Excerpts from "The Lessons of Salem"

For the Tercentenary (300th anniversary) of Martha Carrier's execution, Laura Shapiro looks at the Salem witch trials through the lens of America's history of fearful injustices. This view is an indictment that she hopes humanity would learn from. Here is a list of some key points from her article.

Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 11 Unit 2's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: The Crucible, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, The New England Primer, The Trial of Martha Carrier, The Lessons of Salem, The Very Proper Gander, Declaration of Conscience, Why I Wrote The Crucible, Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, Speech to the Virginia Convention, The Gettysburg Address, FDR's First Inaugural Address , JFK's Inaugural Address
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. reproach
    disgrace or shame
    "I am afraid that ages will not wear off that reproach and those stains which these things will leave behind upon our land."
  2. emphasis
    special importance or significance
    With the participation of such organizations as Amnesty International, the Tercentenary has placed a special emphasis on human rights and the role of the individual conscience in times of terror.
  3. represent
    take the place of or be parallel or equivalent to
    At the heart of the Tercentenary is the awareness that the witch trials represent more than just a creepy moment in history: they stand for the terrible victory of prejudice over reason, and fear over courage--a contest that has been replayed with different actors, again and again since 1692.
  4. purport
    have the often misleading appearance of being or intending
    Modern witch hunts include the roundup of Japanese-Americans during World War II, the pursuit of Communists in the '50s and, according to an increasing number of critics, some of today's outbreaks of community hysteria over purported sex abuse in preschools.
  5. revulsion
    intense aversion
    Just as in Salem, the evidence in these cases tends to spring from hindsight, fueled by suspicion and revulsion.
  6. contentious
    showing an inclination to disagree
    A contentious place, chafing to pull free of Salem Town and its taxes, Salem Village had suffered bitter disputes over its first three ministers before settling on a fourth, the Rev. Samuel Parris.
  7. indulgence
    the act of gratifying a desire
    For girls raised in Puritanism, which demanded lifelong discipline and self-control, these sessions with Tituba represented a rare and risky bit of indulgence in pure fancy.
  8. succumb
    give in, as to overwhelming force, influence, or pressure
    Often their distress was traced to local women who, it was said, had entered into a compact with the Devil and were now recruiting new witches by tormenting the innocent until they succumbed.
  9. contortion
    a tortuous and twisted shape or position
    fits were spreading like smallpox; dozens more girls and young women went into violent contortions, flailing, kicking and uttering names
  10. misgiving
    doubt about someone's honesty
    All along, there were townspeople who had misgivings about what was happening.
  11. spectral
    resembling or characteristic of a phantom
    What's more, clergy in both Boston and New York were expressing dismay over the witch trials, especially the reliance on "spectral" evidence, such as the sight of the Devil whispering in Martha Carrier's ear--otherworldly evidence invisible to everyone but the person testifying.
  12. hysteria
    state of violent mental agitation
    hysteria "can mimic all the physical diseases known to man," and occurs when repressed thoughts and emotions burst forth and take over the body
  13. illiterate
    not able to read or write
    Life could be dreary for girls in 17th century Salem: their place was home and their duty was obedience; many were illiterate
  14. theology
    a particular system or school of religious beliefs
    there were few outlets for youthful imagination except in the grim lessons of Puritan theology
  15. antagonism
    an actively expressed feeling of dislike and hostility
    Historians have long believed that local feuds and property disputes were behind many of the accusations, and in "Salem Possessed" (1974), Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum uncovered patterns of social and civic antagonism that made the community fertile ground for a witch hunt.
Created on Tue Nov 11 12:19:38 EST 2014 (updated Wed Nov 12 10:26:09 EST 2014)

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