You are a well respected member of your community. Helping your neighbors and those in need is the force that drives you. Due to your kind nature, you have gained the admiration and trust of your friends, family and even government officials. Things are going well until there are whispers of traitors and evildoers living in the midst of good people. Mass hysteria erupts. People in your community are accusing your neighbors of betraying their religion, government and participating in acts of evil. They are put on trial, but the hearing is not a fair one as the community are accusing them without evidence. People are dying all around you and you know it is wrong.
But you dare say nothing as they might accuse you as well. Fear starts to creep in and you begin to willingly help your community root out the insurgents. Maybe if you help, you won’t become a suspect.
But you’re wrong.
Some child, a girl, you've heard about but never met, accuses you of being the leader of the traitors. You deny her accusations and hope that your good standing with the community will help you. But once again, you are wrong. Without proof and thanks to that one little girl, you are convicted of treason and executed.
Your fate.
Was that fair?
In 1692 , a "witch hunt" erupted in the counties of Essex, Suffolk and Middlesex in colonial Massachusetts. By the end of this mass hysteria that gripped these New England colonies, twenty people had been executed and more than one hundred and fifty were accused of witchcraft.
Centuries later, in the late 1940s and 1950s, anti-Communist pursuits led by Senator Joseph McCarthy gripped America. Accusations of disloyalty, treason without evidence, and espionage by the Senator and the separate investigations of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) caused many people to be blacklisted.
In both cases, the rights of the people were trampled in order to find the force that threatened the people of America (McCarthy/HUAC) and the people of colonial New England. The trials were conducted for the greater good, so they were justifiable. Or were they? That is up to you to decide.
You will research both the Salem trials, the investigations by McCarthy and the HUAC and come to your own conclusion as to whether or not the trials had to be conducted the way they were. The people of Salem and the anti-communist believed they had to do what was needed to protect their way of life. What do you think?
At the end of your WebQuest, you will know the dire implications that false accusations, lack of due process and extremism can cause within a community or country.
Would you agree to say something that wasn’t true in order to save your friends or family? What would you do if you became the scapegoat?
Keep in mind the big question:
How can you contain your fear and make sure you can act rationally during times of societal unrest due to mass hysteria?