Friday 13 June 2025

An auspicious date to visit Salem!

Our home owners suggested we visit Salem. Despite the fact that there are 22 Salems in the US, including one the capital of Oregon, we knew they meant Salem MA. So, we headed off for the 40 minute drive to what was once one of the greatest trading ports on the coast and home to wealthy colonists, patriots, the inventers of Monopoly and other games, home of the National Guard, A.G. Bell’s first long distance telephone call and a favourite spot for Old Blood n Guts, Gen. George Patton. Occasionally also, home to pirates and witches. It’s the witch trials, however that capture the imagination of the tourists.

English colonial settlers arrived in Salem in 1626. Most were bigoted, religious zealots who were referred to as Puritans. They sought to “purify” the Church of England from Roman Catholic religious practices and build a utopian society.  Over successive decades, waves of colonists arrived, changing the power dynamics in governance, land ownership and religion in Salem.

On an excellent, narrated bus tour, Flashy discovered that some scholars suggest that social and economic tensions within the community, such as ongoing conflict with French colonists and their Indigenous allies to the north of Massachusetts, as well as the influence of Puritan ministers, played a role in the witch trials of 1692. Others point to the conflicts between families over land ownership.

It is interesting to note, that once accused of witchcraft you were thrown in the dungeon, awaiting trial. Once there, you had to pay ‘board and lodging’. If you couldn’t, you could lose your land.

At the centre of the Salem witch trials were a core group of accusers, all girls and young women ranging in age from nine to 20, who screamed, writhed, barked and displayed other horrifying symptoms they claimed were signs of Satanic possession.

Often referred to as the “afflicted girls,” they included members of prominent village, land owning families, as well as domestic servants. These people often displayed symptoms or signs then thought to be the results of witchcraft they claimed were brought on by the people they accused.

One Minister also was fond of grabbing young women off the street, dragging them inside his house, where he would strip them, looking for moles or warts. These of course, were certain signs of a witch.

Historians have offered numerous possible explanations for the Salem accusers’ actions, including economic hardship, deliberate fraud, mass hysteria, mental illness or convulsive ergotism, a condition caused by a fungus that grows on rye and other grains. But the truth is undoubtedly more complex, and impossible to know. Nonetheless 25 innocent men, women and children were executed.

Having set the scene with all that history, we walked to the harbour for lunch. Here at Finz Seafood and Grill, sitting at the bar in true American style, we had the best food since leaving Australia. The sashimi and sushi were magnificent. The Californian Chardonnay as expected – delicious and Lady P’s Blood Orange Spritz very good.