‘Community at its absolute worst’: revisiting the horror of the Salem witch trials
“The Salem witch trials are an example of a community at its absolute worst.” This is what Anna Danziger Halperin, associate director of the Center for Women’s History at the New-York Historical Society, answered when I asked her why she thinks they have remained a powerful part of the American imagination for well over 300 years. “It’s something that we look to as example of what not to do, and yet we keep repeating these mistakes.”
Danziger Halperin has been thinking a lot about the witch trials lately, as she is the coordinating curator of the New-York Historical Society’s new exhibition, The Salem Witch Trials: Reckoning and Reclaiming, which runs from 7 October through 22 January 2023. The show brings together a wide array of historical artifacts to help ground audiences in the history behind the witch trials, and it also intends to leave its own stamp on these events by drawing attention to oft-neglected issues of race and gender.
Beginning in February 1692 and lasting for well over a year until May 1693, the witch trials engulfed more than 200 residents of the Salem community and resulted in 19 executions. The trials were not technically completed until July of this year, when Elizabeth Johnson Jr became the last of the accused to be formally cleared of all charges of witchcraft. These events have been a mainstay of American culture, being retold by writers like Nathaniel Hawthorne, Arthur Miller and Sarah Ruhl, used as a rhetorical shorthand for incidents of mass hysteria, and claimed by feminist activists for their clear examples of patriarchal and misogynist thinking. They even received the greatest of pop cultural tributes, being parodied by The Simpsons in Treehouse of Horror VIII from the long-running show’s ninth season.
“There are countless popular and media versions of this story, and we really want to challenge visitors to think about what they do know,” said Danziger Halperin. “I’m a historian of women’s activism, so I’m really drawn to the idea of reclaiming the story. Women’s rights advocates for generations have looked to witch-hunts for evidence of patriarchal control of women.”
Reckoning and Reclaiming finds numerous ways to undertake that reclamation, starting with Tituba, an Indigenous woman from Barbados who was enslaved and brought to Salem, and who was among the first to be convicted of witchcraft. As Danziger Halperin explained, because there is so little documentation of Tituba left in the historical record, exhibitions often exclude her, focusing on wealthy, white victims whose higher social status allowed them to leave more historical artifacts behind. In giving Tituba and other marginalized women their due, Reckoning and Reclaiming aspires to center those who are often left at the periphery of these events, challenging popular conceptions of what the witch trials were.
“If we only focus on those whom we have material objects remaining of, we’re left with stories of the wealthier people in the community, mostly men,” said Danziger Halperin. “But in reality,
the accusations were overwhelmingly hurled at women, and it helps us say, ‘This trial started with the scapegoating of ostracized members of the community.’ It started with marginalized women who were in one way or another more easily scapegoated, and then it spread to these wealthier and sometimes male figures.”
Reckoning and Reclaiming also bring in artists’ responses to the trials, drawing from the realms of fashion and photography. On exhibition is a dress from fashion designer Alexander McQueen’s collection In Memory of Elizabeth Howe, 1692, which McQueen made to honor his ancestor, the titular
Howe. Runway photos of the dress in action are paired with papers documenting Howe’s condemnation as a witch and eventual exoneration, when her daughters were paid restitution for her execution in 1712.
“McQueen is really leaning into the very stereotypical imagery that you might associate with witches, and we’ve reproduced that,” said Danziger Halperin. “He’s pulling all of these symbols of the occult into his fashion show.”
The exhibition also draws in 17 portraits of modern-day witches made by photographer Frances F Denny, 13 of them from her series Major Arcana: Portraits of Witches in America. These photographs challenge the traditional idea of what a witch is, showing women in a wide variety of dress and environments. This portion of the show includes audio where audiences can hear the witches describing themselves. For Danziger Halperin, Denny’s portraits inspire because of their quotidian nature, which gets at just what gives the concept of the witch its dynamism. “We have a reproduction of a handwritten poem by Emily Dickinson, and I think it’s so powerful when combined with Frances’s portraits. It’s called Witchcraft was hung, in History – it’s this idea of witchcraft as something that can’t be held back, as a form of everyday rebellion.”
Something that comes across in Reckoning and Reclaiming is just how flexible and resilient the notion of being a witch is. In supporting so many different interpretations, this identity has been able to transcend the narrow conception imposed by the Salem witch trials, evolving into a symbol of expression and empowerment that has gone on to fill a multiplicity of social niches. “A witch is a multifaceted identity that comes from so many traditions, and some of them are very longrooted, so I don’t really think there is just one definition,” said Danziger Halperin. “For instance, there are both those who have turned to witchcraft as a form of non-patriarchal religion, as well as those who have turned to it as a symbol of defiance – you’re going to call me a witch, yes, I’m a witch!”
Reckoning and Reclaiming also reminds us of the very real people behind these historical events, its ample documentation helping audiences to connect with the humanity of the witch trials’ victims. “These were real lives, and lives that were ruined, and the way that we tell that story carries so much weight,” said Danziger Halperin. “We really want to make sure that we do it in a way that honors those real lives and helps us stand up against injustice moving forward.”
The Salem Witch Trials: Reckoning and Reclaiming, runs from 7 October until 22 January 2023