Salem, Oregon, is located in the northwest region of Oregon, is one hundred and twenty-eight miles from the Oregon Coast, and a drive to the ocean along the Oregon Coast takes approximately two hours and thirty-six minutes.
However, Salem, Oregon, is not the first “Salem” I think of. Here are a few things that come to mind when I hear the word Salem:
- Massachusetts’ Salem with cold, snowy weather
- Salem High School, located in the Plymouth-Canton Educational Park (PCEP) in Michigan
- Salem, Oregon (being the last Salem to come to mind)
- Salem Witch Trials (another despicable time in U.S. and World history)
Okay, I am going to date myself. Back when I was in high school, we had two high schools on the same campus: Canton and Salem. While I was officially a Canton student, I had most of my classes at Salem, mostly hung out on that side of campus, but was a starting shortstop for Canton’s Varsity Softball team.
When I graduated in 1991, our senior class alone was comprised of almost one thousand students!
Below are some stats regarding PCEP:
- “40.0%
- Minority Enrollment
- 60.0%
- White
- 20.2%
Asian
- 9.6%
Black
- 5.3%
Hispanic
- 4.5%
Two or More Races
- 0.5%
American Indian/Alaska Native,”.
Furthermore, PCEP now has four high schools within the district and three on the same campus. These are the recent numbers:
“Total Schools
4
Total Students
5,898
College Readiness (district average)
31.5
Proficient in Reading (district average)
74%
Proficient in Mathematics (district average)
61%
Proficient in Science (district average)
61%,”.
As of the date of this writing, PCEP’s park is located in the city of Canton, Michigan, in western Wayne County, about fifteen minutes west of Detroit, and educates more than 6,200 students in grades nine through twelve!
While I loved hanging out at Salem High School, I do not think I would have survived the Witch Trials of Salem, Massachusetts, being the outspoken, strong woman I am today. Let’s see what actually went on in those horrific days.
Salem witch trials summary
Salem, Massachusetts, in the mid-1600s, was nothing like Canton, Michigan’s Salem High School in the late 1980s and early 1990s. A lot of us young women had big, ratted hair, listened to heavy metal rock and roll, wore tight black shirts and miniskirts, smoked Marlboro cigarettes on campus in between classes, and dropped the F-bomb a lot. I am fairly certain we would have been considered witches in the early Colonial days of the U.S.!
According to Britannica, “The events in Salem in 1692 were but one chapter in a long story of witch hunts that began in Europe between 1300 and 1330 and ended in the late 18th century (with the last known execution for witchcraft taking place in Switzerland in 1782)…The number of trials and executions varied according to time and place, but it is generally believed that some 110,000 persons in total were tried for witchcraft and between 40,000 to 60,000 were executed…The Salem witch trials and executions came about as the result of a combination of church politics, family feuds, and hysterical children, all of which unfolded in a vacuum of political authority… Looking back with the perspective provided by modern science, some scholars have speculated that the strange behaviour may have resulted from some combination of asthma, encephalitis, Lyme disease, epilepsy, child abuse, delusional psychosis, or convulsive ergotism—the last a disease caused by eating bread or cereal made of rye that has been infected with the fungus ergot, which can elicit vomiting, choking, fits, hallucinations, and the sense of something crawling on one’s skin. (The hallucinogen LSD is a derivative of ergot.),”.
Wow! In the U.S., the Salem witchcraft trials and executions began in 1692 to 1693, with around twenty-five dying unnecessarily: nineteen by hanging, one tortured to death, and around five or more who died in jail as a direct result of extremely harsh conditions. Over one hundred and sixty people were accused of witchcraft; most were jailed, and many were deprived of property and legal rights.
Later, Britannica continues to note that, “In 1957 the state of Massachusetts formally apologized for the trials. It was not until 2001, however, that the last 11 of the convicted were fully exonerated.
The abuses of the Salem witch trials would contribute to changes in U.S. court procedures, playing a role in the advent of the guarantee of the right to legal representation, the right to cross-examine one’s accuser, and the presumption of innocence rather than of guilt. The Salem trials and the witch hunt as metaphors for the persecution of minority groups remained powerful symbols into the 20th and 21st centuries, owing in no small measure to playwright Arthur Miller’s use in The Crucible (1953) of the events and individuals from 1692 as allegorical stand-ins for the anticommunist hearing led by Sen. Joseph McCarthy during the Red Scare of the 1950s,”.
Salem witch trials summary
Unfortunately, the spread of misinformation caused a lot of people to be put to death, mistreated, harshly judged, and dismissed without accurate or factual information.
Historians William S. Hein & Co., Inc., a publishing company serving the worldwide library community since the 1920s, documents that, “The Salem Witch Trials ended in 1693, when a new Superior Court of Judicature banned the use of spectral evidence, a key component in the conviction of witches. By 1711, Massachusetts had exonerated all of the accused and offered monetary compensation to surviving family members. In 1957, the State of Massachusetts formally apologized, stating, “The General Court of Massachusetts declares its belief that such proceedings, even if lawful under the Province Charter and the law of Massachusetts as it then was, were and are shocking, and the result of a wave of popular hysterical fear of the Devil in the community…”[8] But it wasn’t until the end of 2001, more than 300 years later, that the Massachusetts state legislature officially exonerated the final names of the accused witches,”.
Where is Salem Oregon?
In conclusion, whether one is pondering the historical trials of Salem, Massachusetts, reminiscing about Salem High School in Michigan, or curious about the quiet charm of Salem, Oregon, “Salem” holds diverse and complex narratives across the U.S.
Although each location offers its own tale, whether it’s the unjust trials, the bustling high school days, or a serene town near the Oregon coast, the next time you hear “Salem,” take a moment to consider which story catches your interest. Whatever your connection to Salem, each holds a place in our shared cultural landscape.