Salem

Introducing Salem

This town’s very name conjures up images of diabolical witchcraft and women being burned at the stake. Indeed, in the late 17th century it was widely believed that anyone could make a pact with the devil in order to gain evil powers.

In March 1692, some local girls began pulling pranks. Other children copied their antics, and their parents came to believe that the devil had come to Salem. The girls accused a slave named Tituba of being a witch, and the accused was tortured until she confessed. In order to save her own life, Tituba accused two other women of being accomplices. Soon the accusations flew thick and fast, as local women and men confessed to riding broomsticks, having sex with the devil and participating in witches’ sabbaths. They implicated others in an attempt to save themselves.

By September 1692, 156 people stood accused, 55 people had pleaded guilty and implicated others to save their own lives, and 14 women and five men who would not confess had been hanged. The frenzy died down when the accusers began pointing at prominent merchants, clergy and even the governor’s wife.

The famous Salem witch trials of 1692 are engrained in the national memory. Indeed, the town of Salem goes all out at Halloween, when the whole town dresses up for parades and parties, and shops sell all manner of wiccan accessories. More appropriately, the Salem Witch Trials Memorial, a modest monument off Charter St, honors the innocents who died.

These incidents obscure Salem’s true claim to fame: its glory days as a center for clipper-ship trade with China. The responsible party, Elias Hasket Derby, benefited enormously from his enterprise, eventually becoming America’s first millionaire. Derby built half-mile-long Derby Wharf, which is now the center of the Salem Maritime National Historic Site.

Many Salem vessels followed Derby’s ship Grand Turk around the Cape of Good Hope, and soon the owners founded the East India Marine Society to provide warehousing services for their ships’ logs and charts. The new company’s charter required the establishment of ‘a museum in which to house the natural and artificial curiosities’ brought back by members’ ships. The collection was the basis for what is now the world-class Peabody Essex Museum, and has grown to a half-million artifacts.

Today Salem is a middle-class commuter suburb of Boston with an enviable location on the sea. And its rich history and culture, from witches to ships to art, continue to cast a spell of enchantment on all those who visit.

Last updated: Mar 2, 2009