The Other Salem

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Just outside of Boston is the more famous of the two Salems I've visited this trip, namely the setting of the infamous 1692 Salem witch trials. Having studied early European witchcraft at A-level (not literally, sadly) I was interested to see how the most well known example of the witchcraft hysteria was commemorated. Unfortunately, modern day Salem is a bit of a bad taste bonanza full of haunted houses, Dracula's castles and spooky fancy dress shops, which jarred a bit with the grisly reality of what the town is actually famous for. Saying that, there were a couple of credible attempts to simply tell the story, even if they were a bit hokey. The one we went to tried to teach visitors about tolerance by making a hamfisted comparison between victims of the witch hunts and people with AIDS. Points for trying, I suppose...

Just as we were giving up on the place we happened to notice an old map in one of the museums that showed the locations of several of the victims' houses, the old church and village hall where many of the witch trials took place. It was only when we tried to find these on our new map that we discovered Salem isn't really Salem at all - the place that was called Salem in 1692 is now a village called Danvers several miles away. Turns out the original Salem is actually a quiet slice of suburbia with only discrete informative signs to identify the historical locations and a tasteful mermorial to the victims on an unassuming side street. So I suppose it's not all bad after all.