ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
Event Videos 18 videos
Time for some heavy stuff. The Valladolid debates took place in the 16th century, right around the time Spanish were coming over to the New World,...
Let us tell you about the Korean War. It was this war where...well, what happened was...huh. Isn't that the craziest thing.
The Salem Witch Trials 10341 Views
Share It!
Description:
It's the year 1692 in colonial New England—Salem, to be precise. In a courtroom, someone is being accused of witchcraft. Totally crazy, right? We agree, but the Salem Witch Trials really did happen. Before everyone came to their senses, 19 people were hanged and 2 dogs were killed, and Arthur Miller had the tragic subject for one of his most famous plays.
Transcript
- 00:00
Unit 2: The Loneliest Unit Since the Unit 1.
- 00:15
So… how was our country as we know it today… born?
- 00:20
Do we have one of those “chicken and egg” paradoxes on our hands?
- 00:32
Was America left in a basket on someone’s front door step?
- 00:36
Or did it result from a couple of other countries… gettin’ busy?
Full Transcript
- 00:41
Okay, so maybe it’s not that simple.
- 00:45
However, there were a number of formative characters and events that certainly helped
- 00:54
shape our nation. You’ve got the Puritans, whose religious
- 00:59
beliefs might be considered extreme by our standards…
- 01:04
… but their uncompromising devotion to those beliefs paved the way for our modern spiritual
- 01:09
society. The Salem witch trials may seem outrageous
- 01:13
to us… …but it wasn’t that long ago that we dealt
- 01:19
with McCarthyism in this country…
- 01:22
…and many others have been unfairly persecuted since.
- 01:27
Like those poor Olsen twins. Even the way we get information has undergone
- 01:36
a considerable makeover.
- 01:38
We live in a time where media rules the day…
- 01:44
…but that media got its start several hundred years ago with the advent of the modern printing
- 01:59
press. Things have changed since then…
- 02:02
…but if not for those first newspapers, we wouldn’t have “I Can Has Cheezburger”
- 02:08
today… Without revivalism and the Great Awakening…
- 02:12
…we might not have separation of church and state.
- 02:19
And without the establishment of those first 13 colonies…
- 02:23
…well, we never would have been able to add the 37 others, right?
- 02:27
Interested to find out how America got its start?
- 02:31
Take a trip with us back through time…
- 02:33
… and we’ll tell you all about her.
- 02:36
Ain’t she a cutie?
Related Videos
Ever heard of a "living document"? They eat and breathe just like the rest of us! They even walk around on their own two legs. Okay, fine—maybe t...
If the Puritans had gotten their way, religion would play a much larger role in lawmaking these days. Want to know more? Watch the video for all th...
What happened between the creation of the Articles of Confederation and the ratification of the current U.S. Constitution? This video analyzes the...
The Modernists thought the world had a lot of problems, and they were intent on fixing them—or at least talking about fixing them. Unfortunately,...
This video explains Federalism and the quest for a fair balance between state and national power. It covers the progression and compromises of Fede...