“Be kind, for whenever kindness becomes part of something, it beautifies it. Whenever it is taken from something, it leaves it tarnished.”
Muhammad
The burial site of the victims of the Salem Witch Trials is another trick question. As part of their sentence, authorities denied the Salem Witch Trials victims proper burials. Tradition says that the authorities conducted the executions on Gallows Hill in Salem. However, using eyewitness accounts, archeologists believe the site of Salem Witch Trial executions was probably on Proctor’s Ledge at the bottom of the hill. The authorities discarded the bodies in a shallow pit nearby, but ground radar does not show any bones.
Since it was a criminal offense to bury the bodies of accused witches, historians believe that families returned at night and buried their loved ones close to home. There are two graves on the Rebecca Nurse Homestead that are supposed to be victims, but even that isn’t a certainty.
This is the most comprehensive list of Salem Witch Trial Victims I’ve found, but it’s not a complete list. For instance, I’ve seen some estimates that dozens of people might have died in the overcrowded, unsanitary jails of the time and weren’t in the official tallies. It also doesn’t include the suffering the victim’s family members went through. Nor does it count all those who were accused of witchcraft and had to suffer through the ordeal. If you’re generous, you could even add those people who accused others of witchcraft, felt guilty about their roles, and later repented.
It includes those who died in prison as well as the more well-known victims, plus it provides some history of each person. It’s hard to imagine people having so much hate.
Below is a picture of the backside of Old Burying Point. This is the approximate area where I imagined the burial (chapter 2) and hanging (chapter 5) to take place in my book The Palantir. The wall in the background overlooks Derby Street.
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