Salem
Witch trial city
Salem is a place name shared by several American cities, most notably the capital of Oregon and a Massachusetts city infamous for the 1692 witch trials.
The witch trials have made Salem shorthand for mass hysteria, false accusations, or persecution: The congressional hearings became a Salem witch hunt.
Salem also appears in biblical contexts as an ancient name for Jerusalem.
Claims of fault
- hangingsSuspended wall coverings
- PuritansEnglish Protestant reformers
- mass hysteriaShared irrational public fear
- spectral evidenceTestimony from supernatural visions
witchcraft · testimony · persecution · superstition · The Crucible · Arthur Miller · McCarthyism · Tituba
Practitioners of dark magic
- spellsMagical utterances or intervals
- witchcraftPractice of supernatural magic
- possessionState of owning
- divinationForetelling through mystical means
herbalism · cauldron · broomstick · coven · familiar · hex · curse · black cat
Northeastern colonial state
- witch trialsLegal proceedings against alleged sorcerers
- New EnglandNortheast U.S. region
- HawthorneSurname from spiny shrubs
- seaportCoastal city with docks
accusations
Claims of fault
- hangingsSuspended wall coverings
- PuritansEnglish Protestant reformers
- mass hysteriaShared irrational public fear
spectral evidence · witchcraft · testimony · persecution · superstition · The Crucible · Arthur Miller · McCarthyism · Tituba · trial records
witches
Practitioners of dark magic
- spellsMagical utterances or intervals
- witchcraftPractice of supernatural magic
- possessionState of owning
divination · herbalism · cauldron · broomstick · coven · familiar · hex · curse · black cat · potion
Massachusetts
Northeastern colonial state
- witch trialsLegal proceedings against alleged sorcerers
- New EnglandNortheast U.S. region
- HawthorneSurname from spiny shrubs
- place namesplace names, Peking, Beijing, place name, city names
- Colonial AmericaGeorge Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, Benjamin Franklin, Declaration of Independence
- Town NamesSpringfield, Fairview, Riverside, Greenville, Madison
- Archie ComicsArchie, Betty, Jughead, Reggie, Riverdale
- HawthorneThe Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne, Pearl, scarlet letter, Wakefield
- Massachusetts TownsFramingham, Wellesley, Sudbury, Weston, Ashland
SalemAge of Reason
Eighteenth-century intellectual awakening
rationalism · scientific method · due process · tolerance · Voltaire
SalemUnderground Railroad
Covert abolitionist escape network
Ellis Island · Plymouth · Seneca Falls · Woodstock · San Francisco
- Salem witch trialsColonial American persecution of alleged sorcerers
- Salem's Lot
- Salem trials1692 witchcraft prosecutions