![]() They went to great lengths to be historically accurate with this. Danvers essentially had this private committal service for George Jacobs. Salem, you know, they unveil this memorial, they have Elie Wiesel, they have all these bells and whistles. The other thing Danvers did in 1992, and you see this at the Nurse cemetery, they reburied what they think are George Jacobs’ remains. It’s part of this residential community and it just seems to blend in very nicely. If you’ve seen the memorial, it’s right there by the elementary school, it’s across the street from the site of the 1692 meeting house, it’s sitting there amongst the ballfields and elementary school. But they were much more low-key, they didn’t get Elie Wiesel to dedicate it or stuff like that. To me, the very different treatment of the tercentenary is a good example of how Danvers deals with these things. I think Danvers has always tried early on to atone for what happened in 1692. What’s neat to me, you know, is that the Putnam family was willing to let the Nurse Family Association erect this memorial to the past in their family cemetery that they also shared with the Nurses. For me, the fascinating piece is that the Putnams are actually related to the Nurses.* Nowadays this is one big, happy family. Baker: If you go down to the cemetery there, you’ll notice that there are probably more Putnams buried there than Nurses. ![]() Have you been to the Rebecca Nurse farm?ĭr. When the memorial was placed there, the farm had long been occupied by members of the Putnam family. To me what’s really fascinating is: Where was that memorial placed? It’s placed at the Rebecca Nurse farm. ![]() Remember, it was Danvers that was the first community that had a memorial. I think you’re right, part of it is that shame, that humiliation, but Danvers also tried to much more normalize the relationship over the years. Trask thinks that the town was perfectly happy with that, that they enjoyed the anonymity of no longer being part of Salem. Trask’s article traces that evolution to when the town is named Danvers after an English nobleman, which was a common practice back then. Ironically, it took another 60 years, until 1752, before the Salem Villagers were allowed to become a separate town, for a number of political reasons. Many historians, like Boyer and Nissenbaum, believe-and I would agree too-one of the triggers that caused the Salem witch trials was the inability to split off from Salem in 1692. ![]() He talks about the whole process of when Danvers finally was allowed to split off from Salem in 1752. I actually quote it in my book, A Storm of Witchcraft. In one he has written about how Danvers became a town. Richard Trask, the town archivist of Danvers, has posted on the Danvers Archival Center website various articles and materials. Baker: I think Danvers has very deliberately chosen a separate path. Do you think it’s because of the way, like you said earlier, “Gallows Hill cast a large and dark shadow on Salem”?ĭr. Of course, Danvers has its memorial but it’s kind of out of place and hidden. Kayleigh: Danvers, Massachusetts, is almost disassociated with the 1692 Salem witch trials. Baker on the triumph and tragedy of the 1692 Salem witch trials as part of the 2019 National History Day contest. A student interview with Professor Emerson W. ![]()
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