1. What caused the Salem Witch Trial Hysteria of 1692?
ALWAYS REMEMBER THE QUESTION! The answer to this question is your essay topic!
What caused the Salem Witch Trial Hysteria of 1692?

2. IDEAS FOR BUCKETS
BUCKET 1– Age, Gender, Marital (Demographics) – the role of demographics
BUCKET 2- Dishonesty- young people seeking attention and/or being susceptible to others’ influence
BUCKET 3 – Town Division/ Tensions - and the underlying tensions in the community (residential patterns, wealth, class, age group, gender, etc.)

3. Town Division/ Tensions
Demographics
Dishonesty
Town Division/ Tensions
Cause #1
The Salem Witch Trail was caused by
Cause #2
Cause #3

5. Remember this about documents and buckets!
Try to use ALL the documents somewhere in your essay (unless you are totally clueless about one of them…)
You do NOT need to use documents in multiple buckets, but you may find that you CAN depending on the part of the document you are looking at
Do NOT analyze the actual documents in the essay--make your point, possibly quote a small part of the document to support your point, and then put the doc letter in parentheses--your ideas take center stage, not the documents themselves, ok?

6. For example…here’s my lovely sentence (or two):
One reason for the witch hysteria in Salem is the town division. Document E clearly shows that the accusers were residing in the less favorable area of the town. There were not as wealthy or powerful as the residents on the east of Salem Village. The hysteria may have been caused by jealousy due to the differences in geographic resources.

7. OK, so here are some bucketing ideas…
Please remember that depending on the argument you make, the documents may move to different buckets…
Also, the bucketing here represents my brainstorming--you don’t have to agree with the way I structured things, but you DO have to prove your point using whatever organizational structure you ultimately create

8. Document A, Document B
Document A shows deaths that correspond with specific dates and that women were more likely to be accused of witchcraft.
Docs B show the age and gender differences between the accused and the accuser.

9. Document C, Document D
Document C shows dishonesty of the girls based on Bridget’s movement.
Document D is a multi-bucket document. It shows:
The lying of the girls and the denial of the community
The girls act so well that the community believes and it becomes hard to stop
Can be used in several different buckets
In bucket 1, can be used to show how the community came together to hold trials and mass executions
In bucket 3, can be used (along with Doc E) to show that most “witches” were women, and that this was partly a social tension based on gender (or younger women vs. older women who had authority over the younger women)

10. Doc D
Can be used in multiple buckets, depending on the part of the painting--think carefully!!
For bucket 1, shows community coming together, looking for signs; fear that evil is all around them
For bucket 2, young hysterical girls in the front right
For bucket 3, notice the two men glaring at each other in the front right and front left of the painting…what could that demonstrate?
I’m sure you have other ideas about how you could use this painting--be creative!

11. Document E
As with Doc B, depending on whether you focus on social tensions, such as wealth.

12. Once you have your buckets/main ideas…
Write a thesis statement that captures the essence of all your main ideas
Make sure you address the points in your paper in the same order you listed them in your thesis!

14. PRACTICE
Based on your chicken foot, create your own thesis and compare them to the following examples.

15. THESIS #1
“Some of the causes of the Salem witch hysteria of 1692 are the role of demographics of Salem, dishonesty, and the geographic tensions between villagers.”

16. THESIS #2
“Three causes for the Salem Witch hysteria were demographics, dishonesty, and tensions between villagers. ”

17. Once you have your buckets AND your thesis…
Write an introductory paragraph with your brilliant thesis as the last sentence of that paragraph
Write 3 body paragraphs, elaborating on one of the buckets in each of the paragraphs; don’t forget to cite docs!
Write a conclusion

20. 5 Paragraph Essay
Paragraph 1 (Introduction): Introduce the topic and include your thesis statement(Tell the reader what you’re gonna tell them about).
Paragraphs 2-4 (Body): In each paragraph you should explain each cause of the Salem Witch Trials and provide evidence from the documents(Tell them) The buckets!
Paragraph 5 (Conclusion): Restate the causes again and conclude your essay(Tell them what you told them).

21. Grading Rubric Organization (5 paragraphs) 15 points
Evidence (Information cited from documents to support causes) 15 points
Conventions (Transitions between different topics) 10 points