Monument salem witch trials

The Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate had come before the markers of the witch memorial to do for the victims of the trials what Lincoln did for the Civil War dead at Gettysburg: to consecrate and remember, to explain their legacy in American life. Visitors often leave flowers, cards and notes for the victims on their individual benches.

The victims honored at the memorial are:. Photo Credit: Rebecca Brooks. The stone walls were repaired, light fixtures were installed and the grounds were landscaped to restore the memorial back to the way it looked in The designers of the memorial, Smith and Cutler, attended the ceremony and a keynote speech was given by author, actor and U.

The memorial is dedicated to the 19 people who were hanged during the Salem Witch Trials. The memorial features a semi-circular stone wall with 19 stones engraved with the names and execution dates of the 19 victims.

This memorial in Danvers was also built in , and is located right across the street from the former site of the Salem Village meetinghouse. The memorial, built by the Witchcraft Tercentennial Committee of Danvers, features a granite Colonial pulpit on a broken chain of shackles and an eight-foot-high wall with the names and testimony of the victims.

For more information about historical places in Salem, check out my article on Salem Historical Sites and Locations. Sources: Arnold, David. Trouble is brewing. The Best of Cutler Anderson Architects. Rockport, Putnam, Eden. I, May, April,, pp. I am curious as to why other persons who were accused and died in jail while awaiting trial are not honored in the memorial.

Specifically, I am thinking of my several times great grandmother, Ann Foster. One can read, on the stone threshold of the memorial, words of the accused taken directly from court transcripts.

In the center is a simple patch of grass and locust trees, which are thought to be the type of tree that may have been used for the hangings. A dirt path runs beside the benches for visitors to walk and reflect. Silently watching from just over the wall are the gravestones in the adjacent Old Burying Point Cemetery, the oldest cemetery in Salem and one of the oldest in the United States.

Among the interred are witch trials magistrates John Hathorne and Bartholomew Gedney. The Salem Witch Trials Tercentenary Committee was established by the Mayor of the City of Salem on April 22, , with a principle intention of creating a permanent memorial to the victims of the witch trials.

Although usually thought to represent the grim severity of Puritanism , the spectral Mr Conant was actually one of the good guys in early Salem, providing an example of courage and perseverance when the going got tough for the young colony. Salem 's favorite son, Nathaniel Hawthorne. On Hawthorne Boulevard in the small mall beside the Hawthorne Hotel stands a statue of Nathaniel Hawthorne , Salem 's most famous author.

Hawthorne worked for a time in Salem 's Custom House.