After the Fact Interactive: The Visible and Invisible Worlds of Salem

In this module, students investigate one of the oldest murder mysteries in American history: the Salem Witch Trials. What began with a girl taken ill in the winter of 1692 grew within months into a religious trial that hanged nineteen, pressed to death one, and disrupted the lives of colonists high and low throughout the region. The module's vibrant sample of primary documents includes court records, diaries, paintings, sermons, an interactive map, and even colonial tavern songs. Together they illuminate the web of social, religious, and personal motives behind the trials and introduce one of the best-documented yet fiercely debated questions in American history.