Travel

Let’s go WAYBAC to the Salem Witch Trials

Posted on September 28, 2022

If you ever watched the cartoon Mr. Peabody and Sherman then you know about the WAYBAC (Wormhole Activating and Bridging Automatic Computer). Mr. Peabody is a bow-tie-wearing, genius dog (graduating Wagna Cum Laude from Harvard) who invents a time machine and, to educate his adopted “pet boy” Sherman, takes him back in time. They visit Napoleon, Cleopatra, Wyatt Earp, King Author, the Wright Brothers, Confucius, etc. and usually chaos threatens to change the course of history, but Mr. Peabody’s smarts help he and Sherman to make it right. (YouTube has a lot of clips from this show if you’re curious).

I thought of this beloved cartoon series in writing the post because today we visit Salem Massachusetts and visiting this town feels like time travel so let’s go WAYBAC!

You probably remember something about the Salem witch trials from jr. high, even if its just that people were hanged. For a quick refresher, tens of thousands of supposed witches were executed in Europe from the 1300s to the 1600s, but it wasn’t until between 1692 and mid-1693 that several hundred were accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts. In Salem, the minister’s 9-year-old daughter (Elizabeth Parris) and 11-year-old niece (Abagail) started having “fits” and a local doctor proclaimed it was supernatural. These “fits” spread to 12-year-old Anne Putnam and under pressure the 3 girls accused a Caribbean woman named Tituba (who worked for the Parris’), Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne of being the “witches”. Trials ensued, seeds of paranoia spread throughout the town, more were accused, 19 hanged, and 1 was pressed to death by placing heavier and heavier rocks on his chest before the frenzy ceased.

Salem, whether it likes it or not, is best known for these infamous trials and there is no doubt that this town is capitalizing on it with its numerous made-for-tourist attractions and shops. We were here in late September, and they were preparing for the onslaught of Halloween-season tourists with a lot of no-parking signs and increased fines in front of residential homes.

With just one day in the area we decided to see:

The Salem Witch Museum – it was touted as being the most historically accurate.
Proctor’s Ledge – a memorial to the 20 victims (19 hanged and 1 pressed) of the trials erected at the site of the hangings.
Salem’s Historic Cemetery – this included the grave of author Nathaniel Hawthorne, who famously wrote “The House of the Seven Gables”.
Historic Homes – Salem has preserved an astonishing number of homes that belonged to sea captains and wealthy merchants (you can’t throw a stone along Chestnut Street without hitting one) and from the road you can catch of glimpse of the House of the Seven Gables (the oldest surviving 17^th-century wooden mansion in New England). Tours of the home are also available for a fee.
The Salem Maritime National Historic Site – along the waterfront, there are historic maritime buildings and a replica of the tall ship, Friendship, sits in the harbor. I’m sure paid tours are available at several sites and of the ship, but we just read some sign boards.

If you haven’t gotten your fill of witch-related attractions from the list above you can also visit the Witch Dungeon Museum, Witch Village, a Witch Board Museum (which advertises the best Ouija board collection worldwide), Witch House (home to witch trial judge Jonathan Corwin and the only surviving structure in Salem with direct ties to the trial), and about a jillion witch-related shops. In addition, a lot of people who visit Salem, at any time of year, will be wearing costumes.

Also, it turns out that Salem has cornered the market on the scary, spooky, fun, and supernatural things to do. There’s the Real Pirates Salem Museum, Count Orlok’s Nightmare Gallery Monster Museum, multiple vampire attractions, and numerous ghost and voodoo tours. I didn’t see anything related to werewolves, but I’ve got to believe it’s there and that they’ve covered all their bases!

For a more grounded experience, the Peabody Essex Museum, one of the oldest art museums in the U.S., boasts over one million items and has a focus on Asian art. It was closed the day we visited Salem.