work. Explain theological reasoning behind this. Why was it almost always women that were accused of being the agents of the devil?

c)Group work on contemporary writing explaining women’s susceptibility to the devil. More sensual, sinful, easily tempted, foolish etc.

d)How were witches identified? The marks of witchcraft – birthmarks, familiars, ugliness etc. Where did these ideas come from? Introduce ‘The Malleus Maelficarum’.

e)Contemporary records of witchcraft trials, stories of witches confessing or demonstrating their powers. How can we explain these as historians? How reliable are the sources?

f)A witchcraft trial. Methods of torture, and means of testing a witch. (The gruesome element always makes this a very popular class!)

g)Examine the spread of persecutions across Europe. Can we explain why they flared up in different places, and why they eventually petered out?

h)Briefly set the scene for ‘The Crucible’. Explain how the persecutions travelled to America, and the background to Miller’s writing of the play. The MacCarthy Witchunt etc.

i)Viewing of the film.

j)Visit the National Geographic site on the Salem Trials. Compare and contrast the accounts of the trials that we find there to the account that we viewed in the video. Can we explain the differences?

k)Webquest, and presentation of findings.

  1. Assessment:

The students will be assessed on their participation in class through oral questioning and group work.

The main assessment of this module occurs through the webquest, and since the rubric of the webquest makes the criteria for this very clear, the students are in no doubt as to what is required of them.

  1. Resources:

The Video of ‘The Crucible’ starring Daniel Day Lewis and Winona Ryder is obviously crucial for the latter half of this course. There are also study guides available for the film from the Film Education organisation in England. The text of the play may also be useful, but I’ve never had it!

The Malleus Maleficarum or ‘The Hammer of the Witches’ is the ‘official’ witch hunters guide written by two Dominican friars in the sixteenth century. It needs to be used very carefully however, since (a) much of the prose is so dense as to be unintelligible to sixteen year olds, and (b) some of the material isn’t suitable! I use it in edited form to show the students how much serious theological thought went into the question of witchcraft.

Website. There is a plethora of websites on the subject, but a word of warning. I would not recommend setting the students to researching the topic unguided, since some of the internet sites they will find are not going to be dealing with the historical phenomenon, but with more unsavoury aspects of the subject. However, a quick search by the teacher will easily yield useful primary sources which can be adapted for student use.

Website address I use one particular website on The Crucible, but rather than typing in the extremely long address I would advise you to type the words ‘Webquest Crucible The Macarthy Witchunt’ into a search engine like as, frankly, I find it a more efficient way to locate the site.

Books like ‘A History of Their Own’ have useful sections on the subject

  1. Links to other subjects:

The obvious link here is to the English department, who may wish to study ‘The Crucible’ as a literary text while it is also being studied as a historical artefact.

A less obvious link might exist to the sciences, since one of the more recent explanations for the witchcraft hysteria has been the presence of a hallucinatory fungus on some medieval grain crops. An investigation of this might make an interesting biology class!

  1. Evaluation:

Oral evaluation on a continuous basis allows for flexibility on the part of the teacher, who can expand or discard elements of the module depending on their effectiveness. The students also keep TY diaries, which provide valuable insights into their reaction to elements of the course.