An Eejit Abroad: A Witches’ Brew Awaits in Salem, Mass

However, you might not have had the pleasure of visiting the epicenter of ghosts and ghouls in America, probably the scariest, tackiest, and yet most wonderful of all American Halloween destinations—Salem, Massachusetts. Believe me, the tourist industry aside, it’s the real deal.

Salem is famous first and foremost for the Witch Trials, which took place in 1692-93. More than 200 people were accused of being witches and warlocks and thirty were found guilty. To quote the band Rush, from their song Witch Hunt, “The righteous rise with burning eyes of hatred and ill-will. Madmen fed on fear and lies to beat and burn and kill.”

The first victim was Bridget Bishop, a sixty-year-old woman, who ran two taverns with her third husband Edward. She enjoyed wearing exotic clothes in bright colors. She was accused of bewitching five young women.

Bishop was hanged on June 10, 1692. She was the first of nineteen hanged that year, fourteen females and five males.

A man named Giles Corey was pressed to death on Sept. 19, 1692. He endured three days of pressing for refusing to plead guilty or not guilty. Pressing was a technique the courts used to “encourage” cooperation, where more and more weight would be piled onto the victim, who was laid on the ground.

Having not pleaded and not being found guilty, Corey was able to pass on his land and wealth to his offspring. Otherwise, it would have become the government’s.

Scholars have argued that the gruesome way in which Corey died helped to turn the tide against the Witch Trials in public opinion. Elizabeth Johnson Junior, who was accused, but never executed, was the last of the 200 accused to be exonerated. That was due to the efforts of an eighth grade teacher and her class from North Andover, Mass…. in 2022.

Today, there is a memorial in Salem to the nineteen who were hanged, as well as Corey, who was pressed to death. However, there were an additional five who died in prison, likely due to torture or maltreatment. Included in those was Mercy Good, born in prison to Sarah Good, who was hanged.

Yes. She was born to an accused witch in prison and died in prison after her mother was hanged. The concept is wholly unfathomable.

In 2009, a couple purchased a home overlooking a wooded ledge in Salem. They were perplexed when visitors stopped by to photograph an empty lot on the property, tucked between houses and overlooking a Walgreens. It turns out, that site was where witches were hanged and their bodies summarily dumped into a low spot beneath the ledge, known as the “crevice.”

Townsfolk in 1692 could hear relatives of the victims crying at night and carrying away the bodies of their loved ones, to be buried elsewhere. Through a community grant and donations from descendants of the With Trial victims, a memorial was erected on the site.