Salem Women's
History and
Business Community
History and
Business Community
Witch Trials Memorial
Salem sites:
• Salem Witch Museum
• Witch House/Corwin House
• Sites in Danvers, formerly
Salem Village, where the
hysteria started
• Salem Witch Museum
• Witch House/Corwin House
• Sites in Danvers, formerly
Salem Village, where the
hysteria started
New Liberty Street — Open to the public
In 1992, Salem chose to mark the three hundredth anniversary of the Salem Witch Trials by commissioning a work of art to honor its victims. They decided it was time for a meaningful tribute to the innocent women and men who faced painful, unjust death.
The artist who designed the memorial was Maggie Smith of Winslow, Washington. Working with an architect and stone mason, her design is "strikingly simple...surrounded on three sides by a hand-crafted dry stone wall. Jutting from the wall are 20 granite benches, each of which bears the name of one of the 20 people put to death during the witchcraft hysteria, along with the date and manner of his or her execution. The benches are intended to double as tombstones, since the victims, who were buried in shallow graves near Gallows Hill, never had grave markers."1
The memorial also includes words etched in stone that the accused "witches" spoke to proclaim their innocence, and six thorny black locust trees (like those on Gallows Hill) whose starkness "represents the stark injustice of the trials."2
Salem invited Elie Weisel, the Nobel Laureate, Holocaust survivor, and advocate for oppressed people, to dedicate the memorial, and he spoke movingly about the courage of the victims "who died rather than tell a lie to save their lives."3 He reminded the one thousand-plus crowd gathered that day that "even in times of inhumanity, humanity abounds."4
The women who were put to death in 1692 were Bridget Bishop, Martha Carrier, Martha Corey, Mary Easty, Sarah Good, Dorcas Hoar, Elizabeth Howe, Susannah Martin, Rebecca Nurse, Alice Parker, Mary Parker, Ann Pudeator, Margaret Scott, and Sarah Wildes.
Among their final words are the following remarks: "If it be possible no more innocent blood be shed. I am clear of this sin" (Mary Easty), and "I will speak the truth as long as I live" (Dorcas Hoar).
After the horror of the Salem Witch Trials, the Court of Oyer and Terminer (which allowed spectral evidence) was abolished; in its place was established the precursor to today's Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
Notes
1 Salem Evening News, August 6, 1992.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
In 1992, Salem chose to mark the three hundredth anniversary of the Salem Witch Trials by commissioning a work of art to honor its victims. They decided it was time for a meaningful tribute to the innocent women and men who faced painful, unjust death.
The artist who designed the memorial was Maggie Smith of Winslow, Washington. Working with an architect and stone mason, her design is "strikingly simple...surrounded on three sides by a hand-crafted dry stone wall. Jutting from the wall are 20 granite benches, each of which bears the name of one of the 20 people put to death during the witchcraft hysteria, along with the date and manner of his or her execution. The benches are intended to double as tombstones, since the victims, who were buried in shallow graves near Gallows Hill, never had grave markers."1
The memorial also includes words etched in stone that the accused "witches" spoke to proclaim their innocence, and six thorny black locust trees (like those on Gallows Hill) whose starkness "represents the stark injustice of the trials."2
Salem invited Elie Weisel, the Nobel Laureate, Holocaust survivor, and advocate for oppressed people, to dedicate the memorial, and he spoke movingly about the courage of the victims "who died rather than tell a lie to save their lives."3 He reminded the one thousand-plus crowd gathered that day that "even in times of inhumanity, humanity abounds."4
The women who were put to death in 1692 were Bridget Bishop, Martha Carrier, Martha Corey, Mary Easty, Sarah Good, Dorcas Hoar, Elizabeth Howe, Susannah Martin, Rebecca Nurse, Alice Parker, Mary Parker, Ann Pudeator, Margaret Scott, and Sarah Wildes.
Among their final words are the following remarks: "If it be possible no more innocent blood be shed. I am clear of this sin" (Mary Easty), and "I will speak the truth as long as I live" (Dorcas Hoar).
After the horror of the Salem Witch Trials, the Court of Oyer and Terminer (which allowed spectral evidence) was abolished; in its place was established the precursor to today's Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
Notes
1 Salem Evening News, August 6, 1992.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
