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Kai Erikson, The Witches of Salem Village

Kai Erikson, The Witches of Salem Village

Read The Witches of Salem Village and check your comprehension by answering the following questions. Then “submit” your work.

1. Who probably introduced the ideas of the magic arts into Salem?

a slave from Barbados

American Indians

pirates from the Caribbean

a few Puritans, who brought the ideas with them from England

2. What was “the book”?

the Devil’s registry

a password into a secret organization

the Catholic Bible

a pamphlet containing recipes from the islands that was circulated in the colonies

3. Who were the initial victims and accusers?

Salem’s clergymen

villagers newly arrived from England

a small number of excitable teenage girls

local townswomen

4. What was gradually happening with the witchcraft epidemic?

Men eventually outnumbered women among the accused.

Accusations of witchcraft were beginning to ascend the social ladder.

More and more children were being accused.

People in other towns began laughing at the spectacle in Salem.

5. From beginning to end, how long did the witchcraft hysteria last?

intermittently, over five years

a few weeks

almost a decade

one year