by
Paula Gail Benson
This
summer, following a business trip to Boston, I took a bus tour to visit Salem,
Massachusetts. I went for historical and literary reasons, but I have to admit,
I had my doubts.
A
few years ago, I remember reading a short story by Toni Kelner about a young
woman with a shop in Salem that catered to the “witch trade.” From that story
and other accounts I had heard of modern Salem, I expected to find an
entertainment venue for Halloween enthusiasts.
Certainly,
that element was there. During my lunch in a downtown mall, I sat across from a
Witch Pix, a costume and photography studio (https://www.witchpixofsalem.com/) that allowed
customers to dress up and create their own magical fantasies. I watched as
three young women were robed and posed before a screen that provided various
backdrops. They seemed to have a lovely time.
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| Castle Rock |
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| View across bay |
I
was fortunate that my tour began from Boston and our driver had steeped himself
in details about the area. He drove us up the coast, driving through Marblehead
and stopping at Castle Rock, where we could gaze at the rocky shore line. While
he told us stories of movies filmed in the area (like Hocus Pocus and Grown Ups 2),
he also spoke about the history and people who had lived there. He had done
some research into documents recently discovered from the time period of the
witch trials and gave us that perspective. Also, he provided us with background
about author Nathaniel Hawthorne, who had lived and worked in Salem.
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| Salem Custom House |
One
of our first stops was at the Custom House overlooking the bay. Hawthorne
served as a clerk there. Looking out over the water reminded me of how
dependent the population must have been on shipping and how isolated it must
have become during the winter. The Salem Regional Visitor Center emphasized the
maritime history with displays and dioramas.
A
short walk from the Visitor Center, I found the Salem Witch Trials Memorial. It
is a square of land surrounded by a granite wall. At the entrance. A sign lists
the convicted persons’ names and protests. It also contains the Elie Wiesel
quotation, “Only if we remember will we be worthy of redemption.” The area is
in the center of town, but very solemn and bordered by a cemetery. Along the
inside of the granite wall, there is a bench ledge for each condemned person with
the person’s name and date of execution or death engraved. Some of the benches
had flowers or coins placed on them. In this quiet sanctuary, I found the true
spirit of what had occurred during the trials and been learned from them.
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| Entrance to Salem Witch Trials Memorial |
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| Cemetery |
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| Benches in Memorial |
Until
that bus trip, I did not know the connection that Nathaniel Hawthorne had to
the witch trials. His great-great grandfather, John Hathorne, was the only
judge who never repented of his involvement with the trials. Nathaniel added
the “w” to his last name to distinguish himself from his ancestor.
At
the end of the day, we viewed the House of Seven Gables, the inspiration for
Hawthorne’s book of the same title. Susanna Ingersoll, Hawthorne’s second
cousin, inherited the house and encouraged his writing during the time he
worked at the Custom House. Hawthorne’s novel was patterned somewhat upon his
family history and his experiences in visiting the house. Later, when the house
was purchased by others and ultimately became a settlement house for immigrant
families, it was maintained by allowing visitors to tour the place they had
read about in the novel.
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| House of Seven Gables |
So,
to some extent, I found what I expected in Salem, a city dependent upon the
tourist trade. What made it interesting was that history also had been
preserved and recognized.
As
Halloween approaches, I hope to watch the films Hocus Pocus and The Crucible.
But, I’ll see them with new eyes from having visited a place where the
historical events occurred.
