Salem Tales

It's Halloween.

And when many people think Halloween, they think Salem, Massachusetts. Because it's basically our Mardi Gras.

Want to know practically everything there is to know about Salem?

From witches to how a Salem boy became a Chinese god, to where the Murder of the Century occurred, and including where to find Salem's ghosts?


BUY HIDDEN HISTORY OF SALEM ON AMAZON

Ziggy's Pumpkin Pie

One of my favorite things about Autumn is pumpkin pie. Does this look delicious or what? This was the pie we bought last year from Ziggy's. (Seconds before it was devoured.) We're buying two this year. Nom nom nom...

Remember the Fifth of November

If you think of Guy Fawkes, you probably think of this mask.

You might think of a man "who died for what he believed in." (per Fawkes from Fallout 3)

You might not realize his fame comes from, as Wikipedia puts it, "a failed conspiracy by a group of provincial English Catholics to assassinate the Protestant King James I of England (James VI of Scotland) and replace him with a Catholic head of state."

This scheme, known as the Gunpowder Plot, was discovered 5 November 1605 when Guy Fawkes was caught with explosives underneath the House of Lords.

In celebration of the Plot's failure, the citizenry lit bonfires, leading to the popular name of this British holiday - Bonfire Night. Fireworks are also on prominent display.

It used to be that Bonfire Night was Britain's big autumn celebration. Halloween was not an important holiday in the UK until very recently, when Americanization finally conquered the indigenous customs. (But hey, who can hold out long against the idea of free candy, right?)

Of course, if you participated in Bonfire Night, you could get free money. Children would build effigies of Guy Fawkes (to burn on November 5th) and, in the days running up to the holiday, ask for donations toward funding their firework purchases. The traditional phrase to employ for this is: "Penny for the Guy?"

By paddy patterson from Ayr, Scotland (penny for the guy) [CC-BY-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Back when Britain was the one doing the conquering, the American colonies celebrated Bonfire Night, too. In fact, it was celebrated in Salem Massachusetts as late as 1817. That's after two wars against the British, mind. Salem likes its parties.

Witches of Salem

Witches have become an intrinsic part of Salem, Massachusetts.

You don't see ads like the above anymore, of course. Although that sort of positive, Witches Can Help philosophy is much present. Very unlike the ad I describe in HIDDEN HISTORY OF SALEM (an ad that uses the hanging of Salem witches to sell a product and can be found if you search my website - it's hidden).

You can't find the famous Witch Spoon at Daniel Low anymore (the building currently houses Rockafella's) but you can find all sorts of authentic experiences, such as at the Witch House

where witch trials' Judge Jonathan Corwin lived. 

Or you can sit in the Salem Witch Trials Memorial and commune with the spirits of those who died.

Each of the stones jutting from the walls represents a person, and is inscribed with their name and the date they were hanged (or in one case, crushed). We don't know where their actual bodies are, or even where they were executed (something I address in HIDDEN HISTORY).

You can also learn to be a witch from the Official Witch of Salem herself. 

No, not like that.

Witchcraft involves studying and classes and workshops. Not near Salem? Check out Laurie Cabot, our Official Witch on YouTube.

Of course, some would rather Salem not focus on the witch aspect so much, but when your local police department's official patch looks like this:

You should really just accept that witches and Salem go together and are here to stay.

Note: Interested in more Salem Police Witch stuff? Click here.

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Set Sail For Horror

I commissioned Francesco Francavilla for something Lovecraftian with cats

and this is the fabulous, wickedly brilliant picture he created for me!!!

So I thought I'd share it with you, since it is Halloween-time.

You can commission him, too, by the way.

And follow him on Twitter.

Abducting Heiresses

Abduction is a popular storytelling device when it comes to historical romance, which isn't surprising since you can trace its place in romance literature right back to the Abduction of Persephone.

When you're talking historical romance set in England or Wales, abductors - and elopers, for that matter - are usually racing to Gretna Green in Scotland to take their vows.

Gretna Green was the Vegas of its day, in terms of quickie marriages. The marriage laws of England and Wales, requiring amongst other things parental consent for marriages of those under 21 years of age, did not apply in Scotland and Gretna Green was right across the border.

Photo by Niki Odolphie from Frome, England

But things that can seem romantic in fiction are often far from it in real life.

Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who is apparently something of a hero to New Zealand, tried his hand at heiress abduction in 1826.

He happened to hear of Ellen Turner, a beautiful 16 year old heiress, from an acquaintance who mentioned her as being a neighbor. So Wakefield moved to her neighborhood, learned the family's circumstances and habits, and then appeared at Ellen's school with a letter informing the headmistress that Ellen's ill father had taken a turn for the worse and the girl must accompany him at once.

This was entirely plausible - her father was sick, in an age of primitive medicine sudden deterioration was not uncommon, and a friend or servant would often be asked to carry an important letter (there being no FedEx service or the like).

So Ellen was packed off in Wakefield's carriage.

Which headed north to Scotland.

Now alone with her, Wakefield told the teen her father's business had collapsed, sheriff's officers were in pursuit of her family (for debt), and only through marrying him could she hope to save her father from jail and her family from the poor house. He said he would use his (nonexistent) fortune to save them, but only once he and she were wed.

Remembering that she was a sheltered 16 year old, in an age when women of her class were not taught anything about business and economics, trapped in a small space with a stranger - and Wakefield was known for being a smooth talker, it's pretty easy to see how she would come to believe him over the many hours to Gretna Green.

This is Wakefield & Ellen's marriage license:

Successfully married, Wakefield informed the Turners where to send his checks and promptly took his new wife off to France, where he thought he would be safe from any repercussions. He was wrong. Ellen's family contacted the French police.

Extradited, Wakefield stood trial at Lancaster Assizes, was convicted of abduction and sentenced to three years imprisonment.

This had no affect on his marriage, which was still valid.

An Act of Parliament was obtained to annul the marriage, so Ellen finally could be free.

(Yes, an Act of Parliament. You couldn't get out of a marriage without one. So those Regency romances you read with divorce treated as if it were nothing? Yeah. Not happening.)

Just so you know, some time after his release from prison, Wakefield relocated to the Australian colonies and did something more honorable with his life.

So why is today's post about heiress abductions?

Because today in Salem Massachusetts history:  October 25 1736 a Mr. McIntosh is bound at Salem court for trial, charged with attempting to abduct his two nieces, who are heiresses, and carry them off to England.

Heiress abductions happened in America, too.

Isn’t it cool when truth and fiction converge?

Fried Dough in Salem

Haunted Happenings time in Salem and that means FRIED DOUGH!

I love fried dough. I also love the Yankee plain-speaking brevity that makes a person call it as they see it. While elsewhere in the United States these delicious treats are known by fantastically romantic names like Dragon Ears or Elephant Ears, here in Massachusetts they're just ... Fried Dough.

'Cause...y'know...that's what it is.

Death Stalks the Common

Last weekend the music video cast and crew for the song based on my book HIDDEN HISTORY OF SALEM was in Salem filming. Apparently someone called the police about the man who was playing Death in the video, telling the cops a "scary man" with "a real axe" was on Salem Common.

Here he is, relocated to the wharf, the scary dude and his real axe:

I feel your fear. 

I know if I assure you he's the sweetest fella in the world, you wouldn't believe me, right?

*sigh*

Caller, you waste police time. Salem, don't let me down like this again.

An Arachnophobe's Nightmare

More Halloween decorations in Salem Massachusetts.

Fallout and Assassin's Creed (ish) Halloween Decor

Halloween decorations in Salem, MA.

The biohazard reminds me of Fallout.

And yes, that is a plague doctor in black behind the guy in the hazmat suit.

Salem Halloween Ferris Wheel

The carnival has returned to Salem Massachusetts. I love the witch on the ferris wheel.
It's all part of Salem's Haunted Happenings, which run the entire length of October.

Hidden History of Salem Video with New Soundtrack

I have re-done my HIDDEN HISTORY OF SALEM book-teaser

because MY BOOK INSPIRED A SONG

and that is just too cool not to share:

Buy the book!  You'll like it. Click here 

There's real history plus cool obscure facts plus ghost cats and candy and coffee and romance and a horrible murder - all sorts of interesting things. And we haven't even gotten to the witches.

Buy the single, too! It should be coming out in the next month or so. I'll keep you posted. 

Salem's Peabody Essex and Me

This is the lobby of the Peabody Essex Museum. 

And in their Gift Shop:

Seeing my book on a shelf always makes me happy.

That book to the right is really good, too.

You should read all of them. All the books! 

LOL

Redcoats in Salem

Letters From The Past

I'm a research fiend. I admit it. I love the hunt for obscure facts, the thrill of discovery... far more than the tedium of actually writing the stuff down. So I spend ages sorting through ephemera on tangential subjects that will never actually imbed themselves anywhere but inside my brain JUST BECAUSE that's my idea of a fun weekend.

So, I'm researching along on another book about Salem (no, there can never be too many, shut up) and I come across this. And I must share.

These are real, actual letters written by a third grade class in Salem as part of a school exercise, asking what they would like to be when they grew up. The first is fanciful, something you might expect from an 8 year-old:

This next one is from a boy with a startling grasp of the reality of being a soldier:

"Then I will come home if I am alive." That's sort of chilling to hear from a little kid.

But this last one, this one... for the consummate expression of bleak existentialist crisis, look no further:

I think this is worthy of an OMG.

Can you imagine being 8 years old and knowing the individuality of your life is meaningless? This is 1912. Women can't vote. They aren't expected to have a career - many jobs are simply not open to them. Their property is generally controlled by a father or husband. Elinor is in third grade and she already knows her future:

"I want to be married because there is nothing else to do."

Hidden History of Salem Video

Hidden History of Salem available for Pre-Order on Amazon!

Salem - Brilliant Wickedness

"If, instead of charging Salem with dullness, Mr. James had accused it of brilliant wickedness, he would have come nearer the mark…

Imagine a community in which abound young men, rich, well educated, having free run whether for business or pleasure among all the savage tribes and oriental nations of the world, and you see that they must quickly become eminent saints or conspicuous sinners, and so they did."  - Rev. George Batchelor (on early 19th century Salem)

Salem preferred over Washington DC

"I had rather sit under my own "vine and fig tree" in Salem, than in the most stately edifice in Washington." - Nathaniel Silsbee, 1817 (Massachusetts Representative to United States Congress)

Haarlem Oil - Health Insurance in a Jar

Today in Salem History:

On April 24, 1792, Abraham Solis advertised "Haerlaemer Oil" with "Dutch explanations of its use" in the Salem Gazette.

This was probably Haarlem Oil, a diuretic made in Holland since 1672 and still in demand in the early 20th century.

So popular was this remedy, practically every drugstore in America made their own blend. In 1906 it was estimated that "ten bottles of substitute are sold to one of the genuine."

Thackeray mentions it. Louis and Clark never went anywhere without it. So what was it?

In a time with few powerful medicines and no health insurance, Haarlem Oil was your basic safety blanket. It was said to ward off contagious diseases. It strengthened the eyes. It helped your kidneys, bladder, and stomach. It was good for your nerves. In fact, it was good for just about anything, according to its faithful consumers.

Speaking of faith, the "Dutch instructions" bore the Latin legend:  Medicamentum Gratia Probatum which was translated as "remedy approved by Grace." This wasn't any potion derived from black magic or superstition. Haarlem Oil was Approved. Consumers were encouraged to have faith in its ability to heal them, whatever their hurt.

You might be wondering, what did the Oil contain?

The recipe for genuine Haarlem Oil was a close-kept secret. However, the American knock-offs tended to be mostly made up of balsam of sulfur and oil of turpentine.

I suppose if you were strong enough to survive the remedy, you were bound to get better.

To A Portrait of Dorothy Sewall (of Salem, MA)