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The Salem Witch Trials 10340 Views
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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?
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