A curriculum for middle and high school students

Download the Days of Judgment curriculum.

This series includes nine interdisciplinary lessons for students in grades six through twelve. It was developed by teachers and the Peabody Essex Museum to explore the Salem witch trials of 1692.

These lessons evolved from a Peabody Essex Museum workshop in June 1992 in conjunction with the city-wide tercentenary commemoration and the exhibition Days of Judgment: The Salem Witch Trials of 1692. The Peabody Essex Museum is the largest repository of court documents related to the Salem witch trials. Class visits to the museum include an interactive lesson of the John Ward House, c. 1690. This curriculum can help a class to prepare for a visit to the museum or be used as follow-up after the class trip. If you are unable to come to the museum, use these materials to augment regular classroom studies.

These lessons were developed with the generous support of the Stevens Foundation, The Boston Company, The Amelia Peabody Foundation, Polaroid Foundation, and OSRAM Sylvania. The printing and distribution of the packet was made possible by OSRAM Sylvania.

Table of Contents

• THEME PACKET I: Introduction
  Three lessons that recount the basic story of the Salem Witch Trials, compare secondary sources, and identify contemporary areas in which witch hunts can occur.
• THEME PACKET II: Jurisprudence/Law
  One lesson that distinguishes the various categories of evidence admissible to the 1692 Special Court of Oyer and Terminer and how these evidentiary rules reflected the beliefs of 17th-century Salem.
• THEME PACKET III: Folk Belief/Magic
  Two lessons that define magic in both a 17th-century and a 20th-century context, and relate colonial burial traditions to contemporary commemorations of individual lives.
• THEME PACKET IV: Critical Thinking
  Two lesson plans that apply a principle of sociology to the Salem Witch Trials as well as students' worlds, and compare the roles of women in Puritan society to those of late 20th-century women.
• THEME PACKET V: Material Culture
  One lesson plan that explores how 17th century poet Anne Bradstreet (1616 - 1672) linked ordinary occurances of domestic life with the spiritual world.
• Video Correlations for Theme Packets
  The video Days of Judgment: The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 is divided into subsections. The titles of the sections relate to the lessons.
• Extensive Reading List included
  Books for High School / Adult Reader