Social Studies Poetry

Wicked Girls: A Novel of the Salem Witch Trials

By: Stephanie Hemphill

Hemphill, Stephanie. 2010. Wicked Girls: A Novel of the Salem Witch Trials. New York, NY: Balzer + Bray.

ISBN: 9780061853289

Wicked Girls is a novel written in verse about the Salem Witch Trails. The novel is written from the perspective of 3 girls that are involved in the accusing of Salem's residents and condemning them as witches. Margaret Walcott is 17 years old and betrothed to marry a young man in Salem Village. Ann Putnam Jr. is Margaret's cousin and 12 years old. Mercy Lewis is the Putnam's servant girl and is 17 years old. Other young girls are involved in the accusing as well, they are Betty Parris, Abigail Williams, Elizabeth Hubbard, and Susannah Sheldon.

The characters in the book are based on real people who were involved in the trails. Hemphill includes mini biographies of these people in the back of the novel. The book starts with just young girls playing make believe together, but when they realize the power of their accusations their make believe is turned into a matter of life and death for residents of Salem Village. The girls roam about the village and act as though they are being tormented by locals, who they refer to as witches.

Hemphill does an interesting job of blending fiction and non-fiction together. The Salem Witch Trails is an interesting topic among young adults. I myself was interested in the topic, and that is why I chose this book to read. While reading the novel I felt I was learning about a historic event in history, but through the eyes of characters that Hemphill had created.

Hemphill creates a very strong raw feeling of sadness, especially in the poem "First Witch Hanging" which is told from the perspective of Mercy Lewis who becomes the leader of the group of girls. The emotional impact found within the poems is strong, and the reader can sense the weight of guilt the girls are feeling with their false testimonies. "Remorse" is an example of the feelings Mercy is wrestling with after viewing the first hanging. Strong imagery is created in poems such as "First Time in the Courtroom" told by Ann Putnam. The reader can sense the great amount of tension that is building in the courtroom. Wicked Girls allows the reader to see an important event in our nation's history through fresh eyes with fictional characters.

Hangings

Mercy Lewis, 17

Four men and one woman

pulled in the death cart.

My old master,

who surely deserves to die,

Reverend George Burroughs,

speaks the Lord's Prayer

with a noose about his neck,

every word in place,

as a witch should not be able to recite.

The crowd quakes

as though the earth were splitting apart.

"How can he recite the Lord's Prayer?"

someone ask. Another wonders,

"Did we make a mistake?"...

Activity: This poem is a great picture of feelings that were being felt by the residents of Salem Village during the Salem Witch Trials. The teacher reads the poem and discusses with students all the different feelings and emotions that are being felt and dealt with in the poem. After the teacher instructs students to pick another important event in history they have learned about. The students then create a fictional character and write a poem about the important event through the eyes of their fictional character.