Salem’s witch trial history continues to charm Halloween tourists as town marks 400th anniversary
by Juliet La Sala · The Washington TimesSALEM, Mass. — An orange glow emanates from a smoke-enveloped alleyway on Derby Street, where a plastic statue of an ancient winged demon stands guard over “all those who revel on Halloween,” according to local lore.
Farther down the darkly lit street, a ghoulish creature shambles and beckons intrepid visitors: “Don’t disappear after Halloween, the ghosts come back for Christmas.”
As if on cue, a Santa wearing a Ghostface mask appears, saying, “Ghosts of holidays past is just around the corner.”
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Here, in this New England town known for witches and haunts, Halloween is more than a holiday. It’s a year-round obsession and marketing staple — on full display as Salem marks its 400th anniversary.
Given Salem’s past, it’s hard not to wonder if all of the witch-themed marketing and merchandising commemorates its history — or commodifies it. Walking down Derby Street, it looks like a bit of both: The places where wands and witch hats are sold stand beside memorials to those executed for witchcraft.
Between February 1692 and May 1693, more than 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft in Salem. Fourteen women and five men were hanged, and one man was fatally crushed under heavy stones. The Salem witch trials eventually spawned memorials, literary critiques and tourism in this town of more than 45,000 people.
Petra Slinkard lives and works along the divide between commemoration and commercialization as the chief curator of the Peabody Essex Museum, the repository of Salem’s maritime and Colonial history, including the infamous witch trials.
“We are finding that Salem can hold both experiences: the creativity and fun that draw people here today and a serious engagement with our difficult past,” Ms. Slinkard said in an email.
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But shop owners, restaurant workers, Colonial reenactors and other locals involved in tourism enthusiastically promoted their businesses while declining to comment about the history on which their witch-themed wares are based.
On Derby Street, where the statue of the winged demon Anamcharra stands guard, cobwebbed shops offer spurious potions, twinkly amulets and books full of spells and curses for every occasion.
Gift shops, such as the gothic-themed Nocturne, display wands and pointed witch hats alongside pumpkin spice hand lotion, “Samhain spice” perfume, witch brooms and books on Celtic goddesses from Britain and Ireland.
At Lappin Park, tourists can take selfies beside a life-sized statue of Elizabeth Montgomery in her garb from the beloved ’60s and ’70s sitcom “Bewitched.”
Elsewhere, the Ropes Mansion and Garden offers another photo opportunity for visitors as it recreates its look from the 1993 Halloween comedy “Hocus Pocus,” complete with pumpkins.
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“Millions of people know the house as Allison’s house from Hocus Pocus, but they don’t necessarily know anything about the generations of the Ropes family who lived there,” Ms. Slinkard said.
Built in the 1720s, the Ropes Mansion was owned by a prominent merchant family in this port town. In 1768, Judge Nathaniel Ropes purchased the home, where he reportedly died of smallpox while a mob raged outside over his loyalist views just before the Revolutionary War. It was handed down from generation to generation, and eventually became part of the Peabody Essex Museum.
“What begins as a ‘Hocus Pocus’ photo stop can become an invitation to discover an entirely different chapter of Salem’s history and the real people involved,” said Ms. Slinkard, the museum curator.
The museum’s Salem Witch Trials 1692 exhibition gives visitors year-round access to “one of the largest collections of authentic Salem Witch Trials materials in the world,” she added.
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Meanwhile, “spirit boxes” (actually electronic transmitter radios) at execution sites and graves offer tourists the opportunity to receive messages from the dead via electronic voice phenomena.
And a reenactment of a witch trial, titled “Cry Innocent: The People vs. Bridget Bishop,” uses original transcripts to bring one victim’s experience to life. At the end of the trial, the audience is asked to vote on Bridget’s guilt or innocence.
Such presentations and merchandise draw hundreds of thousands of people to Salem every October, which historically has accounted for roughly 30% of the city’s annual tourism revenue, according to Destination Salem. Visitors spent $144 million in Salem in 2023, and nearly 1 million tourists came to downtown Salem last October.
Amid all the town’s witch-themed festivities, Ms. Slinkard says it’s important to remember that the accused were “real people — not characters, archetypes or symbols.”
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“One of the biggest oversimplifications is thinking of 1692 primarily as a story about witchcraft, when it is equally important to understand it as a crisis of the judicial system” over what counts as evidence and authentic testimony, she said.
The enduring lesson “is not really about witchcraft,” Ms. Slinkard said. “It is about what can happen when fear overwhelms evidence, when accusation is treated as proof, and when institutions fail to protect people from injustice.”
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Juliet La Sala
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