Tag Archives: Gallows

Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts

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One would assume with a name like Gallows Hill in the town like Salem, that hiking up to the top would mean finding yourself in the spot where 19 hapless victims were hung in 1692 on the charge of witchcraft. But like so much in Salem, you would probably be assuming wrong. We know from the accounts that the condemned were taken to the brow of a hill in carts, and pulling a cart to the top of this particular hill would be daunting to say the least. Now it’s possible that those about to die could have walked the rest of the way, but several were quite aged and in very poor health, so that’s unlikely. But there has to be a spot traditionally associated with so gruesome an event, and so that piece of infamy goes to Gallows Hill. It’s an appropriate setting for it, I’ll give it that. With views over the surrounding countryside, wind swept with gnarled trees, you can almost feel the horror clinging to the place. But that’s just the imagination, a trait which easily comes to life in Salem.