The Salem Witch Trials Of 1692

The Salem Witch Trials Of 1692

The Salem Witch Trials Of 1692

In the year 1692 in Salem Village, Massachusetts, nineteen men and women were slaughtered on the gallows under false convictions of witchcraft and black magic. One man who was over eighty years of age was not hung, but pressed to death beneath dozens of heavy stones for refusing to attend trial, after spending five long months in prison. Can you imagine, being a victim of this hate-crime campaign? No part of this historic tragedy was inevitable: The Salem Witch Trials were unjust, unfair, and could have been stopped if not for the darkly creative minds of eight adolescent girls.

I remember my one trip to Salem and how deeply moved I had been by the Salem Witch Trials Memorial, the only testament ever truly given to the unheard voices of the Salem Witch Trials’ nineteen victims. The memorial, whose design was inspired by the Vietnam Memorial, took on a rectangular shape, consisting of twenty granite benches, all cantilevering from a low-built stonewall, adjoining with the memorial’s neighboring graveyard. The stones, beautiful, antique and almost perfectly set, were organized by the execution date, beginning with July 19, 1692, moving on to August 19 1692, and ending with the Witch Trial’s finale, September 19 and September 22, 1692. On each bench was the name of the accused witch, the exact means and date of their death, and if any statement had been by one of the convicted, it too was forever inscribed into the hard, cold granite. I had so many overwhelming feelings as I walked along the path, running my hands along the icy benches and feeling the indentation of the perfectly carved words. There was guilt and there was anger that such a tragedy, such a travesty of justice could occur so easily, and more than anything there was a need to recognize the statements of every victim, to hear each voice and listen to their desperate pleas of innocence, as no one had in the year 1692. Two of the statements haunted my mind more...