Of Witches and Winding Roads

We escaped the flooding in our area today, just some heavy rain this morning. By early afternoon, I set off for Salem, MA, to begin what I knew would be a few days of research and investigation. There are A LOT of touristy things that go on down there, so I was planning on limiting it to those most visible with viable historical value. The first on the list was the Salem Witch Museum, because I knew they would have books and videos that might be helpful to me in teaching The Crucible. (Just a side note for those unfamiliar with the topic: the Salem Witch Trials were true events that took place largely because of hysteria, fear, and scapegoating. No one has ever proved that witchcraft was practiced. Instead, 19 innocent people, and allegedly one dog, were hanged. The Crucible is Arthur Miller's play, meant to dramatize the foolishness of the McCarthy hearings. This is largely where we get the term "witch hunt.") After a stop at the Visitor's Center maintained by the National Park Service to get local info and maps, I headed that way.

The outside of the building---big surprise!---was under construction, completely covering the facade with scaffolds and mesh. Despite the fact that it looked like a construction site, the inside was fine, just a bit crowded. I got there with 20 minutes to spare before the next reenactment showing, just enough time to look over a few exhibits regarding the events. I was looking at a large sign with a list of those who were arrested and those who were executed, when an older woman with three girls, aged maybe 7 to 11, came up beside me. The woman pointed out the name "Rebecca Nurse" and said, "There she is, girls. Rebecca Nurse. She was your great-great-great-great auntie." The little girls were unimpressed, I think, but I was stunned. How much more do we need to see that history continues to affect us? I talked a bit with the woman, who was very nice in asking me where I was from and what brought me there from so far away. I asked whether the line of descendence came through her family, and she said it came through her son-in-law's, so she didn't know a lot about it. She did tell me that some of the family branches had changed the spelling to Nourse, but it was pronounced the same way, adding confusion. I considered it a serindipitous meeting, just a little tidbit I can use to go back to my students to say, "See, what happened over 300 years ago still matters to someone."

The reenactment with a number of sets in a circle around the room, lighting up in succession to tell the story, was a little elementary to my taste, but it gave me some interesting questions to investigate about historical fact. Was Ann Putnam really made mad from losing two of her children plus her sister dying in childbirth? Did she REALLY start investigating ways to contact the dead? (Those ideas from the reenactment were totally new to me.) Is is true that Rebecca Nurse, possibly the most saintly person that ever lived, had chains added to hold her down when people said she was still sending out her spirit to torment them? And once the craziness died down, why did it take several years for some people to be released?

After watching and contemplating, we were guided through a short history of what we know as witches. The first, pagan midwives in the Celtic regions, were largely respected for both healing and for "charms." The same herbs could both heal and had some "magic" property, in the eyes of the early Celts. They worshiped the Earth Mother, which is probably what led to their downfall. With the Christianization of the British Isles, these women were often branded as heretics and witches. Women (and some men) continued to become victims of this thinking throughout the Middle Ages and even into modern history. The last largely publicized era of persecution of suspected witches was in Salem Village in 1692, but we all know that someone, somewhere, is always on the trail of a "witch" of some kind or another. For Hitler, it was Jews and the handicapped and gypsies. In the late 80's and early 90's, it was homosexuals. Today...take your pick. I'll get too mad if I start naming them.

I found a video produced by the Peabody Essex Museum (premiere museum in greater Boston, just up the street from the Witch Museum) and two books to help our class study of this essential piece of literature. It is the unit I most enjoy teaching, both because my kids get into it, and because it is so important in so many ways: historical, religious, literary. I won't bore you with the details, but here's this: if you've never studied or seen The Crucible, rent the version with Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder. You will see clearly why government and church must always be separate, and why circumstantial evidence is better than eyewitness testimony in some cases.

I'm saddened by the fact that it's time for me to pack up and leave my little Park View Inn. It's been a piece of sanity to come back in the evenings and be able to look out at nicely-mown grass, trees, and a picnic table after the rush of the traffic and the busy outside world. I move now to my reserved hotel in Boston as I finish up my trip there for 5 nights. I can't tell you how nervous I am! The roads, oh, the roads! There are no simple intersections of ANYthing here: it's unobtrusive Y's that I overlook and go off on a wrong direction (with no way to get back) or traffic circles that are actually squares, or elaborate Chinese-puzzle double cloverleafs. Not to mention 8-lane expressways---and all this 30 miles out of Boston! Except for finishing Salem and going to Concord and Lexington, I think it's safe to say I'll only be driving to the train station the rest of my time.

Hey, thanks again for all the comments, AND for overlooking my horrible mistakes I've found after-the-fact. Writing on the fly on a laptop has not been great for my grammar skills, but at least I have some thoughts down. It's going to be so beneficial to me later.

Thanks for reading!