Memories






We walked through the Salem cemetery in the midst of all the museums and historical sites to find some portraits (Abigail Very at the top and next), some nice spirit effigies and a wide range on the variation of urn and willow tree. This was a stark cemetery of stones and dry grass with erratically placed stones within a wire fence. Not associated with any church, surprisingly unless it was moved (which could have been possible). Abutting the cemetery is the memorial to the slain who were convicted of witchcraft who were, in the large part, were murdered on a day in August and one in September of 1692. It was a striking monument as it was a medium height granite wall with stones jutting out as benches, with each of the slain person's name, date of death and cause of death (hanging or pressed by stones), This wall surrounds a small rectangle of land with trees and grass--a place of contemplation and by the strength of the material and the two quotations embedded in the ground--a place of humiliation and grief that such cruelty can be visited on others. It's simplicity was perfect for the expression of place, of nature and the gravity of the culture that supported the death and tragedy visited on these people. These accused people, accused of being witches, were probably also, not buried in a churchyard, but in this memorial--live alongside those that may have had a hand in their death or quietly went about their lives while this swirl of lies surrounded others in this small community. These people with the carved gravemarkers had the means to have portraits (like Abigail) to remind people of their existence, their humanity, their contribution to their community--others with messages of the future and their link to the people they leave behind. But these accused witches were left with accusations and their cruel deaths to remind us of their tie to these people and place. It is only today that they are remembered as individuals, as people and not as the condemned--condemned by fear, greed and human stupidity memorialized by the solid, silent and cold New England granite, sparkling in the sunlight.