Day 39: Salem, Massachusetts

We are in Salem Massachusetts today.  Hope has always wanted to come here and see some of the Salem Witch history.  We started off at the house of Nathanial Hawthorne.  His Great great Grandfather was one of the judges of the witch trials.  I have to admit I couldn't place where I had heard of Nathanial Hawthorne until someone, probably Hope told me he wrote the Scarlet Letter.  It is much better to know who someone is when touring around his house :)  His house had a cool secret passage, up through an old chimney.  I want one of those in my house, just for fun :)

Hawthorne house

 Look how pretty the view is from his house.  It is really relaxing and peaceful looking.

 We had some time after the tour to go get some candy.  I bought some cashew turtles, so so yummy!  This place is the oldest American candy making company.  The tour guy told us that a man by the name of Spencer owned this place until his family came into some money back in England.  So he sold the company and moved home.  Spencer is the name of Princess Diana, imagine if they had stayed in America, she could have been a candy maker lol.

 Look we could have fun at Waikiki beach.  Water temps get as high as 68, doesn't that sound heavenly :)

 We toured a Witch dungeon.  I thought it was a little creepy.  I read a book called the Heretics daughter, it painted a pretty good picture of how things were back in 1692.  I'm glad I had read it, it helped me get a better feel for everything.  Amazing the things people suffered and just because some one didn't like them or for other selfish reasons.  One man wouldn't say anything at all, so they couldn't legally take his land from him unless he confessed or denied being a witch.   So they pressed him, which means they put him in a shallow ditch and put a board on his chest and slowly put rocks on top of him, hoping to get a confession.  Well he wouldn't confess and was crushed to death.  Lovely huh.  Most were hung.

 This is a Memorial to all those who died during the Witch Trials.  I think 19 people were hung, 15 women and 4 men, oh yeah and two dogs.  Each ledge is for a person.  It tells the persons name and how they died.

I couldn't get this picture to turn and got impatient.  I just wanted you to see what it looked like.  It was sobering to see.  On the threshold to this memorial were the people's denial to being a witch.  The really strange thing is that if they had confessed they would have been allowed to live.  Such a sad 14 months in our American History.