Gallows Hill Nineteen 1692
“Why Salem is important today is because of acts of individual conscience and resistance to a government that was overreacting out of fear of a global enemy. It’s important to know today what happened there for the sake of us and American history.” Benjamin Ray, Professor of Religious Studies, University of Virginia
No one really knows for sure what spurred the Salem witch hunt. Most theorize that the Puritans lived in fear of death by ‘savages’; death by starvation; death by exposure. The only common thread is fear.
The truth is this: 19 women of good intentions were accused, tried and hanged.
YouTube produced by University of Virginia, Retrieved June 4, 2016 https://youtu.be/v-KrexSNHVY
Over three hundred years later, using a variety of resources, experts agreed on the actual location where the hangings were conducted.
Top: Site of the actual witch hangings. Middle: Gallows Hill Bottom: Map of the location
Top: http://boston.cbslocal.com/2016/01/13/actual-site-of-salem-witch-hangings-discovered/
Middle: http://w3.salemstate.edu/~ebaker/Gallows_Hill
Bottom: https://news.virginia.edu/content/uvas-help-salem-finally-discovers-where-its-witches-were-executed
This is a great point that I hadn’t ever considered. But this sort of thing continues to go on in other parts of the world today, so finding the site and having a marker really is important.
I am now reading & studying about Salem and what all took place back over 300 yrs.ago…Its quite interesting.
They were not all women.
Absolutely right! It was a harrowing time that should have taught us a lesson.