The Fascination of Salem

When you hear the word “Salem,” what’s the first thing that springs to mind? The city’s beautiful harbor and historic homes? It’s antique shops and museums? Or the infamous witch trials of 1692?! thought so.

Some towns never live down a history marred by tragedy. Time will only tell if places like Waco, Texas and Littleton, Colorado suffer the same fate. But however fate. But however blemished the name of Salem Village was in the late 17th century, the modern city of Salem, Massachusetts has benefited from a continued fascination with the events of that fateful summer.

A favorite tourist haunt, “Witch City” attracts visitors with sites such as Salem Witch Village, Salem Witch Museum, Witch History Museum, Witch Dungeon Museum, Salem Witch Trials Memorial, Witch House, and the Salem Wax Museum of Witches and Seafarers. Nearly a million people traipse through the streets of Salem even’ October, when the three-week-long “Haunted Happenings” festivities celebrate the grim and the ghoulish for the curious and the squeamish. With a hag-on-a-broom logo over police station and local bar alike, Salem has succeeded in filling the city with the very thing it once abhorred - witches. It is often difficult to understand what could have driven the hysteria of the summer of 1692.

Most of us are familiar with the events in general, and know that by summer’s end, nineteen men and women and two black dogs had been hung, and one man pressed to death.

It is important to remember that many factors were involved in setting the stage for disaster. The Puritans of Massachusetts intended to establish God’s kingdom on earth, and all around them, they saw this goal threatened. The residents of Salem Town (now Danvers) and Salem Village had been feuding over land rights and business disputes. A bad winter had damaged crops, and there had been a recent outbreak of smallpox. Factions had developed in the church after the newly-appointed Reverend Samuel Parris demanded that the parsonage be deeded to him in perpetuity. The colony itself was under attack by Native Americans and their French allies. Still under British rule, Massachusetts suffered a setback in 1692 when a new charter had restricted their economy. And there was a genuine belief in, and fear of, the power of evil.

When Parris’s daughter Bern- and her cousin Abigail began having fits and hallucinations that doctors could find no cause for, the ministers of Salem could find only one explanation - the Devil had come to town. Tituba, the minister’s West Indian slave, was the first to be accused. She had amused the girls and their friends by teaching them love spells and reading their fortunes, and these practices put terror in the hearts of the Puritans.

As more young girls joined the ranks of the afflicted, so grew the number of the accused. Neighbor turned against neighbor as fear spread, and before long, every sick cow or burnt loaf of bread was taken as a sign that evil was running amok. A Court of Oyer and Terminer was appointed to hear the girls’ testimony, and the accused were pulled from their homes at night and thrown into jail to await trial. One could save oneself from hanging by pleading guilty, and supplying the court with the names of other suspected “witches.”

But as summer wore on, more and more people refused to plead guilty, and a few brave folks in the village spoke out against the trials. Accusations had gone right up the ranks, until even the Boston wife of British-appointed governor Sir William Phips had been accused. Phips disbanded the court that fall, put an end to the trials, and over the next few months, released those being held in prison. In all, over 150 people had been arrested on the accusation of witchcraft, and had been executed.

What was the result of this horrific chain of events? The church made a great deal of money from the accused and their families. Property was seized, and fees were rendered for everything imaginable, including a transport fee for being arrested and taken to the jail, a maintenance fee for being fed while awaiting trial (some were jailed for as long as nine months), court fees during trial time, and finally, a fee for execution. Charges fell to the families, and many were still struggling years later to recover, both financially and emotionally.

Perhaps most disturbing is what happened after the damage had been done - witnesses later testified that one of the girl’s accusations had been prompted, and Mary Warren, a servant girl, admitted to lying “for sport.” Four years later, the General Court passed a resolution, and all twelve jurors signed a public confession, admitting their error in judgment and asking forgiveness.

Over three hundred years later, the fascination continues. In addition to the tourists who flock to Salem, historians, anthropologists, and sociologists continue to search for answers. So do the religious - both Christians and Witches alike. In addition to several local Christian churches, Salem sports a rather large population of Witches, including the Temple of Nine Wells church, and of course, the governor-appointed “Official Witch of Salem,” Laurie Cabot.

What attracts modern Witches to the “scene of the crime?” Is it the local mystique (showing people what witches are really like)? The commercialization (where else can you buy key-chains, coffee mugs, and bath towels emblazoned with an icon of the Crone, year ‘round)? Or is there some romantic fantasy that those who were accused of witchcraft during the trials were actually practicing magic?

We know that there was indeed a dominant pattern of characteristics of the accused. The majority were women over 40 years of age, who were widowed or had no male heirs, and stood to inherit land. Some had been involved in disputes with neighbors, or had been long-time targets of suspicion or gossip. The simple act of showing discontent, anger, or pride, particularly for a woman, could be interpreted as ‘an offense to God.’ But as for being magical practitioners, they were no more so than any woman at the time who pondered who she might marry, gave birth, healed and cared for her family, and imbued her work with her own “God-given” power and essence.

There were no witches in 17th century Salem. There were only women and men who had been targeted as “dangerous” because in some small way or another, they threatened the very tight fabric of the community. There were no devils in Salem, either. Only the inner demons of fear, intolerance, self-righteousness, and greed. As we look back on the events of Salem from our 21st century perspective, it is clear that what lie behind the hysteria was simply the ugly side of human nature, coming out to play in full force.

With this lesson from Salem, we can look around us and see that religious intolerance, fear of those who are different, and justification of cruelty still exist in our communities today. Perhaps as a society, we are always fighting these and other “inner demons.” Perhaps it is up to each of us individually to examine our own.

As pagans and witches, how best can we respond, not only to the tragedy of Salem, but to religious intolerance wherever we find it? Author and priestess Dorothy Morrison holds that tolerance must begin in the heart: “The only way to heal the age-old rift between Christians and Pagans is to stop looking at our differences and learn to focus, instead, on that which brings us together as people. Simple things, really, like love and compassion. A genuine concern for each other, and a sincere wish to right the wrongs of human injustice. It’s all a matter of human decency. And it must start with us. Today. Right in our own back yards.”