Facts: Salem, Unmasking the Devil
Photo: Abigail Williams is a possessed girl (View larger version)
- The Rebecca Nurse Homestead was the home of Rebecca Nurse, one of the women who were hung in Salem. It is one of the oldest houses in Essex County.
- The Salem Pioneer Village 1630 was built in 1930 and is believed to be the first living history museum in America.
- The re-enactors that feature in our program supplied their own 17th Century costumes, which are often used for other film and TV programs and were sourced by Gordon College, the co-owners of the Salem Pioneer Village.
- An original miniature of Samuel Parris can be found at Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston.
- Original hand-written sermons from the Rev. Samuel Parris are located at the Connecticut Historical Society.
- Danvers as it is known today was previously called Salem Village.
- After 300 hundred years, a collective of Experts believe they may have found the location in which the supposed witches were hanged and buried.
- There are records of people living at the Rebecca Nurse Homestead as early as 1640.
- At the time of the Salem Witch Panic in 1692, Salem was experiencing a miniature ice-age.
- Being a child in the 1690 was tough. Children were treated like miniature adults and as such were given a great deal of responsibility in the home.
- Everyone in Salem Village adhered to a strict Puritan doctrine. They had to attend Church for six hours every Sunday.
- One of the worst raids by the Native Americans (over 100 people killed and taken captive) was on York, on Candlemas (late January) 1692, just the first year accusations began.
- For the Salem Witch Trails Salem had to appoint a special court (the court of Oyer & Terminer) because this was a unique period of time between laws being passed.
- It is thought that all victims who were hanged were fully dressed. There are also accounts that imply that they may have had some of their clothing removed or changed for burial.
- After more than two hundred years of trials and executions, the Witchcraft Act of 1735 saw the end of the traditional form of witchcraft as a legal offence in England and the American Colonies. Those accused under the new law were restricted to people who pretended to be able to summon spirits, generally being the most dubious professional fortune tellers and mediums, and the punishments were light.
