Every year a select group of tourists flocks to Salem, Massachusetts, in search of a history that makes your hair stand on end. Here, Vogue's guide to the historical city.
Each year when autumn rolls around, visitors from around the country flock to New England for the clam chowder, the scenery, the foliage—but a select group flocks to Salem, Massachusetts in search of a history that makes your hair stand on end.
In the earlier days of colonial America, Salem was not a charming New England seaside town, but, rather, the gritty edge of the known world. The colonists who immigrated here risked life and limb and sanity to pursue religious freedom, leaving the security of Europe behind in order to forge a new trail forward—and it was a terrifying one. Spirits, monsters, and, yes, even witches were as real and a part of daily life as the rising and setting of the sun.