Alyson Horrocks from the Strange and Unusual Podcast took me on a tour of a historical site with a dark past. The site sits in a town called Danvers, but it was once Salem Village. This site was the culmination of a strange mix of religion, superstition, folklore, slavery, patriarchy, truth, and lies.

A place where people’s imagination or secret motives ran wild and story or lie or desperate attempt at redemption led to the basis for one of the darkest times in colonial American History. What started as a search for freedom to pursue religion and all things good, and ended in a nondescript historical site and archaeological dig, has a sinister history with a story that is hard to tell and even harder to understand.

• Salem Village was settled in the late 1600s
• In 1970, Richard B. Trask started excavating the “Danvers Dig”
• 1688 Samuel Parris moved into the house that once stood at the dig.
• Parris brought an enslaved South American couple named John and Tituba.
• In 1692, the invisible world began to close around the Parris family.
• Using Venus Glass and taking a peek into the invisible world.
• How it’s human nature to be drawn to what is forbidden
• In January of 1693, Betty Parris daughter of Samuel, and cousin Abigail were stricken with mysterious illnesses.
• Sarah Good and her daughter visit the Parris home.
• Dr. Griggs determines the affliction of Betty and Abigail is supernatural in nature.
• Thomas Putnam goes to the Salem Town magistrates to file claims of witchcraft.
• A woman's final plea for freedom opens the floodgates of imagination and evil to begin a dark era of lies and persecution.

Resources:

The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege

The Strange and Unusual Podcast

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