Today was all about all things witch, we are actually lucky that we are in Salem at the start of October rather than the end as they really go overboard on all things Halloween possibly because of their fame regarding the Witch trials but we set off this morning ready to immerse ourselves in 1692 and hunting witches. There is a walking line round Salem which we started to follow and it took us to the harbour and the old wharfs, we had just intended to follow the tour route but someone suggested that we should walk out to the lighthouse as it gave a great view of the harbour and he was right we had a great view all round the harbour and also back to the town, this area of town seems to be a little older than the part we drove in via yesterday and a number of the houses were built in the early to mid 1800. We walked back from the harbour then our first stop was the Salem Witch Museum, it had two presentations, the first a series of waxwork models depicting scenes from this period, it started with a group of hysterical girls who’s ‘nanny’ was from the West Indies and told stories of Voodoo priests, practices and spells, the stages show scenes based on actual trial documents that explain the story. The second part explains the changing interpretations of witches, from pagan midwives to the stereotypes of today, it also provides some examples of the cause and effect of a witch hunt and how frightening this phenomenon can be, they way the describe it as Fear + Trigger = Scapegoat, they gave a couple of examples which were Fear = Japanese Imperialism + Trigger = bombing of Pearl Harbour = Scapegoat = 10,000 US / Japanese citizens interned during WWII. From there we went to the Witch History Museum, this told the same story in a very similar way, 19 people were hung during the trials and one was crushed to death, apparently if you confessed to being a witch they could take all your property away from you but if you didn’t either confess or deny they couldn’t do anything so one man was put in a pit with a board over him and they kept adding stones to his chest hoping he would confess but all he kept saying was ‘more weight’ after three days he died having been crushed to death. A Salem minister, accused by teenage girls of being the devil was captured in Maine and hung in Salem. Our next stop was the Witch dungeon Museum this started with a live reenactment of the trial of Sarah Good from the original transcript. The Witch hysteria enveloped all 34 towns and villages of Essex County. Hundreds of accused witches were put in prison some died in captivity others survived despite the conditions. When you were accused while awaiting trial you had to pay your own way so how much money you had determined what type of cell you had, if you didn’t have any money you actually ended up in a cell that was 3 ft by 3 ft meaning that you couldn’t lay out and could only sit if you either sat with your legs under you or crossed although that might be difficult! If you had a bit more money you got a bit more space, then once found guilty, which you almost certainly were, your family had to pay the executioner. After this we went and got some lunch and watched the witches start arriving almost everyone in the town either had long black clothes or black lipstick, interestingly most of the women seem to have red hair, not sure when the witches became redheads! After lunch we set off for the New England Pirate Museum which is another guided tour taking you round Salem docks in 1692, it explained the evolution of pirates and the difference between pirates and privateers, privateers were authorised pirates, it also explained where the Jolly Roger came from and how originally it was Red, hence the name Jolly Rouge in French and in England at the time the devil was always represented as a Red skeleton, but as Red cloth was expensive they started using black and decorated it with different representations. The traditional skull and crossbones was actually only one form of Jolly Roger, the one I liked the best was actually the one that had a red and white skeleton on a black background. Finally we went to the house of the seven Gables. The house was purchased in the 1890s by Caroline Emmerton and she restored it to the Turner-Ingersall Mansion as is was described in the book published in 1851 this book apparently follows a New England family and their home life. The tour was quite interesting as the home was owned by two different families the first had two generations that were quite successful, the third generation supported the royalists in the war of independence and lost all his money, the house was then sold and the first two generations successfully kept their inheritance the third was a woman and the only way she could keep hold of the house and businesses was not to marry as that would mean she had to pass it all to her husband so she never married and when she died at the age of 72 had no heirs. This was our final stop today and as it was gone 6pm we picked up an ice cream and ate it on the way back to the hotel.
