STAY FRESH’s 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN: Year Eight, Day Twenty-Nine

THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS MEMORIAL
Not every haunting needs a ghost.

For Day 29, we’re taking a trip to Salem, Massachusetts, where Jess visited the Salem Witch Trials Memorial to capture a different kind of darkness.

In 1692, fear, superstition, and mass hysteria swept through Salem, leading to the wrongful accusations and executions of 20 innocent people. What began as whispers of witchcraft became one of the most infamous chapters in American history.

And there’s a little historical significance to today’s date. On October 29, 1692, Governor William Phips dissolved the Court of Oyer and Terminer, the special court responsible for prosecuting those accused of witchcraft. While the persecution didn’t end overnight, it marked a turning point in the Salem witch trials.

Today, the memorial honors those who lost their lives, with 20 granite benches bearing the victims’ names. Through Jess’s lens, crisp shadows stretch across weathered stone, sunlight cuts through the memorial, and history emerges from the darkness.

Halloween may celebrate witches, ghosts, and the supernatural, but Salem reminds us that sometimes the most frightening stories are the ones that actually happened.
Stay Fresh, fiends. Remember the innocent.

DAY 29

Location: Salem Witch Trials Memorial, Salem, Massachusetts