Possible Individual Article Topics

HEADLINERS:

  • How the hysteria began
  • Indian Wars and their connection to Salem (KING PHILIP'S AND KING WILLIAM'S WAR (1688-1697, Abenakis and French . . . )
  • Report on the Interrogation of Rebecca Nurse
  • How the trials came to an end
  • How does the Massachusetts Bay Colony as a whole react, apologize, and carry on as a community?

Key Individuals, Events, and Other Ideas:

  • Tituba
  • Reverend Samuel Parris
  • Giles Corey
  • Increase and Cotton Mather
  • Rebecca Nurse
  • John Proctor
  • The Magistrates – Jonathan Corwin, John Hathorne, William Stoughton
  • Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne
  • Dorcas Good
  • Reverend George Burroughs (former minister, had moved to Maine—had a role in the wars . . . at execution, recited the Lord's Prayer . . . )
  • Interview with a major figure in the trials: (Tituba, Samuel Parris, Elizabeth and Abigail, John Proctor, Giles Corey, Mathers, or a figure of your own choosing)
  • Historical overview of the Massachusetts Bay Colony
  • The Court of Oyer and Terminer
  • Spectral Evidence
  • Governor Phips and the political instability of the colony’s charter
  • Black Magic
  • Historical background for witch hunts in general
  • Witch trials/accusations outside of Salem
  • Class gap between Salem Village and Salem Town
  • Mary Parsons—accused of witchcraft decades earlier
  • The Nine Years' War (of which the French and Indian Wars were a subset), and related to that, the fur trade in America
  • Farming and the general economy of the colony
  • The church—who had power? What did they believe? How did they practice their faith? Who was allowed in, who not? What were the buildings like?
  • Corn fungus—could a poison in their food have caused hallucinations?
  • Puritan fashion/clothes/other culture
  • Life of Puritan children
  • Methods of identifying a witch
  • Advice column
  • "Current" world events (what's happening between Britain, France, and Spain?)
  • Minorities in the colonies—what were their lives like?
  • Role the Bible played
  • Editorials
  • John Hale's A Modest Inquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft, by John Hale, 1702
  • Samuel Willard (former constable, later accused)
  • Life of Native Americans in the vicinity
  • Magistrate Samuel Sewall
  • Various religious heresies of the time
  • The Malleus Maleficarum
  • Biases of the court?
  • Thomas Brattle's letter condemning the belief in the witches
  • The Putnam vs. the Porter family conflict
  • Mary Easty/Eastey—related to Rebecca Nurse, was accused, then set free (!), but then accuser Mercy Lewis goes into severe hysteria, so two days later Easty is pulled back to prison, convicted—makes a really eloquent plea/letter
  • Isaac Newton and the early stages of Enlightenment
  • Synopsis of The Crucible, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s work, or other related literature