The Most Visited Museum In Salem
Salem Witch Museum Is One Of The Best Recollections Of The Salem Witch Trials Of 1692 That Ended With Innocent Lives Being Taken
In early 1692 in the seaside town of Salem, Massachusetts devious forces were at work that wreaked havoc for the better part of a year. “In the winter of 1692, two young girls in the home of reverend Paris became ill in a way that they had never seen before. They didn’t know what was going on, whether it was epilepsy or something else. Since the doctors couldn’t find a diagnosis, they assumed it was witchcraft”, explained Stacy Tilney Director of Communications for the Salem Witch Museum. “The Puritan definition of a witch was someone who has made a covenant with the devil. So, if there were witches around, then the devil must have been behind it and if the girls were being bewitched, the town wanted to know who was behind it.”
As the hysteria expanded, there were several individuals who were convicted of witchcraft. “These folks started losing their lives because witchcraft was considered a high capital crime. They believed that if you are making a covenant with the devil and rejecting God that you were not only committing a religious sin, but also a crime in their eyes. The prosecution was a civil prosecution and that is why the execution method was hanging rather than burning at the stake”, said Stacy. “One of my favorite questions is when folks ask, how many people were burned at the stake at Salem. It’s a trick question, none were burned at the stake, all were hanged. All in all, by the end of the summer, 19 people were hanged and one man was pressed to death for refusing to enter a plea.”
“I came to Salem as a tourist in 2001 and fell madly in love. It’s a seaside community..,It’s so beautiful. There’s cobble stone streets and lamplights. So I moved to Salem and spent the last 16 years learning about Salem history. In 2008, I got a summer job as a tour guide at the Salem Witch Museum and that’s when I got deeply into the Salem Witch Trial history and discovered there are all these layers to investigate. I got addicted to learning about the trials and here I am now eight years later as the director of communications sharing that information that I have been researching over the years”, said Stacy.
The museum tells the story of the witch trials in a presentation style rather than telling the story through artifacts. The impressive building housing the museum, while not a part of the witch trials history, was constructed on property owned by a family involved in the trials. “The building itself was erected in 1846 well after the witch trials. In the 1970’s there really wasn’t anywhere you could go to research the witch trials and the building was about to be razed because it was in disrepair. The ideas to create a place you could learn about the witch trials and to conserve the building came together in 1972 to create the Salem Witch Museum. We later found out that the property we are sitting on was lived on by the Higginson Family who were involved in the witch trials. They were on both sides of the trials both accusing and accused”, explained Stacy.
The exhibits at the museum not only tell the story of the witch trials, but also tell the history of witches throughout the years. “Our first exhibit is dedicated to the overview of the witch trial story, so someone that doesn’t know anything about the witch trial history can get a basic overview of what happened during the 1692 witch outbreak. In our second exhibit, we go through the idea and the concept of witches from the pre-Christian perspective as far as them being wise women, healers, or midwives. We look at them as times or religions change and over history, we can see the trending of those kinds of women being reviled instead of revered”, said Stacy.
The circumstances surrounding the witch trials, seemed to be a hysteria that culminated with the trials and the killing of 19 individuals. However, according to Stacy, there was never any real proof that there was any witchcraft occurring. “There may have been some folk magic going on, people telling fortunes, but in terms of the people who were accused of witchcraft in Salem in 1692, none of them were practicing magic by the Puritan definition”, claims Stacy. “We can all relate to putting a horse shoe up or carrying a rabbit foot, it’s not magic we are trying to evoke, but more of a superstition or folk lore.”
The Salem Witch Museum is dedicated to interpreting the true history of the witch trials. “Our main goal is to be the voice of the innocent victims, but more than that, to be educational and scholarly. While there are other tours in town that will attempt to tell you about the witch trials, a lot of them are imbued with folk lore and ghost stories that may or may not be true. We really stick to the transcripts of what happened. I think we are really the most scholarly museum to learn about the witch trials”, stated Stacy.
Jared Langenegger
A graduate of New Mexico State University with B.S. in wildlife and fisheries science, Jared spent 15 years working in fisheries and parks management. He enjoys camping, fishing, hunting, painting, and wood working.
Make Sure to Stay At:
Wompatuck State Park, which is located just a 35-minute drive from downtown Boston. The park offers 260 wooded campsites (138 with electricity), 12 miles of paved bicycle trails, and many miles of wooded bridle paths, hiking trails and mountain bike trails.