"The Salem Witch Trials: Reckoning and Reclaiming" Lecture at OVL
Date and Time
Saturday Apr 13, 2024
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM EDT
Location
43 Wianno Avenue
Osterville
02655
"The Salem Witch Trials: Reckoning an...
Description
The Osterville Village Library welcomes the Peabody Essex Museum as they present "The Salem Witch Trials: Reckoning and Reclaiming"
English colonial settlers arrived in 1626 at Naumkeag, a traditional Native American fishing site, to establish a Massachusetts Bay Colony outpost. Most were Puritans who sought to “purify” the Church of England from Roman Catholic religious practices and build a utopian society. The settlers renamed the place Salem, after Jerusalem, meaning “city of peace.” Over successive decades, waves of colonists arrived, changing the power dynamics in governance, land ownership and religion. By the 1670s, tensions between rural Salem Village (now Danvers) and the prosperous Salem Town flared. Arguments multiplied when Salem Village formed its own church and appointed a controversial minister. Changes to the colony’s charter and leadership, skirmishes with French colonists and their Indigenous allies, a smallpox epidemic and extreme weather all heightened concerns. In January 1692, several young girls in Salem Village reported that unseen agents or forces were afflicting them. The minister suspected witchcraft. The next day, interrogations began. Please join us in welcoming Dan Lipcan, the Ann C Pingree Director of the Peabody Essex Museum’s Phillips Library, as he presents this exciting lecture on the Salem Witch Trials: Reckoning and Reclaiming, Saturday April 13th at 11am in the Main Meeting Room. For more information or to register for this event please contact Amy Wolfe at awolfe@clamsnet.org or by calling the OVL directly at (508)420-0550.