"zChris' Salem" Salem by zChris

It may strike some to learn that Salem, now a quiet bedroom community north of Boston, was once the wealthiest town in the United States, and among its leading seaports.

Founded shortly after Plymouth, it served as the original capital of Massachusetts Bay Colony, though the soil quality proved unsatisfactory for John Winthrop, who soon established Boston as the colony's chief settlement. The town became notorious for its trials and executions of alleged witches during the hysteria of the 1690s, stoked by colonial officials who pursued the fundamentalist agenda of the Puritan government. Most famously, the Salem Witch Trials were chronicled in Arthur Miller's seminal drama "The Crucible." Following the trials, Salem grew and prospered, and its population exceeded that of its competitor to the south several times over the 18th century.

The city's most prosperous period came with the completion of the Revolutionary War, as opportunist merchants sponsored daring voyages to the Far East and beyond in swift frigate ships laden with local goods. Salem was wildly enriched with the return on this investment, and today the cultural treasures on display in the Peabody-Essex Museum bear witness to the once global reach of this town. The blockade by the British Navy during the War of 1812, however, was the harbinger of Salem's gradual decline, which accelerated after Massachusetts' primary economic activity shifted to industrial production and settlement of the Midwest prompted a shift in shipping volume to larger ports, especially New York.

Salem makes an easy day trip from Boston, though visitors are too often consumed with the lure of the witch trials to notice the remnants of Salem's more salubrious history. It is a shame more do not endeavour to discover the city's less tragic history.