The Bewitching of Salem, MA
How the crowds in Salem, MA came to be
Salem, MA is a town of 45,000. A million visitors descend upon its streets every October to pay tribute to the town’s haunted history. Some days see 100,000 drivers looking for parking spaces that fill by 9 am. Hour-long lines to access popular shops like Nocturne on Front Street and two-hour restaurant waitlists at places like O’Neil’s Pub and Restaurant await those who do find a parking space. These crowds come to celebrate the town’s haunted past filled with witches and injustice.
These supernatural-seeking swarms were not always the norm in Salem, MA.
“You couldn’t get anyone to say anything about it,” Arthur Miller reported when he went to Salem in 1952 to do research for his Broadway play The Crucible. The it referred Miller to was the Salem Witch Trials, which occurred when several girls were accused of witchcraft and hence, given impossible tests to prove their innocence. They were hung as a result, which led to hysteria that reached a fever pitch in 1692. This was the year that the wife of Sir William Phips, the governor, was accused. This was the catalyst to put these trials to rest.
But the injustice left by the trials was not easy to erase. Those accused of witchcraft that lived were pardoned by the courts a year later. A day of fasting was…
