National Park After Dark - Witches, Curses, and Underground Tunnels: Salem Maritime National Historic Site

Episode Date: October 31, 2021

Salem is famously home to the witch hysteria of the late 1600's but there is a lot more history to this New England town. Join us as we dive into the history of how Halloween started, the witch trials, and the lengthy history of the Maritime Salem Historic Site.  A site that now preserves over 600 years of global trading and a history of underground tunnels that still lie beneath the town today. We dive deep into the illegal activities that took place here, the old brothels, and haunted souls that never left them. This is Salem Massachusetts being looked at in a way you just may have never seen before.For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!BetterHelp: Take charge of your mental health. NPAD listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/NPADStoryworth: Give a thoughtful personal gift that will preserve memories for years to come. Get $10  off your first purchase at storyworth.com/NPADTodayTix: See the show that you have always wanted to see and find the best prices!  Get $10 off your first ticket purchase at TodayTix.com/NPADFor a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Close your eyes. Listen to Monday.com. Feel the sensation of an AI work platform. So flexible and intuitive, it feels like it was built just for you. Now open your eyes, go to Monday.com. Start for free and finally, breathe. Girl, winter is so last season. And now Springs got you looking at pictures of tank tops with hungry eyes. Your algorithm is feeding you cutoffs.

You're thirsty for the sun on your shoulders. That perfect hang on the patio sundress. Those sandals you can wear all day and all night And you've had enough of shopping from your couch Done hoping it looks anything like the picture When you tear open that envelope It's time for a little in-person spring treat It's time for a trip to Ross

Work your magic October is the spookiest month of the year The seasons begin to change And death seems to be at the forefront of everyone's mind If you're from New England The old brick buildings, covered bridges and foliage Come to Life Millions of people travel here for the fall because of the old charm this corner of the country has.

The weather is crisp, there's apple picking, hot tiders and cozy sweaters that wrap people up, and create a vibe that only can be found in New England. These little New England towns hold something that most of the country can't compare to, and that is their history. But some of these towns have darker histories than others. Salem, Massachusetts, the spookiest town of the mall, where witch hysteria once took over the town and the infamous Salem witch trials that have left a stain that will live forever here. Halloween and Salem, Massachusetts go hand in hand.

Whether you are on haunted tours of gallows and cemeteries, getting your palms read by a psychic, or dressing up along with the rest of the town, Halloween has made its mark here. Famous Halloween movies like Hocus Pocus were filmed here, and you can walk those same streets and take photos of the Sanderson's sister. sister's house and the old Salem Pioneer Village. But Salem is much more than just witches, and there is history here that you may have just never heard of before. And it lies underneath the town. Welcome to National Park After Dark. Hi everyone. Welcome back to National Park After Dark. Happy Halloween. My name's Cassie. And my name's Danielle. Happy end of spooky season, everybody. It is Halloween. We have released the episode one day early so it would come out Sunday, October 31st for Halloween so we could dive

right into the spookiest day of the year. Yes. And I'm ready as ever for your episode, seeing as how I was just in this special place. You were. We are going to Salem, Massachusetts, which I feel like is just like the capital of Halloween in the United States, just for all the spooky stuff that happens there, the history that's there. There's just so much. As New Englanders, we could not do spooky season and not talk about Salem, Massachusetts. We would be doing a disservice, I feel, if we didn't. But before... Oh, go on. Go on. Go. But before we dive into Salem, just wanted to say something exciting, we launched our merch last week or the week before. We can't remember if we told you guys on our episode, so we wanted to say it.

Isn't that sad? We're like, wait a second. Did we even announce it officially on an episode? Yeah. Well, let's see. It's, we launched it last week after our episode came out. So no, we didn't even say anything. Well, we have merch and we have shirts and crew necks and sweatshirts. We have stickers, stickers, can't mugs, new designs. and we're very, very excited about them. We did, I should say we didn't say anything because we did. We did announce it on our social media, but that's not fair to say that we- You don't have social media. Right.

So, yes, if you are interested in March, we do have the link to our website where you can look at the designs and browse the items on our Instagram, National Park After Dark, or just go straight to the website, NPADPodcast.com. And I'm also going to add it to the show notes of this episode. So you can just go into the show description of whatever you're listening to on right now. And you can click the link right in there as well. There you go. Perfect.

Another exciting thing is Danielle just told a new campfire story on Patreon. And Patreon exclusive story. So if you're interested, we went to Mackinac Island in Michigan. Yes, we did. Which was America's second national park. So if for anybody who is thinking that they've never heard of that national park, it's because it was once a park and it is now a Michigan State Park. But it has a lot of fascinating history, a lot of native legends and ties and roots there as well as a lot of just unique things that you don't really see at state or national parks. And I'm not even going to get into it and spoil it for everybody.

But if you are interested, we just posted that a day or so ago. So that's the newest thing on Patreon. I think that's everything that we have for right now. So we're just going to, it's Halloween. We're going to dive into Salem, Massachusetts. But before we go to Salem, I want to go back to when Halloween originated and talk about how Halloween even happened and why we're celebrating it. We're getting Halloween facts. This is great.

This is so great. We're diving at Halloween. Do you have a costume this year? Potentially. So I don't have a place to go yet. Me either. So Al and I, we watched the nightmare before Christmas for the very first time last night. I know.

Excuse me. I know you're going to throw up. Both of you for the first time? Both of us for the first time. Okay. Yes. And so he wants to be Jack Skellington for Halloween. And he wants me to be Sally.

and we could do like cute little nightmare before Christmas game. Yeah. So we just need a place to go or we'll be decorated or we'll be dressed up in our living room. Well, that's kind of my plan because I got a Beetlejuice outfit for my costume. So I have like the I have the whole thing. Like I have the pinstripe suit and the tie and all that. And I want to get like white face paint and like dye my hair green and crazy and black my eyes out. but it's like for what my dogs.

I have no idea if any trick-or-truiterers are going to come. I certainly don't have a party to go to because I'm an introvert. And Ian also has no clue of what he's doing. So I don't know. I might just dress up for the fun of it. And I'll get the big full-size candy bars and see if anybody's lucky enough to come around, they'll get the good stuff. But anyways, okay, so where did Halloween come from?

Tell me. Okay. Halloween actually dates back 2,000 years ago. So it originated in the ancient Celtic festival of Saoan. And the Celts lived mainly in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France. So they thought as November 1st as their new year. And that was what they celebrated. This was the day that marked the end of summer for them.

And it was the beginning of winter. So this was the day where they were transitioning from summer into a time of year that became cold, dark, and was often associated. with death. And remember 2,000 years ago, when the weather starts getting cold and there's less resources around and things like that, people died more in the wintertime. So this time of year was associated with death. They believe that the night before their new year was the boundary between the living world and the dead world. And they thought that this day of the year, this line between the living and the dead was at its thinnest. So they believe that on this night, the dead could reenter into the living world. And they actually believe that these speakers were, you know,

it caused trouble and would hinder and damage their crops. They also believe that this day made it easier for Celtic priests to make predictions about the future. They depended on these predictions to know how long the cold weather for the winter was going to go on for and what the winter had in store for them. So they celebrated this with huge bonfires, they burned crops, they made animal sacrifices and they wore costumes and most of their costumes consisted of animals. animal heads and skins. So by the 19th century, All Saints Day, which was originally celebrated under the Catholic faith in Rome, spread to the Celtic lands. And All Saints Day was celebrated

on November 1st and was also known as All Hallow Mass. The night beforehand from tradition of Sowan started to be known as All Hallows Eve, and then eventually became Halloween. And then eventually with the immigration to America, the holiday was brought over. to this country. Now the idea of trick-or-treating actually dates back to 1000 AD in England. It was tradition that poor people would visit the houses of wealthy families. And it was here that the families would give them pastries that were known as soul cakes in exchange for the promise that they would pray for their families of their dead relatives that, and this was known as souling. Later on, this tradition was adopted by children who would travel door to door to their neighborhood asking for gifts like food and money.

So they used to hand out actual money? Mm-hmm. All right, I feel like that's the better bargain. I don't want snickers. You're like, what is this candy stuff? I want $50. Thank you. And in Scotland and Ireland, kids took up another similar tradition called geising,

and they would dress up in costumes and ask for offerings from around their neighborhoods. but instead of exchange for prayer, they would sing, recite a poem, tell a joke, or they would perform some type of trick before they would collect whatever they were offering. So as trick or a treat, which was generally what they were getting in return was fruits, nuts, or coins. Interesting. Okay, I wonder what the tricks were. Do you know? It seemed like they were just kind of like little pranks or like magic stunts, like take it coin from behind your ear, that kind of thing. That's what I was envisioning, yeah.

I never really thought about why you go trick-or-treating, you just do it. Yeah, as is a lot of traditions, you're going through the motions. You're like, wait a second, why am I doing this? When did I learn it? And why, like, where did it come from? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And for us, being from New England, I think Salem, Massachusetts is the home of Halloween and trick-or-treating and ghostly stories. obviously the witch trials that happened there. I think anyone who hears of Salem, Massachusetts, no matter where you are in the country, you think which trials, Salem witch trials, the first thing you think of. Absolutely. And Salem, Massachusetts in general has a ton of history. Long before the English came over and colonized the area of Salem, Massachusetts, this was actually home to indigenous communities that were flourishing off the land here. The Namkeab tribe used this land an area as a seasonal fishing village. Indigenous people here thrived for many years before

English settlers came over and English settlers, obviously as history has shown, took over the area, but they struggled here for a variety of reasons and one of the reasons that they struggled so much was because they couldn't finagle the harsh winters here for a while. But then in the 1600s, part of their struggles here morphed into reasons that were religious, social reasons and political reasons. And this is what really brings us into the infamous Salem witch trials. And I couldn't talk about, we are going to get into the Salem Maritime National Historic Site, but I couldn't go to Salem, Massachusetts without at least browsing over the Salem Witch trials. Got at least mention it. Yeah, you have to. We're going to Salem, Massachusetts.

I know it's really well known for witches, but forget all that. We're not even going to talk about it anyways about ships. People would riot. They'd be like, what? It is Halloween. It's Halloween. Where is this? I want to know. And Salem is so much more than just the witch trials, but it is a big history here and I had to go into it. So the Salem Witch Trials began in the spring of 1960. Okay, that's not right. I wrote 1962. I'm like, that seems relatively recent. Ah, 1692. So the infamous Salem Witch Trials began in the spring of night.

In the spring of 1692, it all started actually when a group of young girls told people in the town that they had been possessed by the devil, and they accused several women in the town of being involved in witchcraft. So this all began with a couple children saying something. I mean, are we shocked? They stir the pot. always. I am shocked because why would you believe a child saying, I've been possessed, this is who did it, you know, like their children. I'm sure they thought it was a game at the time. Because they were so deeply rooted in religion. Like I just feel it was just such a different time and they took it so, so, so seriously. So even if it is a child, I feel like everybody is freaked out.

Yeah. Bridget Bishop was the first woman to be convicted of participating in witchcraft, and she was hung in June of that same year. So these trials were not very drawn out, weren't looking for a lot of evidence, and it just happened. And there are tons of history and stories and things. But there's one story of the Salem Witch trials that really stood out to me. And that was of Giles, Corey, and his wife, Martha. I know this story. Do you? Yes. It's very sad. I mean, the whole, I hate to say that because everybody, every situation is sad, but this one is really something else. A little gruesome. I'll tell it to the people.

I'll tell you guys, Danielle already knows, but I'll tell you all, especially if you're not familiar with Salem, Massachusetts. So Martha Corey was accused of being a witch, and she was arrested on March 19th, 1692. And this was really strange for the community because Martha had been very well known in her town. for being very active in the church. When she was accused of being into witchcraft, people were shocked. But she was also very outspoken against witch trials because she didn't believe in witches or wizards. And she believed it to be nonsense. And she told people that. She's like, this is insane. There's no such thing as witches. You guys are, this isn't okay. But then two children accused her of being involved in witchcraft. And she ended up going to trial. During this trial, the two

girls mimicked Martha's movements and claimed that she was forcing them to move that way. So she was just sitting there like moving her arms or whatever and these children started doing the same thing as her and saying, she's making us do this. She's making us do this. Then during the trial, one of the children yelled out that they had seen Martha force a yellow bird to suck on her hand. And for whatever reason, this was enough for them. And they convicted her and hung her on September 22nd, 1962. She was 72 at the time of her death. Literally, some children said some things and then said that she had a yellow bird sucking on her hand, and that was enough. She's a witch and killed her. It's just absolute insanity. It's wild that

this stuff really happened. And not that long ago. I mean, relatively speaking. I mean, it's a couple hundred years ago, but still, I mean, the buildings are still there. You go to Salem, you can visit the sites that these things happened on. It's just, it's really wild. And the more wild thing about this story is her husband was also accused of witchcraft and was arrested on April 18th. So when he stated that these claims were completely false, there was nothing to them. He was held in prison until trial into that September. So he was arrested in April that kept him in jail until September. During his time in prison, one witness said that his apparition had been tormenting him and beat him many times to the point of almost breaking

his back. And Giles obviously denied these allegations and said that it's not true. I'm not visiting this person outside of jail as an apparition and beating him. But he refused to plead guilty or not guilty because at the time, the law stated that if you don't plead one or the other, they can't try you. It's a little loophole. A little loophole here, except... The courts considered this refusing or cheating justice, and they had a protocol for this.

And that was that they would torture people into pleading either guilty or not guilty. He didn't want to plead because he knew either way he was going to be found guilty. But this torture that they had, that they did, was called pressing. And during this process, Corey was stripped naked, laid down on the ground with a heavy board laid on top of him, and then rocks and boulders were laid on top of the plank of wood. He didn't cry out in pain and he still refused to enter a plea. On the second day of being pressed, when they asked him to enter a plea, he responded by saying, More wait.

The sheriff, who was interrogating him, was even reported to have been standing on the rocks on top of him as well. After three days of this, Giles Corey died. But because he had refused to plead to anything, the government wasn't able to take his property from him because he wasn't convicted of a crime. crime. In Giles' will, he had left his entire property to his sons who were then able to inherit it. Smart, smart man. You just know in those last few days, he was just thinking of his family. You know, he was like a big F you to the government. It's like, this is insane. Nothing what you're saying is true. And now you're going to take away everything my kids have. Right. And he knew that there was no way out that he was going to win or that he would get away with his life at that point. He had seen what had

happened to his wife and what was going on with others in the community. So he just did what he could, given the situation. And that's a very brave, bold move given the times. But I just want to pause this real quick to show you or pause your story because it's so funny that I have this. So when I was in Salem a few days ago, I went to, I always go to old burying point cemetery, which is where a lot of the, there's a lot of graves there, but it's one of the oldest or the oldest cemetery in Salem. It has a lot of people who are, were involved in the witch trials are buried there, and there's also the witch memorial, or the memorial for the victims of the witch trials there. There's a little gift, or not a gift sore, that's kind of a horrible way of putting it. It's like a little

visitor center for the cemetery, and it's an old, like, 1700s house that has a couple items for sale that have to do with the witch trials, but it helps anything that you buy there helps preserve the cemetery and do upkeep and things like that. And of course, like, I really wanted something. So I got this and I think it's just so fitting. I can't believe I didn't tell you about it, but I'm going to unroll it. I got it for decor for my bedroom and it's kind of like morbid. Okay. So let's see it. I'm going to hold it up to you. So it says at the top, Momentum Moray remember to die, and it has like a little picture, kind of like what you would see at the head of a, on the top of a gravestone. And it says victims of the Salem witch trials. And it has

every single victim. Yeah, you have the dates of every victim and when they were hung. Well, it says, it'll say like hanged, hanged. And then right there, press to death, Giles Corey died September 19, 16, 92. Wow. That is so morbid. It's really morbid. But I think it's also, uh, it's history. It's history and it's about home and it's just kind of a reminder of how crazy like mob mentality and people can be because did any of these people deserve to die? You know, like I just, I don't know. I just really, really liked it and it's just funny that, not funny, ironic that we're talking about it today and I just picked it up a couple of days ago.

Yeah, you'd never show. I'm surprised you didn't show me that because you were showing me your coffin ring that you got. Oh yeah. Your skeleton ring. Anyway, so I just, the story of Gow's Corey, I think I learned about that on a tour when I was like a kid, you know, the school trips you would take to Salem. How funny that you just got this and I just told his story too. I know. I think it's stuck with me and anybody who probably hears it because it is such a, it's a really.

Press to death. It's like it hurt reading it. It's like, ugh. Yeah. Well, he'll go down in history as a badass. So at least in my mind. He went through torture for three days to make sure his son's got something out of it. And I really think he knew that when he was refusing.

And kind of just to go into how wild the Salem witch trials were, I wanted to talk about the tests in which they conducted to determine whether or not you were a witch. Oh, here we go. So kids mimicking movements and saying that they're possessed, is that one of the tests? That's not one of the tests. that was just a nail in the coffin for you're definitely a witch. Oh, boy. So one is called the swimming test, and it's believed that if you are a witch, that water would reject you as baptism is part of the Christian faith. So they believed that witchcraft obviously was not part of the Christian faith, and you could not go underwater like a baptism.

So they believe that innocent people would sink, while witches would float to the top as if the water was. was just rejecting them. And to prove their theory, they would hog tie the accused by their hands and feet and throw them into a lake or a pool. And sometimes they would tie a rope around their neck just in case they sunk. They could be dragged back out. But many of these people drowned regardless, obviously. Well, of course, you're being weighed down with heavy objects and you're bound. And you're going to pull them out by their neck. It's just the lot. Like, what is the logic? I mean, I know you just explained the logic, which doesn't make sense. But I just, it's very hard to reflect back on certain points and events in history that are just so blatantly wrong that it's hard to like say, you know, well, it was a different time and they had a different lens and they had different beliefs and things like that because it's just I can't in any reality make that understandable.

No matter what time it was, it's still cruel. Like, how do you justify that cruelness of it? And that wasn't the only test that they had. Another test that they had was called the prayer test. And it was believed that if you were a witch, there was no way that you could recite parts of the Bible. So to test this, you would be asked to recite scripture. And if you messed up at all, I mean, even by a word, it was proof that you were the Antichrist and you were immediately deemed a witch. And this is just a way to get rid of people that you don't like personally. And people did do that too. Yeah. In some ways, like, I think that this whole situation was taken advantage of by certain people. Yeah, you could just point out anyone you wanted and be like, they're which. I saw them do weird things. They're which.

Do weird things. Yeah. That's terrible. So I just kind of an example of how people could manipulate this in any way they wanted was actually another test, which was called the touch test. And this test was when you were accused by someone of witchcraft, this test was to see if you had actually cast a spell on them. And to know if you had that person that was accusing you, you had to touch them. And if this person that had accused you of witchcraft didn't react when you touched them, then you didn't perform any witchcraft on them. But if this person did react when you touched them, it meant that you were a witch and you cast a spell on them.

Yeah. Yeah. Manipulating is such a great word because it is all about manipulation. I mean, you have no control over that situation. And there are a lot of different tests that they had, but this last one I thought was the most outrageous. Oh, it gets worse. It gets worse. I don't know if I would say worse because they're all really bad, but it's definitely in the same playing field of horrible. Imperfect skin was a sign of sorcery. So if you had a mole, a scar, a birth mark, sores, anything really that, you would go to your dermatologist and get looked at, you would have a very good chance of getting hanged if someone accused you of being witch. Yeah, I'd be screwed. I mean, I have a mark on my neck and I have a birthmark on my right forearm. So. Yep, you're dead for sure. I'm dead. Wow. So

insane. It's like, how do you get out of that? You don't. You don't. Eventually, in May of 1693, a governor's wife ended up being accused of being a witch. And it was at this point, that the governor ordered an end to the witch trials entirely. Oh, how convenient. Suddenly they don't exist now that it's your wife. But by this time that he had ordered this, 19 people had been hung, five died in prison, and one person was pressed to death.

Yeah, that's way all of those people should have been. And I know that we kind of like, you said a little fact during the campfire story, that this seems like a lot because it is, but this wasn't the only place that the witch trials happened. What was the figure you said about in Europe? In Europe. So it started in Europe and there was actually 55,000 people that were accused of witchery and that were executed for it.

In Europe. Mm-hmm. preceding the witch trials of Salem. Yeah, this was before the witch trials of Salem. God, that makes me so uncomfortable. And it also makes me rethink, you know, the classic, would you rather live in the future or live in the past? I always say I would love to live in the past. And then you look at that and you're like, my personality in the past probably isn't

going to go over very well. Not at all. Yeah, it wouldn't go well for me at that point. I don't think. I don't think it would go very well for me either. So if you are visiting Salem, Massachusetts, one of the most famous places that you can visit regarding the witch trials is the Salem witch house, which I've been to a couple times. Have you been there? Yeah, I've been twice maybe. Yeah, but the witch house is actually the only building left that has direct ties to the witch trials. Judge Jonathan Corwin, who was responsible for sentencing 19 people to death for witchcraft, bought this house in 1675. And by 1718, the Corwin curse had ravaged their home and their family. Eight members of the Corwin family members died prematurely in that house.

From the years 1684 to 1690, Jonathan and his wife Elizabeth had five children, all who died young. Later, in 1717, their son died of a fever, and then his wife died of a fever as well in 1718. Then the fever took the only two boys left to carry on the Corwin family name and ownership of the house. So while no people accused of being a witch have ever lived in that house, there's never been trials in that house. It's been renamed the witch house and it is believed that it has been cursed from all the deaths that the judge Jonathan Corwin had been a part of. That is just such a, I don't want to say fitting because any sort of death, especially with children, is, it just doesn't seem fair. And I know it was at a time where death of children at a young age or people at a young age was not uncommon. But it does seem a little suspect when it's so much tragedy in such a short amount of time and one family. While the Salem witch trials are quite possibly the most well-known history of all of Salem, Massachusetts, it is certainly not its only history.

Not even close. episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice. Off campus, L, every year after, the love hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more. Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting.

Watch only on Prime. After the hysteria of the witch trials occurred, Salem became a very different kind of place. The town began catering to lots of different kinds of vices, gambling, prostitution, and drinking. It became a seaside shipbuilding, trade commerce, Siemens Town. So while you may have heard of lots of places to go touring in Salem, Massachusetts that are often, where the witch trials took place, old witch houses, galleries, their cemeteries, hauntings. Here in Salem, Massachusetts, there is an entirely other section of this town, and this section is run by the National Park Service. Yes, it is. This is a National Park episode,

National Park podcast. Ruhn's like, okay, so what's the connection here? Which is National Park Service? I mean, you have to really look, but I guess all the times that I went, I didn't even see what was right in front of me, but there are National Park symbols on a lot of different signages all over the city, especially probably where we're going right now. Definitely where we're going right now. So as we always do before we head into a national park, I'm going to talk about it a little bit. We are going to Salem Maritime National Historic Site located in Salem, Massachusetts, and this was actually the first national historic site to ever be established. Really? It was created on March 17, 1938, and it consists of nine acres of land.

and 12 historic structures within the Salem waterfront, along with a visitor center downtown. This park preserves over 600 years of New England's maritime history and its connections around the globe. Part of this park has an example of the exact replica of the friendship of Salem, which is a ship, and the original had made over 15 voyages to India, China, South America, the Caribbean, England, Germany, the Mediterranean, Russia, all over the world. And this area actually carries a lot of history of the triangle trade during the colonial period where they were trading cotton, rum, sugar, and even enslaved people. It dates all the way back to the American Revolution and the global maritime trade of the Far East. There are over 700,000 people who visit the site every single year.

The historic wharfs and buildings preserve the stories of how important the global trade was for the economy of the United States and tells the story of the developing colonial port towns. So while there is a lot of history in the Salem Maritime Historic Site, there is a specific area that I'm going to focus on today. Like as I just said, there are 12 historic buildings. We're going to visit two of them. And we are going to put our main focus on the Derby Wharf and the Derby House. The Derby Wharf is a historic loading dock for ships that was used for global trading. Captain Richard Derby and his son Elias Haskett Derby began building the wharf in 1762. As global trading grew, the family extended the wharf and today it extends 2,045 feet into the Salem Harbor.

The Derby House was built as a wedding present for Elias from his father. It was built in 1762 and Elias and his wife lived there along with their seven children. They lived here throughout much of the Revolutionary War. And now, back in these days when he was living here, there's not a lot of documentation happening, but it is known that at least two enslaved people of African descent lived with him at this house as well. I think it's widely thought of as slavery having a huge heavy presence in the South, which is absolutely true. But there's also a huge history of it here in Salem, Massachusetts. It is true, though.

You generalize things in history. Like you think, oh, well, that's a southern. That was a southern thing. Us up here, we didn't do that. And that's just so wrong. Yeah, and there is a lot of history on this. And I couldn't go into this story. I mean, this is a Halloween episode.

It's a spooky history of Salem and stuff. But I couldn't tell this story without talking about this part of history, because it is so huge in Salem, Massachusetts. When the Derby Wharf was built, it was the busiest wharf in Salem and the global trades that we're coming in and out of this port, we're making a ton of money. And I'm going to preface this as saying Elias Derby was not a good man. He did enslave people, but he was a very successful man. In fact, he was the first millionaire in America. And it was because of his advancement in the global trading world. He ended up being highly recognized for creating the iron trade between Russia and

creating a trading relationship with China. He also was a huge asking. He also was a huge asking for in forming the triangle trade. So the triangle trade was the global imports and exports between three different shipping ports. And this was huge because this was America and at this time it was British, North America, but this was creating trades around the world. This was getting resources from totally different countries. So this was a huge aspect in history. It was linked with three different shipping ports, West Africa, West India, and British North America. This trade was also known as the Atlantic slave trade. This trade mainly involved coffee, sugar, rum, and enslaved African people. Essentially, the way that this trade worked was enslaved people would grow sugar cane,

then brew it into rum, and afterwards the rum was then traded for more enslaved people. So they're just caught in this cycle. This horrible cycle. Yeah. And this is history that I didn't really, I've heard of this, I've heard of this entire thing. I just never conunded. it with Salem, Massachusetts until I started reading this. And the trades of this also included naval artillery, ammunition, cloth, trinkets, and copper. And during these trades, so there's tons of stuff going around, but the Atlantic slave trade was huge. I think a really important part to highlight in this is that many enslaved people that they were bringing over from Africa never made it through the trip back because they died from disease and horrid conditions of the ships

and they were in crowded spaces. And you have to remember, most of these people were kidnapped from their villages, from their homes. And then there is history that dates back that they were traded between the countries too for other things. And like how I was saying for rum, they would trade enslaved people and things like that. But a lot of people were kidnapped from their homes and brought over that way. So when Elias Derby's father passed away, he took over the entire business. And one of the things that he quickly realized was how much his father had made and how much he wanted to keep earning money and keep this luxurious lifestyle that his father had kind of built because his father built a lot of this that was going on. And he decided that if he could smuggle in goods, he could continue making a fortune.

So he decides that he wants to start engaging in this illegal activity because there's a lot of money in it. And he needs to figure out a way he can do it and slide under the radar. And he decides that he needs tunnels. He needs tunnels into the town of Salem where he can smuggle all of these goods in. But how could he build tunnels under a town without anybody taking notice and questioning what he's doing? He decided that he would come up with a project that would be good for the town of Salem. He proposed it as a way to make the town more aesthetically pleasing. So now today you can visit this area. It's called the Salem Common Historic District. And this area

was actually once a swamp. There was nothing there. It was a swamp, water, no buildings, nothing you could, not a park, you could hang out it. He devised this plan to turn it into this beautiful park. He would fill the marsh with dirt and create trails that people in the town could actually go out and walk on and it would be this enjoyable, nice area. He used this all as a little. He used this all as a distraction because in reality he was building tunnels underneath the town and when he was digging these tunnels he was using the dirt he got from the dig to fill the marsh what a clever move oh i mean like you said we're prefacing this we already have established he's not a good man he's shitty yeah however like it really is genius if you think about it like okay well this

is obviously going to be out in the open at a huge bustling busy trade port. Like you can't, like, what are you going to do? You know, like, you have to disguise it in a way, especially in a way that it's like not only are you disguising it, you're making it seem like he, he's doing it for somebody, for the people. Like, oh, I have you in mind. Wow. And it doesn't on there either. He gets sneaky again because he came across another issue. And when he was actually building these tunnels, he needed a ton of bricks. But how is he going to buy tons and tons of bricks without an explanation. So he added to the park that he wanted to build several brick houses around the area. And this was to explain his massive brick purchase and avoid

any questions about what he was doing. And this was also extra sneaky because in the construction of all of these brick homes, he built fireplaces in the basements. And these fireplaces were actually entrances into the underground tunnels. This is out of a goddamn move. Like, this is not real. It is. When you're walking around Salem, when you're walking down the sidewalk, this is underneath you.

And that is just so, like, I love that you picked this. We're not even probably fully into it, but I just really love that you pick this and prefaced it with the witch trials and all that because there's so much history to different places and not all of it is what you can see or what's publicized. I was, I mean, I was just there. And I kind of knew what you were going to go for. Obviously, I didn't know all the details. But if I didn't know that,

I probably would have visited Salem for the 25th time in my life and not even paid attention to, like, I have probably visited this Derby Wharf area maybe three or four times. And not really paid much mind to it. I'm like, oh, well, there's a waterfront, you know? That's my same thought. I have gone to Salem, Massachusetts, many times in my life, too. I've gone there for Halloween several times. I dress up. They have these huge celebrations there. They have live music outside. You can go out to the bars. Everyone's dressed up. Halloween's this huge thing in Salem, Massachusetts.

And I've gone there for that many times. I've gone into the witch houses. I've walked along the witch tour trails. I've never paid attention to this part of the history. And there's got to be some tours, right? There is. There's tours. Okay. There is, and I'll get into those too. I know there's at least 20 different witch themed tours, but like what about the, all right, wait, keep. All right, so let's go back.

Back to the tunnel system. Back to the tunnels. So the fireplaces are the entrances to the tunnel system that he has going on. So we have all these entrances, and he actually connected the entire. entire tunnel system to all different parts of the Derby Wharf. So coming straight off the ships into the tunnels. When it was completely finished, sailors now had a way that they could smuggle, either their stolen or acquired goods that they had gotten from overseas. And they were coming back with all sorts of things. They were coming back with priceless artifacts, gold, crown jewels,

anything that they could find of value, really. They were smuggling through. these tunnels. So now, because of this booming industry of the global trade, it brought in a ton of sailor men. And this town became very active. It had restaurants, hotels, entertainment. It became this bustling seaside sailor town. And if you go to Salem, the most famous street to visit would be Essex Street. This street is filled with psychic mediums, museums, mythical shops. I'm almost positive, actually, that I've gotten, I got a tarot card read. on that street before. See, I'm not, I don't want anyone, like, interfering or putting thoughts into my head that may or may not be real.

I don't know. I went, um, I went with some friends and an ex-boyfriend and the tarot card reader told me that I should dump my boyfriend. And it didn't end up working out. So maybe, maybe there's something to it. That is not a way. Okay, no. That, no way. It was really funny because he was on the other side of the glass.

So we were in a glass thing. And I was sitting there and I could see him. And we were just talking. And she was like, yeah, you should dump him. And he's like sitting there waving to me. I'm like, uh-huh. It's like, hi, honey. Hi, sweetie.

I've always wanted to. It's so funny that you said that street is famous for that because truly like walked by maybe four or five sandwich boards that was or were advertising like palm readings and things like that. And I just had this fleeting thought of like, I wonder if like maybe one day I would just go to all of them in a row and see if they even had anything similar to say. If anything's legitimate. Yeah. But then how do you know what's a legitimate? I don't know. Either way.

Not for you. We're going to. Anyway, so Essex Street is certainly the most famous street to visit. But if you head over to Derby Street, you'll find yourself in Salem's old. Red Light District. Oh, okay. So this area was filled with brothels and bars that were filled with sailors and there became a very dark history here. So while this was this brothel party area for men, men actually started going missing and a lot of them. Oh. If you head over to 148 Derby Street, you'll find yourself inside of the Mercy Tavern. And when you go in, you'll have the option.

to order some All-American comfort food and a beer and maybe sit down to some live music. But back in the 1800s, this building was a brothel. And this brothel was connected directly to the underground tunnels. And over time, this brothel started getting a really bad reputation. And it wasn't because of the brothel, the horrible brothel that was going on here. It was because the men who went inside often never came out and were never seen again. So they're being taken. I don't want to jump the gun, so I'll let you explain, but I have questions.

Okay. So as I had kind of mentioned earlier, the global trade was booming and making a lot of money and for a lot of people. But there was a big problem, and I kind of touched on this earlier. I mentioned the living conditions on the ship. Enslaved people were getting sick and they were dying on these four ages, but they weren't the only ones. The sailors were getting sick and dying as well. There was a lack of food, rat infestations, and disease that were ravaging these ships, leaving them in need of more crew members all of the time. And as you can imagine, there weren't a ton of people who were interested in making these journeys when they found out how many people are dying on them.

So because of this, captains of the ship would order their deck hands to head into the tunnels and up into Mercy Tavern where they would abduct, unexpected men and bring them back through the tunnels and back to the Derby Wharf. There, the men were forced into service onto the ships, and many of them never made it back. Holy mo. Okay. So, I guess my question is, do you know if the women involved in the brothel were in cahoots with this operation in any way? No, I don't. And I was trying to look that information up, and I couldn't find anything because I was just imagining these women who are like, you know what, I hate my job. I, or I shouldn't say job. I hate it here. This is horrible. Take them. Bye. Or in my mind I was thinking. Or if they were getting paid. So if there was like a particular

man that was being somewhat abusive or reckless or the girls didn't particularly like this type of person, if they were like, okay, well, him, like you should take him. Like I don't know. Yeah. I'm making shit up. Like if they had some kind of involved. in who was chosen. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe. I don't know, though, because I feel if that was the case, maybe there would be more about that that you could find.

Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. And then again, if they do that, they're kind of losing business. I don't know how this works, but either way. I mean, that's terrifying. Salem's wild. Wild things happened there. And now, Mercy Tavern, which you can go to and sit down at, like I said, is not.

known to be one of the most haunted establishments in all of Salem. It is known to be haunted by old sailors who frequented the brothel. There have also been sightings of sailors sitting at the bar area and employees have reported hearing voices when they're the only ones in the restaurant. There has also been reports of noises of men fighting and shouting that can be heard underneath the floorboards of the building as well. Don't like that. Don't like that. So most of the tunnels are inaccessible now because of safety reasons and their entrances have been blocked off. However, in 2010, two people ventured down into the tunnels to explore them and they found an old bank vault, an old grocery area, murals, elevators,

and empty shafts that people used to live in. In the tunnels, there's old hotels, bedrooms, a bowling alley, an old swimming pool, and even a shooting range that is all underground and all underneath the town of Salem. When was that added? Or was that there the whole time? That was there the whole time. So while this was a smuggling tunnel operation, this was actually used for a lot of other things. So if there was something that you shouldn't be doing and people shouldn't be seen, you went into the underground. This is wild. And while I've obviously never been to that underground, it reminds me a lot of minus the smuggling part. It reminds me a lot of, it reminds me a lot of, of the Seattle underground, which I'm probably speaking to the choir. Like, everyone's like, yeah, we've been there. But I went a few years ago, and it was one of the best tours I've ever taken in my whole life. And it's the same thing you're describing. There's a whole town down there,

like brothels and restaurants and storefronts, and it's all underground in the old district of Salem. So you're walking, or Salem, Seattle. It's just with Salem, though, I didn't know that. You can't go down there. And then you're just walking around town and everyone's so focused on the witches and hauntings and Halloween and stuff. You don't even realize what you're walking on top of. Okay. Also, you are sneaky because you're like, hey, I know you're in Salem. Can you just like, here's a list. Take a couple pictures for me. You send me to these places. I don't know what. You're like, okay, Mercy Tavern. I'm like, oh, looks cute. Not cute. Like, what the hell? Actually, it's a brothel. Gave you no context. I'm just like, I would like some photos of.

I'm like, oh, here you go. You're like, thanks. Don't say a peep about it until now. And I'm like, oh, my God. I was just on this wild goose chase of all these places that are so, have such bad, scary history. Wow. To preface this, Danielle and I had plans to go to Salem together, but her schedule and my schedule didn't line up.

And she ended up being able to go. So I asked her to take some pictures of the specific sites that I wanted to post photos of of Salem while she was there. And I gave her no reason behind any of them. But it's actually like, like you said, like everyone's so focused on the witches. Like when I was there, it was kind of a gloomy, rainy day. So it wasn't as busy as it usually is. But there's definitely congregations of people definitely condensed in certain areas of the town. But I will say, like, I saw maybe two or three other people down by the wharf, and that was it.

And, like, there was no one near the Derby house. There was nobody near Mercy Tavern. But it was closed. Like, it wasn't open at the time. But, like, nobody in that area of town, like, that old Red Lake district you were talking about, like, literally goes down. It's funny when you know the history of things. You just want to go there. Yeah.

And you're like, you want to take people by the children and be like, you fool. Look over here. This is what's here. Look how cool it is. It's not just a brick building. It's not just the restaurant. There's so much going on. The Derby House. Do you even understand what that means? Do you know what sidewalk you're standing on right now? There's a tunnel under you. People with like, okay, I'm going to go. I'm going to call 911. Please leave. So there are tours for this. There is a tour. I found it online,

and it's called the Salem Tunnel Tour, and it says that it's coming soon and it's not available to do at this moment, but it takes you to old entrances, and it also walks you above ground to tell you where all the tunnels are and what you're standing above. It's a self-tore that it seems like kind of a virtual tour,

I think maybe you can download something and listen to it or they give you a map or something, but you can walk along where the tunnels go to, and you can see like old entrance parts and things, like that. So it's pretty cool. You can't actually go into the tunnels, but you can see where they are. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. And just speaking of tours, because like we mentioned, there's a lot of witch tours. You can go see like the gala's where witches were hung and different cemeteries where all these famous people involved in these things are laid to rest now. But another tour was

very recently established within the National Park Service. And that was on July 14th, 2020. and this tour is called The Pathway to Freedom. This new tour was created in honor of Sabre Derby and Rose Lane, who were two people of African descent that were enslaved by Elias Derby. Sab and Rose were two enslaved people who fell in love and were freed when they were married in 1799. They lived and performed labor in Salem for years, but the history behind exactly what they did is unclear because of lack of documentation.

The National Park Service, however, has been able to trace back documentation to their transition from slavery to freedom and also their continued relationship among the Derby House. So they do know some parts of their life. This pathway to freedom tour was created on July 14th because that was Saab's birthday. When the park announced the launch of this new virtual tour, they wrote on their Facebook, because I think that they can explain it a lot better of why they created this than I can. So what they wrote when they announced it was, The gradual process of emancipation coupled with hostility and anti-Black's sentiment from whites

has left a legacy of racial inequality that endures in Massachusetts. Yet, much can be learned from the ways in which black people resist unfree conditions, fight for freedom, survive, and endure generation after generation. We invite you to explore this virtual program and varied experiences, the first generation of freed people faced in Massachusetts. Armed with a deeper understanding of our past, we can better confront the injustices of today. Good move, National Park Service.

That's so cool. So that's another virtual thing that you can download and do yourself. Yeah, and it takes you through when I was reading more into it and what exactly you can do is it sounds like it takes you along just the history of when enslaved people were freed, trying to get jobs, the life that they could live, still the racism that they really faced, especially right after. And then it's also going into like the systemic racism that's still here today. And I thought that it was so interesting when I saw that because one, I've, I mean,

it's very new. So I've never seen it or heard of it. But I just thought it was so important that they added that because Salem has such a strong history and tie to slavery that to just have witches and to just have hauntings and things like that is such an injustice to that history that people, like they said, when you have the knowledge of it, that's when you don't do it again, when it doesn't happen again, when you have a better understanding. So I just thought that that was a really good move on the National Park Service to add that in. Even though this is a Halloween episode, I couldn't do this story without touching on how important this part of history in Salem is and how go check it out, go learn about it. I know next time I go to

Salem, that's one of the first things on my list because I had no idea that Salem had this. When I went into researching this, I had no idea I was going to dive into black history at all. I thought I was talking about ships and witches and then this popped up. And I was like, oh my God, this was not the direction I was heading in for this episode, but I can't not talk about it because it is such a huge part of the history here. Yeah, it's such an integral piece that without mentioning it or touching upon it or acknowledging it, you're not acknowledging it, if that makes sense. Yeah.

You're not doing it justice fully. And I think that that's a really rad move from the National Park Service to do that. Well, that was such a beautiful episode. It was special because obviously being New Englanders and having to be Halloween, mean, but there's just, I just really loved it because, like I mentioned before, there's just so much more to places than meets the eye. And if you're just going to go off of, you know, like TripAdvisor or the top five Google matches of places, you're only going to scrape the surface. And just to dig a little deeper and do a little more research into what else has happened in certain places, it's just so worth it. And I think that this story was just such like an example of that.

It's just wild. The history that's places if you really. And I've kind of learned that just in my own, even like trail explorations. Whenever I see the little mounts on the trails, I always read them now because I discovered something actually very recently that I didn't realize, and this is kind of off topic to our subject, but I was hiking Camel's Hump in Vermont recently. And I've done this hike before. There's a plane crash up there.

a plane crash with remnants of a plane. And I literally looked at a map that showed exactly where the plane crash was on a hike I had done before that. But I didn't read it. I didn't look into it at all. And then I found out the second time I hiked it, that there was a plane crash and there was a lot of history and there's this huge survival story on this mountain that's very close to where I live. And so I've been paying a lot more attention to signs and details and history and I think it's just it makes places so much cooler when you know the history behind them. Yeah, I love that. It's just cool because like the Campfire story was kind of like in the same vein as far as like there's more than just meets the eye or look past the label type of thing, you know.

I love that we kind of both went on that theme for this week's episode too. Yeah, it was cool. All right. Well, anything else? Any more about Salem? You want to tell me? No, that was my story. Okay, perfect.

Well, I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did. And I don't know what else to say. That's it. Yeah. This is the end of spooky season. We will be heading back into our regularly scheduled programming of death and disaster and survival stories and animal mallings and history of the parks. We have missed it.

I have a lot in my backlog from doing the spruce. spooky season thing. So spooky season is the best and we love it. But we got some stories that we're ready to unleash now that weren't a part of spooky season. So we're excited to this next few weeks. Yeah. Well, because, you know, we didn't start a paranormal podcast for a reason. You know, like we have some other things we want to talk about. So like you said, we got a lot of stuff coming up and we hope you enjoyed our last few episodes into some different type of territory, but enjoy the view. But watch you back. Bye. Bye. You're listening to this podcast, so I know you've got a curious mind. Here's a helpful fact

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