Most people know Salem, Mass., for the witch trials of 1692 made famous by Arthur Miller’s allegorical work of fiction “The Crucible” or the movies Hocus Pocus and Bewitched. They may also visit Witch City because “Scarlet Letter” author Nathaniel Hawthorne--grandson of Magistrate John Hathorne, one of the witch hysteria judges--lived here, or because it is a popular Halloween destination.
Salem takes in a great deal of its revenue from witch hysteria tourism, chiefly in October when Halloween, a holiday second only to Christmas in consumer spending, occurs. The trials sent 19 innocent men and women to their deaths by hanging for practicing witchcraft. While the connection between the trials and Salem’s October tourism spike is a little murky, the city takes the opportunity to teach the human rights and social justice lessons of the witch trials.
Tourism presents social justice opportunities
Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll in her ramp-up to Halloween noted how the trials affected the U.S. court system and judicial thinking, and are important to the city’s vitality.
“What happened here in 1692 plays a big part in our current economy,” Driscoll said.
She is referring to dark tourism--the industry and practice that supports visitation to sites of human suffering. But not everybody has a memorial to the injustices of their past, as Salem does, she pointed out.
“The thoughtfulness that went into creating that memorial....[it’s] meant to be a place of reflection and honor and really meant to signal the importance of what happened here as a lesson as not something that we should highlight sometimes in the manner in which we do, but something that we should highlight because of the lessons it has created.”
At the tercentenary of the Salem Witch Trials when the memorial was erected, a group of citizens dedicated to honoring the victims also started The Salem Award for Human Rights and Social Justice. The mission of the the Salem Award Foundation is to “recognize, honor and perpetuate the commitment to social justice and human rights of individuals and organizations whose work is proven to have alleviated discrimination or promoted tolerance.”
In addition to celebrating modern activists, the Foundation develops programming about the lessons of the trials and how they apply to contemporary society. One of those programs is a weekly tent talk at the memorial that takes place every Thursday each year in July and October, during the city’s month-long Halloween celebration.
Practicing what’s preached
The final tent talk of October 2019 addressed a series of misconceptions about the witch trials and the lessons learned for about 65 visitors and residents in attendance on a chilly afternoon. Led by Kate Fox, executive director of the city’s Office of Tourism & Cultural Affairs for 18 years, the talk presented her experience in how non-residents perceive and understand Salem Witch Hysteria and what the dark period means today in the city.
While visitors often call Destination Salem, the city’s tourist bureau, with odd requests like wanting to have Halloween dinner served by a “real witch,” the 17th-century exhibits in Salem contain valuable information about the beliefs that permeated life and culture in Salem at that time. “We maintain a perspective that everybody believes they are right,” she said of the Salem Witch Trials judges and Puritan peoples that feared witchcraft.
The victims of the 1692 Salem Witch Trials were accused by hysterical young girls who claimed to be possessed by the people they named. Researchers believe the young women of then Salem Village were poisoned by the moldy bread that was part of the 17th-century diet, a theory once part of the school curriculum. But ergot poisoning theory has many critics.
“Today the afflicted girl’s symptoms are attributed to stress and anxiety created by social and economic pressures.”
The Salem Witch Hunt was a nonsensical injustice that reveals the importance of fighting the targeting of innocent people today, she concluded.
Jeff Snell, pastor of the First Church of Salem that excommunicated some Salem Witch Trial victims and then reinstated their memberships 300 years later at the time when the state of Massachusetts exonerated them, was quick to point out that the trials happened under British rule and law.
Salem’s most famous experience with social injustice nevertheless left an indelible mark on the city that is not forgotten at Halloween, nor any other time of the year.
“It certainly has played a large part in I think defining Salem today and making sure that that never happens again and that we are this much more welcome and inclusive place and we practice that I think as a community,” said Mayor Driscoll in her recent podcast.
In addition to Salem’s No Place for Hate Committee, the city also has a non-discrimination ordinance.
Learn more:
- Salem is the Halloween capital of America — but it wasn’t always that way
- How to celebrate Halloween in Salem like a local
This article, originally published on December 26, 2019, has been updated.
