Every October nearly a million people visit Salem, Massachusetts, infamous for the Salem Witch Trials, where 19 people were accused, tried and hanged—one was pressed to death—because they were thought to be witches. A main feature of Salem is the Salem Witch Museum (located in a church no-less), deemed by USA Today as the 2nd top tourist trap in the World. Indeed, it is light on history, heavy on wokeness, and evades a concrete reason behind the phenomena that swept through this small village in 1692—all this for $17.50. The interesting irony is that the greatest issue the residents of Salem were trying to prevent in 1692 became its most celebrated and famous reputation. But that’s not why we visited.
My connection to Salem is from my 8th great grandfather John Pease who was one of the original families that settled Salem. Even more so, his brother Robert’s wife, Sarah Pease (my 7th great aunt) was accused and convicted of being a witch. According to the historic transcripts, Sarah was convicted by the testimony of 16-year old John Derech, who claimed, “Sary Pese afliceth me at several times. She came to me after the fast day last at Salem. She pinched me, then I have not seen her since.” Somehow, Sarah was not sentenced to be hanged by the judges, who sent 15 people to the gallows in the days after her conviction. By late fall of 1692, public appetite for executing witches had subsided. She survived the harsh jail conditions through the winter and a year later was released in May 1693.
To Chris and I, there was no doubt of the “spiritual” presence in Salem. It can be sensed. Interesting that this historical horror began with Tituba, the Caribbean-born slave of Reverend Samuel Parris, telling stories of the occult to Parris’ 9-year-old daughter Betty and his 11-year-old niece Abigail Williams. Parris’ wife, distraught over the loss of a family member also sought Tituba’s help in channeling the dead relative. Then Betty and Abigail started doing weird things like rolling around on the floor and barking. Then they claimed that disembodied spirits were afflicting them. Then they started naming names. This phenomena spread to others and soon the named people were brought up on trial under the witchcraft laws of England. In a witch frenzy, 15 women and 5 men were executed as witches.
There are some 100 Bible verses about witchcraft, many like Leviticus 20:27, “A man or a woman who is a medium or a necromance shall surely be put to death.” These devout people, however, didn’t see what was in front of them. Here a slave-owning pastor’s wife is necromancing with the slave. Her daughter and niece appear to be overtaken by spirits and it spread to the community. Instead of looking at the situation from its beginning, Salem was so caught up in what these adolescents and teens were experiencing and their interpretation of isolated verses in the Bible, they were overrun with fear. When they finally realized what was happening, 20 people were dead and there was no more appetite to continue the persecution.
In 1692, Salem was trying to rid itself of a perceived abomination and now today, amidst the somber graves and memorials, the denial of the devil and the sin of witchcraft is lost by those who celebrate witchcraft and the people of Salem who now embrace it. It seems the devil ultimately had his way. This was the most sobering stop on our tour of the New England states. When people celebrate witches in today’s society with holidays, movies, and parties, they don’t often realize that there were real people whose lives were severely torn apart by the actual history beneath the celebration. What is fun to many today wasn’t so much fun to the innocent victims back then. The visit to Salem underscored that we should be careful of what we embrace and thankful that knowing history helps us not to repeat tragic mistakes of the past.
