Student Resources

• Anticipate: Worldview handout
• William Stoughton Primary Source Image
• William Stoughton and Injustice Narrative

Teacher Resources

• Analysis Questions 
• Virtue in Action  
• Journal Activity
• Sources for Further Reading  
• Virtue Across the Curriculum  

• Injustice: To harm others by applying unequal rules and damaging another’s inalienable rights and dignity. 
• Covenant: A usually formal, solemn, and binding agreement.  
• Spectral evidence: Witness testimony that the accused person’s spirit or spectral shape appeared to him/her witness in a dream.  
• Empirical: Based on, concerned with, or verifiable by observation or experience rather than theory or pure logic. 

Procedures 

• The following lesson asks students to consider the vice of injustice.  Students will engage with the story of William Stoughton and the Salem Witch Trials as they consider the question: Why is it important for community leaders and ordinary people to treat each other justly in a civil society? 
• The main activity in this lesson requires students to read and analyze a narrative that explores how William Stoughton led the Salem Witch Trials. Students may work individually, in pairs, or small groups as best fits your classroom. The analysis questions provided can be used to help students comprehend and think critically about the content. As the teacher, you can decide which questions best fit your students’ needs and time restraints.    
• Students will also explore the meaning of ‘worldview’ to understand the perspectives of people living in the past. 
• Lastly, the lesson includes sources used in this lesson for further reading and suggestions for cross-curricular connections. 

Anticipate

• Scaffolding Note: You may use this activity to prepare your students for the lesson about injustice and William Stoughton.  
• Essential Vocabulary: 
  • Justice: Upholding of what is fair and right. Respecting the rights and dignity of all. 
  • Injustice: To harm others by applying unequal rules and damaging another’s inalienable rights and dignity. 
  • Worldview: Overall perspective through which you see and interpret the world. 
• Distribute to the Anticipate: Worldview handout. 
• Define worldview with students. Ask for examples of things that would influence one’s worldview (i.e. class, gender, race, religion).  
• Have students create a mental map following the directions on the handout. After five minutes, ask students to think about how this map shows their worldview by considering: 
  • What did you draw first? 
  • Where are your “blank spaces”? 
  • What looks the least like it should? 
• Have students write a sentence about their worldview based on this activity.  
• Read the final paragraph about the worldview of the Puritans with students. 

Engage

• Transition: In the Puritan worldview, it was just to try and execute witches if they were found guilty. Before we explore the story of William Stoughton and the Salem Witch trials, let us think about the concept of justice.  
• Essential Vocabulary: 
  • Justice: Upholding of what is fair and right. Respecting the rights and dignity of all. 
  • Injustice: To harm others by applying unequal rules and damaging another’s inalienable rights and dignity. 
• Explore the symbolism of the image of justice from the Supreme Court using this handout. Use the following analysis structure to help your students explore the image. 

• Analysis: 
  • Observe:
    • Describe what you see. What do you notice first? What people and objects are shown? How are they arranged? What is the physical setting? What other details can you see? 
  • Reflect:  
    • What do you think the objects/symbols mean? Who do you think was the audience for this image? What can you learn from examining this image? What’s missing from this image? If someone made this today, what would be different? What would be the same? 
  • Wonder:  
    • What do you wonder about…
  • After analyzing the image, instruct students to draw their own image of injustice and explain the symbolism they chose to include.

Explore

• Transition to the William Stoughton and Injustice Narrative. Students will analyze the story of William Stoughton to understand injustice during the Salem Witch Trials.  
• Scaffolding Note: It may be helpful to instruct students to do a close reading of the text. Close reading asks students to read and reread a text purposefully to ensure students understand and make connections. For more detailed instructions on how to use close reading in your classroom, use these directions. Additional reading strategies are provided for other options that may meet your students’ needs. 
• Essential Vocabulary: 
  • Injustice: To harm others by applying unequal rules and damaging another’s inalienable rights and dignity. 
  • Covenant: A usually formal, solemn, and binding agreement.  
  • Spectral evidence: Witness testimony that the accused person’s spirit or spectral shape appeared to him/her witness in a dream.  
  • Empirical: Based on, concerned with, or verifiable by observation or experience rather than theory or pure logic. 
  • Immoderation: Acting in excess or to an extreme. Lacking restraint. 
• Transition to the analysis questions. Have students work individually, with partners, or as a whole class to answer the questions. 
• Scaffolding Note: If there are questions that are not necessary to your students’ learning or time restraints, then you can remove those questions. 
• Analysis Questions 
  • Why did people believe that witchcraft posed a threat to their community? 
  • How did responses to the perception of witchcraft outbreaks end up damaging communities?
  • Explain why the New England Puritans believed that it was important to act virtuously in their communities. 
  • What was William Stoughton’s role in the Salem Witch Trials? 
  • What is spectral evidence? Why was it unjust to use it in trial as opposed to empirical evidence? 
  • Samuel Sewall later apologized for his role in the trials. Do you think that individuals who recognize that they committed an act of injustice should be forgiven? Why or why not? Should William Stoughton be forgiven despite not regretting his role in the trials? Why or why not? 
  • Why is it important for justice to be carried out in order to have a healthy community? 
  • What does injustice look like in leadership? What does injustice look like among ordinary citizens?  
  • How can injustice break down the convents, or agreements, we create with the people in our communities?  
  • Why is it important for community leaders and ordinary people to treat each other justly in a civil society? 

Assess & Reflect

Virtue in Action  

• A “witch hunt” is a term commonly used to imply that individuals are being unjustly accused and found guilty of a crime.  
• Ask students to reflect on an instance of injustice they observed or experienced. Then instruct them to make a list of actions they can take to ensure that justice is upheld in their communities.  
• These lists can be displayed in the classroom or shared between partners or small groups.     

AND/OR

Injustice Journal Activity  

• Have students self-reflect and answer the following questions in their journals: 
  • What are the ties that bind us together today?  For example, what are the rules or responsibilities you have in the classroom that makes this space safe and productive for everyone? What other civic virtues besides justice help us live in a just society?  
  • You may use this handout to explore other civic virtues.  

Extend

Sources & Further Reading  

• Explore the following list for additional sources and further reading on William Stoughton.  
  • Baker, Emerson W. A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.  
  • Boyer, Paul and Stephen Nissenbaum. Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974.  
  • Hoffer, Peter Charles. The Salem Witchcraft Trials: A Legal History. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1997.  
  • Karlsen, Carol F. The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England. New York: W.W. Norton, 1998.  
  • Norton, Mary Beth. In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692. New York: Knopf, 2002.  

Virtue Across the Curriculum  

• Below are corresponding literature suggestions to help you teach about justice and injustice across the curriculum. Sample prompts are provided for the key corresponding works. For the other suggested works, or others that are already part of your curriculum, create your own similar prompts.    

• • The Crucible by Arthur Miller
    • Arthur Miller’s play dramatizes the actions of the Salem Witch Trials. Which characters embody the virtue of justice? The vice of injustice? Explain your reasoning.  
  • Good Night, and Good Luck (2005) directed by George Clooney  
    • This film takes place in 1963 and focuses on the interaction between early broadcast journalism and Senator Joseph McCarthy’s accusations of communism. What is the role of the press in ensuring justice in a free society? The public?