Portfolio Assignment 3.2: Read Transcripts and Newspaper Article

Read Transcripts

In the appendices (A–D) you will read the transcripts of testimonies and examinations of actual people at this tumultuous time in Salem. You will also find a list of the accused and those executed. Read carefully as the language is a bit archaic (old-fashioned) and the spelling is not what we are used to now. You may want to take notes or write observations as you read through these transcripts. It is interesting to note how the accused are treated while being examined. Keep in mind that this is long before our nation became “our nation”. At the time, Massachusetts was still a British colony and the courts were not held under our current Constitutional guidelines.

Newspaper Article

After you have read these transcripts and other documents, you will pretend that you are a reporter from an unbiased village watching the proceedings. You are expected to write an unbiased newspaper article for your village’s newspaper about the strange rumors circulating about Salem and its supposed witches and trials. Include as much information as you can from these documents as you create an interesting news article. Don’t feel you have to use the complicated language the Puritans did at the time. Your article needs to be one and one-half full pages in length and will need to be typed. This assignment will be turned in with portfolio 1 after lesson 5.

Please format and submit your assignment according to the instructions in the syllabus.

Be sure to save your assignment as a .doc or .PDF file. Please keep copies of all assignments. Independent Study is not responsible for lost assignments.