Edutopia - October/November 2008 - (Page 19)

were ﬂat-out nuts. And the events that led to the trials actually occurred in what is now the town of Danvers, then known as Salem Village. Salem makes a lot of hay out of the hysteria: The town calls itself Witch City, and the witch-on-a-broomstick image is everywhere—from the mascot of the local high school to the uniform patch of the town’s police ofﬁcers. There’s even a statue downtown of Elizabeth Montgomery, who played the enchantress Samantha in the television series Bewitched. An orienting ﬁrst stop is the Salem Witch Museum, which offers a narrated show depicting scenes from the trials on twelve stages. Life-size ﬁgures in period costumes represent the main characters, and the show is ﬁlled with eerie music and deep-voiced narrators saying things like “The devil was the Prince of Darkness, and he was everywhere.” Salem has changed remarkably since those days, but a number of the buildings that played a part in the hysteria remain. The most notorious is the Witch House, where some of the early hearings took place. In nearby Essex, be sure to check out the clerk’s ofﬁce in the Essex Superior Court House, which contains “Witch Pins” used in the examination of the accused and a small bottle puported to contain victim George Jacobs’s ﬁnger bones. The Peabody Essex Museum has hundreds of original documents and items relating to the trials. Then hop in your car and head to nearby Danvers. Although they are privately owned, several homes of the accused witches remain, and maps detailing the locations can be found at the museum. One of the most fascinating sites is the Foundations of the 1692 Parsonage, where the hysteria began. In the winter of 1691–92, it was here, at the home of the Reverend Parris and his wife, Elizabeth, that the circle of girls ﬁrst met to listen to Tituba’s tales of magic and the occult. You can wander around the site, ground zero for the madness that ensured. The best ﬁnal stop is the Salem SPOOKY STUFF Witch Trials Tercentenary Memorial, back in Salem. The memorial is a For lesson plans related to the Salem witch trials, visit quiet and contemplative place where edutopia.org/salem-lesson-plans prisoners’ names are engraved, each with their execution date, on individual stone benches. The pleas of the innocent are engraved along the walkway: “Oh Lord, help me! It is false. I am clear. . . .” “I am no witch. . . .” “If it was the last moment I was to live, God knows I am innocent.” It is here that the full human pathos of those dark days hits home. The Salem witchcraft trials may be 300 years removed from our own day, but their important lessons remain. When false implications, borne on the wings of paranoia, are interpreted as facts, terror results. That’s true whether the accusations are coming from bewigged Puritanical magistrates or ill-informed television commentators. One may hang, but the noose has quietly slipped around the necks of us all. e PHOTO INFORMATION GOES HERE Witch Hunt: • Likenesses of the witches and other trial notables can be found at the Salem Wax Museum (top left). • The Rebecca Nurse House, built in Danvers, Massachusetts (formerly a part of Salem), circa 1678, is where one of the women hanged in the Salem Witch Trials lived (top right). • The Salem Center Burying Ground (center left). • Books about witchcraft, many written by pastors, became common (center right). • An 1876 illustration of the courtroom during the trials (bottom). The “Great Delusion,” which started in Salem Village, Massachusetts, resulted in the deaths of twenty people. A belief in witches was common throughout Europe, and in this country, until 1692. EDUTOPIA.ORG EDUTOPIA 19 http://www.edutopia.org/salem-lesson-plans http://www.EDUTOPIA.ORG

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Edutopia - October/November 2008 Contents UpFront Feedback Dispatches Sage Advice Ask Ellen Head of Class Cool Schools Design: Lessons from the Mall The Bucks Start Here Go Global: Virgil Rocks Big Ideas: Powerful Learning Mapping Their Futures Heart & Soul Pop Quiz: Suze Orman

Edutopia - October/November 2008

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