Salem Village, Massachusetts – Witch Hunt City
Out of sorrow and chagrin, out of dread,
was born a new love for the land which
had been desecrated, but, somehow
also consecrated, in the blood of innocents.
Salem Village, now a part of Danvers, Massachusetts, stands as a poignant reminder of a dark chapter in American history. This historic district, comprised of properties dating back to the early settlers, evokes images of a burgeoning community fraught with internal strife, ultimately culminating in the infamous witch trials of 1692. Located approximately 5-7 miles north of Salem Towne’s meeting house, the village cultivated its own distinct identity and interests in the early years of colonial settlement.
The story of Salem Village begins with the early attempts to establish a foothold in the New World. In 1623, a group of colonists ventured to Cape Ann, on the North Shore of Massachusetts, to establish a fishing settlement. Though this initial endeavor proved unsuccessful, a determined group led by Roger Conant persevered. In 1626, they relocated to Naumkeag, which would later be renamed Salem in 1629. The Massachusetts Bay Colony, empowered by a charter granted by the English monarch in 1629, enjoyed a significant degree of autonomy. These colonists, largely Puritans, sought to create a society where their church could flourish without the constraints imposed by the Church of England. With ministers arriving in 1629, the settlers swiftly began organizing their church. Around 1630, they adapted an existing Naumkeag Indian trail into the Old Ipswich Road, thus linking Salem to the burgeoning city of Boston.
However, the land within Salem Towne proved to be less than ideal for agriculture. Consequently, many settlers ventured beyond the town’s boundaries, leading to the emergence of numerous smaller communities, including Salem Village, Beverly, Andover, Topsfield, and Wenham, among others. The land that became Salem Village had once been under the control of the Naumkeag branch of the Massachusett tribe. The village itself was permanently settled in 1636.
The 1630s saw rapid growth in these communities, fueled by increased immigration driven by the oppressive policies of King Charles I in England. This period also coincided with the Pequot Indian War, which raged from 1634 to 1638, adding another layer of complexity and tension to colonial life.
By 1640, Salem had risen to become the second most important colonial town, surpassed only by Boston. However, the high rate of immigration began to decline as the Puritans gained power in England, effectively ending the persecution that had driven many to seek refuge in the New World. As a result, the colony became more self-sufficient and began to assert its sovereignty. The 1650s witnessed a period of prosperity for the colonies. In Salem and other areas, the church solidified its position as the most influential institution.
Salem Village, nestled about five miles north of Salem Towne, experienced its own period of growth and development, fostering a distinct identity and interests that sometimes clashed with those of its larger neighbor. In 1666, Salem Village petitioned for the establishment of a separate church, but the request was initially denied. However, the farmers persisted, citing the considerable distance to the Salem Towne church. Finally, in 1672, Salem Village was granted the right to build its own church and hire a minister. Despite this newfound autonomy, the villagers remained members of the Salem Towne Church, which retained ultimate authority over the smaller congregation. The village was also authorized to establish a committee of five to assess and collect taxes from villagers – both church members and non-members – to support the ministry. While villagers continued to participate in Salem Towne’s civic life, voting in its elections and paying most of its taxes, this marked the first significant step toward self-governance.
The villagers promptly embarked on the construction of the Salem Village Meeting House and initiated the search for a minister. Although the church operated under the oversight of the larger Salem Towne Church, its ministers were not ordained and therefore lacked the authority to administer communion or admit new members. This inherent limitation, coupled with differing opinions regarding the selection of a minister, sowed the seeds of conflict between those in Salem Towne who opposed the creation of a separate church and factions within Salem Village. Over the ensuing years, this dissension deepened, transforming friends and family members into adversaries. While such conflicts were not uncommon in New England communities, historians believe that Salem Village experienced a particularly high level of internal strife. During the 1670s and 1680s, the church’s first three ministers all resigned, disillusioned with their position, the church, and the village itself.
The first minister, Reverend James Bayley, arrived in Salem Village in October 1672. A relatively inexperienced pastor, having graduated from Harvard only three years prior, Bayley immediately found himself embroiled in conflict. From the outset, some village members felt that Bayley had been hired "upon the invitation of a few," highlighting the informal and irregular procedures that characterized the hiring process in these fledgling communities.
Despite the presence of dissenters, things initially progressed smoothly. In June 1673, Bayley was invited to remain in his post. Five farmers donated 40 acres of land to him, and the minister began construction of a house. However, in the same year, 14 villagers fell behind on their taxes for church support, signaling the growing discontent among some church members.
The core issue revolved around the question of who held the authority to call or dismiss a minister in Salem Village, transforming the matter into a highly charged political conflict. Because the village was not an "official" town, the church represented the only real authority, a situation that angered many villagers who attended other churches in nearby communities. The dispute escalated to such an extent that it was brought before the county courts, the Salem Towne Church, and even the Colonial Legislature. Although the Salem Church advised the dissidents to submit to Bayley’s continued ministry "without any further trouble," the conflict persisted.
By 1679, a vocal minority within the village, led by Nathaniel Putnam and Bray Wilkins, had turned decisively against Bayley, accusing him of neglecting his church duties and failing to conduct family prayers in his own household. With the Village deeply divided over the legitimacy of his call, Bayley ultimately relinquished the fight and departed Salem Village in 1680. He went on to minister for a few more years in Killingworth, Connecticut, before abandoning the profession and becoming a doctor in Roxbury, Massachusetts.
Unfortunately, his departure did little to alleviate the dissension within the village. Nevertheless, the village inhabitants, both church members and non-members, selected a committee headed by Nathaniel Putnam to seek a new minister.
The second minister, George Burroughs, a 1670 Harvard graduate, arrived in Salem Village in 1680. As a condition of his arrival, Burroughs stipulated "that in case any difference should arise in time to come, that we engage on both sides to submit to counsel for a peaceable issue." While such language was common in 17th-century New England, it undoubtedly held deeper significance for Burroughs, who had likely gleaned some insight into the challenges that awaited him from Bayley’s experience.
Differences soon arose, and Burroughs found himself caught in the midst of the ongoing conflict within the village. Some villagers accused him of mistreating his wife. It was to Burroughs that Jeremiah Watts wrote his letter of April 1682, lamenting the disputes in Salem Village, stating, "Brother is against brother, and neighbors are against neighbors, all quarreling and smiting one another." With many villagers failing to pay their taxes, Burroughs was often left unpaid and was forced to borrow money from the Putnam family.
By early 1683, the minister’s salary was not being paid at all, and in March, Burroughs ceased meeting with his congregations. The Reverend Burroughs accepted an offer to resume his ministerial duties at Casco Bay, which had been reorganized. He remained there until the community was once again destroyed by Indians in 1690. He then relocated to Wells, Maine.
Tragically, his brief tenure in Salem Village would later come back to haunt him. In May 1692, during the Salem witch trials, based on accusations leveled by the Putnams, who had sued him for the previous debt, Burroughs was charged with witchcraft, arrested, and brought back to Salem. He was executed on August 19, 1692.
Deodat Lawson, an unordained minister, succeeded Burroughs. Reverend Deodat Lawson came from Boston and served as pastor from 1684 to 1688. Again, contention arose within the church, and Larson’s bid to become an ordained minister failed. Like his two predecessors, Lawson encountered problems with the villagers of Salem Village, and the Salem Village Church was being torn apart by two opposing factions, each vying for control of the pulpit. This resulted in a significant portion of the congregation rejoining the First Church in Salem. In 1688, Lawson left Salem Village after the expiration of his contractual obligation period. He subsequently became a pastor in Scituate, Massachusetts, before abruptly returning to England, where he spent the remainder of his life.
The villagers continued to hold onto the hope that the establishment of their own church, independent of the Church of Salem, would somehow transcend the chronic divisions that plagued the community. As a result, they resumed their search for an ordained minister. Their attention was drawn to Reverend Samuel Parris, who was guest-preaching at several churches in the Boston area. They extended an invitation to him in the spring of 1689. Parris, a Harvard Divinity School dropout, had initially pursued his father’s career as a West Indies merchant, but when that venture failed, he returned to Massachusetts to become a minister.
On June 18, 1689, at a general meeting of all villagers, it was agreed to hire Samuel Parris at an annual salary of £66, with the villagers also providing firewood for both the church and parsonage. At a subsequent meeting, the villagers further agreed to grant Parris and his heirs the village parsonage, barn, and two acres of land.
It was a fateful decision that Parris did not make lightly. He was well aware of the conflicts that had beset the village in recent years. However, given his Puritan beliefs, which emphasized each individual’s responsibility to monitor their neighbor’s piety, he understood that conflict was inevitable. On November 19, 1689, the Salem Village church charter was finally signed, and Reverend Samuel Parris became Salem Village‘s first ordained minister, marking the establishment of a true church. Reverend Parris brought with him to the parsonage his wife, Elizabeth, his nine-year-old daughter Elizabeth, his 11-year-old niece, Abigail Williams, and a slave couple he had brought from the West Indies, John and Tituba Indian.
His ministry began smoothly, but as Parris began to reveal his beliefs and characteristics, several Salem Villagers, including some church members, grew dissatisfied. A serious and dedicated minister, he combined his evangelical zeal to revitalize religion in Salem Village with psychological rigidity and theological conservatism.
While the Salem Towne Church and most Puritan churches of the time were relaxing their standards for church membership, Parris rigidly adhered to traditional strict standards, which required members to be baptized and make a public declaration of experiencing God’s free grace in order to become full members. Most village church members welcomed Parris’s traditionalism, which elevated their status by sharply distinguishing them from non-church members. However, a dissenting minority found allies among non-members, who constituted a large and influential segment of the Salem Village community.
Parris also found himself embroiled in contract disputes with members of the Salem Village Church council. The council contended that the contract, which was never formally documented, only granted Parris the parsonage and lands for as long as he remained the minister, contrary to Parris’s belief that the contract granted him outright ownership of the house and lands. At the same time, Parris was making plans to renovate the meeting house to reflect its new status as a full church. However, to many, this signaled a church that would be both more intrusive and more expensive than some villagers desired.
By the fall of 1691, just two years after his ordination, Parris’s ritual orthodoxy, overbearing disposition, and the disputed contract had once again fractured the village and church into factions. Church attendance declined, and village officials refused to provide firewood to heat the church or Parris’s house. Matters worsened when a new Committee of Five was chosen by the village in October 1691, which announced its refusal to relinquish the ministry house and land to Parris or to collect taxes for his salary, leaving it to the villagers to pay through "voluntary contributions." Parris then called upon church members to file a formal complaint with the County Court against the committee’s neglect of the church. The factional fighting also began to manifest in his weekly sermons as a battle between God and Satan.
This was the backdrop against which the Salem witchcraft accusations unfolded, beginning within Reverend Parris’s own home.
At the time the witch trials commenced, the population of Salem Village is estimated to have been between 500 and 600 residents. While most of the accused in the Salem witch trials resided in nearby Salem Village, now known as Danvers, others lived in the neighboring villages of Beverly, Middleton, Topsfield, Wenham, and others. Although the precise causes of the Salem Witch hysteria remain a subject of debate, some historians point to economic factors, while others emphasize religious and psychological pressures.
By the end of May 1692, over 150 "witches" had been imprisoned. As the hysteria intensified, accused and imprisoned "witches," fearing for their lives, began to confess to witchcraft. By September, 19 individuals had refused to confess and were hanged, including 71-year-old Rebecca Nurse. Eventually, cooler heads prevailed in early 1693, and the court began to disallow "spectral evidence," effectively ending the witch hysteria.
Salem Village eventually petitioned the Crown for a charter as a town. According to legend, the King denied the charter. However, on June 9, 1757, the town was incorporated anyway and named for the Danvers Osborn family. At the time of the American Revolution, Danvers was a shipping and shipbuilding center where tidal mills thrived. Its locally produced bricks gained national renown, while the later leather tanning industry brought a diverse influx of new immigrant labor to the area. Tapleyville emerged in the 1830s as a center for the production of woven carpets, attracting English and Scottish weavers who settled and made their homes there. Danvers Plains capitalized on its strategic location at important crossroads and the introduction of the railroad in the 1840s to become a prominent commercial center. Putnamville and Danvers Highlands were noted for their significant and early shoe manufacturing industry, while farms throughout Danvers became widely known for the Danvers half-long carrot and the Danvers onion, which remains popular to this day.
Today, the Salem Village Historic District in Danvers encompasses over a dozen houses dating from that era, many of which are associated with the witchcraft tragedy of 1692. Many of these buildings are situated along Centre Street. The house of one of the convicted "witches," Rebecca Nurse, still stands in Danvers and can be visited as a historical landmark. Now operated as a museum, the Nurse Homestead is located at 149 Pine St. in Danvers. The foundations of the 1692 Parsonage, Nathaniel Ingersoll’s Ordinary, the Sarah Osborne House, Joseph Putnam’s home, and Bridget Bishop House can also be seen.
Today, Danvers boasts a population of approximately 26,500 and continues to preserve much of the hominess and architectural heritage of old New England.