Salem witch trials hanging spot found.

[Andybev01]

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2016/01/13/a ... iscovered/

[Kolchak]

If you go to Salem today, you see witch related stuff all over the place. Yet the people who were accused and wrongly convicted and then executed were not witches. It seems a rather tragic irony that they celebrate 19 executions of innocent people and actively promote the witch thematic vision of the town.

A few years back I met someone from Salem and the person told me that by having the witch theme it was to show religious tolerance. I said that was fine, but the 19 dead people were Christian and not witches. The person said that by accepting the witch as part of their history and cultural they were putting a thumb into the eye of the repressive and close minded Christian intolerance of the day.

To which I replied, Yea but the people WERE NOT WITCHES! They WERE CHRISTIAN! How can you reconcile that as being open and accepting when you are demeaning the deaths of people who were innocent of the crime of being a witch.

To which they replied......Well that was a long time ago and things are different now.

To which I replied......HUH!!!!???

[jadewik]

That's on the hill behind the Walgreens, right? ... or is this another location?

[Murfreesboro]

Kolchak, you are right, of course. I'm willing to bet that the main reason they emphasize witchcraft today is that somebody in the chamber of commerce decided it was great for tourism!

One really significant outcome of the witch trials is that remorse over them caused our legal system to insist "innocent until proven guilty". I believe that English common law had held guilty until proven innocent. It is much harder to prove innocence than guilt.

[GeorgeWalters]

I agree.

[Pumpkin_Head]

Salem Mass was not the only place where innocent people died for practicing witchcraft. It's only the most well known. There's a place here in Illinois (purportedly haunted) where a woman was put to death for witchery, buried and the death date on her tomb stone read February 31, 1888. The reason for the non-existent death date is so that she couldn't come back from the grave on the anniversary of her death. What I found profound about it is that 1888 is relatively recent. In the late 1880s, the very cornerstones of the 20th Century were being laid, education and literacy was becoming more wide spread, and witch trials were very much a thing of the past. Supposedly.

I don't remember the name of the town where this happened off the top of my head, but I am definitely going to take a 'haunted road trip' down there when I have a better car to drive.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

Wow, 1888 is very recent!

[Pumpkin_Head]

For a witch trial it sure is. Of course, in 1888, there were many parts that were not connected to the rest of society. A lot of people didn't even have electricity as recently as the 50s in certain mountainous areas. But it's amazing none the less that something like an execution for witchcraft could have happened only 12 years prior to the turn of the 20th century.

Mike

[witchy]

I am so glad they stopped all that nonsense!

[Pumpkin_Head]

So am I, Witchy.

Mike

[jadewik]

The podcast "Unobscured" has a great Season 1 podcast all about the Salem Witch Trials. It's great! Very well edited and pieced together. It deals with experts outlining their research and historical documentation of the event. It's very, very good on the level of research/history/truth, and also entertainment value. I blew through them.

More on the podcast here:
https://historyunobscured.com/

[Andybev01]

Thanks, Jadewik.

Something new to obsess on!

[Murfreesboro]

Sounds intriguing!