by Tarushi Chhabra
A black long gown reaching the floor and long hat touching the sky; elongated bloodcurdling magical nails and pointed canine teeth; a crystal ball that could predict the future and a broomstick that could fly was all I knew about the witches. Then my teacher provided a brief history of the Salem Witch Trials and gave us an article about Stacy Schiff’s new book The Witches. After many readings and discussions in class, I realized that the main reason why the Witch Trials occurred was due to conflicts and fear in the community. But still dozens of questions and doubts were troubling us. Therefore, to clear all the doubts, we planned a field trip to Salem. I was curious and inquisitive to learn more about the Puritans and the life in 1692.
As the year 1692 is marked as a major event in the history of Salem and the Witch Trials have became one of the most fascinating stories, I imagined that for tourism, the city would be dark and decorated with scary ornaments to give an impression of witches. However as I entered, I was thrilled and surprised to see the opposite of what I visualized. It was a small scenic city with two sides; one for tourists and the other for families.
It was Friday the 13th, a fearful and exciting day to start a trip with one of the most visited places in Salem, The Witch House. The house was built in 1695 and owned by Jonathan Corwin. It was a huge black house with unique architecture including a gable roof and carved glass windows. The dark color helped to seal the stormy weather and the small carved glass on the windows showed royalty. The house had a low ceiling with a beam structure on the inside to conserve heat and strengthen the house. During that era, space was important in showing wealth. Therefore the house had numerous wide spacious rooms for different purposes; each contained a fireplace and bed warmer. The distinctive paintings and the black and white checkered floor and rugged curtains also outlined the characteristics of the 17th century. Besides examining family life, architecture, and furniture of the 17th century, we also gained a deeper knowledge from our tour guide of the people who were involved in the Witch Trials and enriched our understanding of colonial heritage. In addition, she also cleared our doubts and answered all the questions we had, such as, what caused the girls’ behavior of accusing so many people of practicing witchcraft? Or what was the aftermath of the trials?
The second exquisite place we visited in Salem was the Witch Memorial. The design of the memorial is highly symbolic in nature. It was built in the memories of those nineteen people who were accused of practicing witchcraft and were hanged to death. It was a sad as well as heartfelt moment when I read the names of the innocent people and their carved tragic quotes, like “If it was the last moment I was to live, God knows I am innocent…” on the light colored granite stone. But it was unexpected to see fresh roses on each memorial even after years. Overall, it was an uncluttered striking historic place for tourists to understand the witch hysteria.
Although 1692 is marked a horrific event in the history of Salem, in today’s era the city attracts many tourists from all around the world each year especially on Halloween. The sensationalism of the Witch Trials has improved the economic condition of the city of Salem. There are many fascinating shops in the city, which sell Halloween costumes and ornaments. Moreover in Salem, the Peabody Essex Museum houses the original court documents, and the town’s most visited attraction, the Salem Witch Museum, demonstrates the public enthrallment with the 1692 hysteria. Due to this sensationalism, the GDP and employment has increased immensely and I believe that though Salem has a fearful and tragic history, it is now one of the popular tourist destinations in Massachusetts.
To conclude, the field trip to Salem was an astonishing experience, which I never would have gained from reading books or watching a movie. The rich and detailed records in the Witch house and Witch memorial answered all my basic and unsettling questions. I was stunned to learn about the unnerving accusations on men as well as women during the Witch trials. It was interesting to see how the economic condition of the city has improved massively because of the sensationalism, and that the memories of the Witch Trials are still preserved for future generations. As Stacy Schiff said, “Everybody goes through a Salem phase” I think this one is mine.