Fear does a funny thing to us, especially a fear of what we can not control. The of one person can often lead to mass panic by others. We seek out to either detroy the source of the fear, or if we can’t, we jump at every sound. Such was the effect of the panic during the late 17th century, when 20 men and women were killed.
Spending the night near Boston, in Danvers, MA, I discovered I was only 7 miles away from historic Salem, MA. A place of many interesting places, such as the House of Seven Gables, a historic maritime past, and most notably to the American public: The Salem Witch Trials. My first stop in Salem was at the Salem Witch Museum, an interesting display of the history and causes of the hanging of 19 men and women, and one man who was pressed to death.
It is described as being a time of panic created by some young, bored girls of Salem village. The times of the puritans were difficult and incredibly strict, leaving little entertainment for young girls who were couped up in the home. They began to play games, creating their own sort of “witchcraft”, and soon they had theirselves freightened. Many of the girls starting going into a near catonic state, staring off into space for long periods of time. The girls began to blame their actions on others, and used witchery as an excuse. They began blaming innocent villagers of Salem of practicing witchcraft, and since the doctor could not explain the girls’ state with the medicine of the time, the villagers followed suit in the hysteria.
Each of the accused was allowed a trial, but these trials were often unfair. If a judge ruled not guilty, the girls would go into a frenzy and a retrial would find the defendent guilty. At first they were simply jailed, but when the girl’s afflictions continued they decided hanging was the only way to rid themselves of the devil’s work.
One man suffered a more horrendous death when he refused to submit to trial. He was strapped down and a plank put atop him, loaded one by one with heavy rocks. When the man, over 80 years old, continued to refuse more rocks were added on top until his rib cage simply couldn’t hold the weight any longer.
Today there is a simple memorial to the deaths of these 20 Salem villages. Located next to the old cemetary, it consists of bench-like protrusions of a granite that has their names, and the the date and method of their death. A rather simple memorial, I think, for something so gruesome that took place.
After visiting the places regarding the Salem witch trials, I went to visit the old Maritime exhibit in the bay. A reproduction of “The Friendship of Salem” ship sits in the bay across from the old store. Near by is the House of Seven Gables, made famous by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It was built in 1668, the house still stands as original, having been taken care for over 100 years by preservationalists.
Something notable is that at the same time of my visit to the Salem Witch Museum a new hysteria was taking place back in Missouri: The tornado hysteria. Tornados are, unfortunately, a regular occurence of the midwest and tornado alley. There are few weeks that pass by during the season when, living in small town Missouri, the tornado sirens don’t go off. Most of the time the tornados touch down in uninhabited areas, and are less powerful than the one that hit Joplin. This tornado outbreak, marked by the destruction of Joplin with an F5, has created a media frenzy that has everyone on high alert. It may be, however, that this time the hysteria is a blessing in disguise. We get so used to hearing the sirens that after a period of time we start to ignore them. This time it was shown just how real that threat is when those sirens go off, and how important it is to be educated about what areas are safe and what are not during such a storm.
It is after times of panic and hysteria that we can look back calmly and learn from the situation that was at hand. While in the case of the Salem Witch Trials the girls finally admitted to their foolery, which resulted in the death of 20 villagers, perhaps in the midwest and other areas afflicted by tornados we can learn something else. It is time to take these sorts of alarms seriously, and step back from our fast paced lives. So often we ignore these warnings because we have “too much to do”.
Life has been increasing in it’s complexity and business to the point we fail to heed simple warnings. It is time to take value of what life is worth, and slow down. When are we going to realize that we can’t keep going at such a speed? I am guilty of this too, and I fault it to our society. As an american society we simply don’t allow for down time. Expectations are high. Let us take stock of how important every day is, whether it is filled to the brim or not, so we can avoid the hysteria that results in negative outcomes.
-Nicole
