Salem

Hi everyone,

Another rough sleep here last night, this time due to a Year 8 camp somehow being allowed to stay at a public hostel, and us being next to a noisy group of girls. We’ve not had much luck recently but were relieved to hear when Rob asked their their teacher this morning that they’re leaving today!

We set off around 9.30 today for North Station, admiring the cheeky squirrels in Boston Common as we walked. Today’s weather said rain starting at 11am and worsening as the day went on. We caught a commuter train to Salem at 10.30 and arrived at 11. Thankfully the rain wasn’t bad at all here until around 12.30pm so for the first little while we walked around without an issue. Happily, the rail ticket we purchased today is good for unlimited commuter rail rides for the whole weekend, so we saved $10 US each today and I can also use it to travel to the Taylor Swift concert tomorrow. When I last visited I had thought visiting Salem could be interesting but hadn’t had enough time. We thought it was worth a trip today as we’ve seen all the main things in Boston now.

You’ve likely heard of Salem due to the 1692 Salem Witch Trials that took place here. In January 1692, two young girls in the Reverend’s household in Salem began displaying strange behaviour such as barking, spinning uncontrollably, contorting themselves and experiencing paralysis for hours. A modern day mindset would say they had likely been poisoned by something they consumed, or perhaps had a medical condition that caused this. But from 1450-1750 in Europe there were tens of thousands of witch trials, and the mostly Puritan population of Salem were very devout, believing witches could do Satan’s work and possess people etc. Tituba, the Parris family slave, Sarah Goode, a beggar woman, and Sarah Osbourne were the first three accused as being witches and a special court was appointed. Just one witness claiming they had seen a person behaving like a witch could result in them being found guilty and sentenced to death. In all, over 150 people from the Salem area were arrested for this “crime” in the hysteria of 1692, and 25 of them died. Nineteen victims were executed and six died in jail, including a four year old girl who had been arrested. It’s absolutely insane to think that people thought this way at some point in time, but you only have to think of movements such as the Nazis as more recent examples for people being swept up in strange mindsets and cruel behaviours to note humans behave pretty dangerously when they’re made to feel fearful. In October 1692 the governor’s wife was accused of witchcraft, and this saw the end of the trials in Salem as the Governor put a stop to them. It’s a shame he couldn’t do this earlier for the other innocent people! Ironically, Salem was established in 1626 and was named so as a modification from the Hebrew word for “peace”.

We walked down a main street from the train station and enjoyed a coffee, before continuing past a Witch Museum contained within a beautiful building that got terrible reviews, so we didn’t go in. Then we wandered through Salem Common, a park used in the 1993 movie ‘Hocus Pocus’ amongst other locations in the town. I watched this many a time as a kid!

We wandered on to the harbour area which had a few wharves operating in the 1700s and 1800s, eventually declining in the late 1800s as Boston and New York City’s deeper harbours could cater to the bigger ships of the time. Mostly all that remained today was some foundations and a couple of buildings, and then we saw the Customs House which was under renovation. Back one block there were also a few beautiful old houses and their gardens. Apparently an archaeological dig in the 1970s in this area had netted 150,000 artefacts, enabling historians to gain a clearer picture of what life was like for merchants and artisans back then. By this stage of our walk the rain had started but it wasn’t heavy.

We ended up at the House of the Seven Gables, a 1668 mansion made famous by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel of the same name. Hawthorne also wrote ‘The Scarlet Letter’ and was born and lived in Salem. He was the surveyor at the Customs House for a period of time too. We didn’t go in as we had decided on a house/museum we wanted to visit already and this one was $42 Australian per person.

We had a laugh walking back from this area at how many witch's hats there were blocking off sections of the footpath, given we were in Salem! We headed to the Charter Street Cemetery next which opened in 1637 and saw many graves from the 1700s. We had wondered why in Boston many headstones had creepy looking skulls and things on them instead of the usual angels, and we overheard a walking tour guide explaining that this was the Puritans wanting to defy what the Catholics typically did for their headstones. We also noticed "here lies..." was spelled "here lyes..." on the gravestones, and discovered this had something to do with the chemicals used to dissolve bodies at the time. We then made a quick visit to the Witch Trials Memorial and to the visitor centre here, inside an old building from 1672.

We walked through a pedestrian street and stopped at a souvenir shop (one final magnet for the trip...!) before arriving at the Witch House Museum. By this time the rain was heavy so we were glad to be inside. The Witch House was the home of Jonathan Corwin, a wealthy merchant and politician and his wife and family. He had the role of magistrate and judge during the Witch Trials. In 1704 he then became a judge for the Superior Court of Judicature, which laid the early foundations for the current judicial system here. It was interesting seeing the house and what it would have been like to live there. There were a few fireplaces, I can imagine it being very cold during the winters here and being hard to keep warm during those times. It sounded like a hard time to live overall, with Jonathan and his wife having ten children but only two of them making it to adulthood. And they were rich, so imagine what it was like for the poor. The rooms had information and artefacts inside of them. We read the list of those killed during the Trials and one man, Giles Corey, was pressed to death instead of being hanged. This was because he refused to go to trial. It actually surprised us that a few men were amongst those who were accused to be witches. Some of the exhibitions explained horrifying "cures" for ailments back in the day such as drinking blood, inserting 'skull moss' from a corpse up your nose, and baking toads and inhaling the ashes. I think I would rather remain ill, thanks!

Afterwards, we had a yummy lunch at Red's Sandwiches. Rob had a chicken parma sandwich and I had a chicken noodle soup and small chicken salad sandwich. The lady asked me "do you want tomato and lettuce on it?" and I said "isn't it chicken salad?" she replied "yes, chicken salad is chicken and mayo mashed together". This to me summarised why I am feeling like an absolute blob after six weeks over here. Canada was slightly better, but CHICKEN AND MAYO IS NOT A SALAD! Haha - apparently it is in the USA. So I said yes of course I would like tomato and lettuce please. I'm having a great time but boy oh boy do I miss my vegetable steamer at home!

We walked in the heavy rain to the station and caught a train back to Boston (which by the way was named by Puritans after the town of Lincolnshire in England). We caught the metro back towards our hostel, made a quick stop at Primark where I bought some T shirts, then headed back to the room.

Tonight we are having a lazy night in. Tomorrow I am going to Taylor Swift (I am sooooooo excited!) and the plan is to get up and watch Collingwood on delay before making my way down to the New England Patriots Stadium for the concert. Tonight is pouring rain, so I feel for those attending as it wouldn't be very comfortable. Thankfully for me tomorrow says 23 and sunny. My plan is whilst heading back from the concert tomorrow (approx 1.5 hours) to put the blog up.

Love to all
Claire
Xoxox