The first part of the tour took us up to Salem MA This port handled far more traffic back in the early 1800's than even Boston before the ships got too big for the relative shallow harbor. There are 2 remaining wharf's of what was in excess of 40 at one point.
Nathaniel Hawthorn was born and raised in Salem and worked at this Custom's House before getting fired so he could concentrate on writing "The Scarlett Letter".
One of the main attractions in Salem is the Salem Witch Museum. The witch trials in Salem only lasted 10 months and resulted in 19 hangings and 1 person being crushed to death. All the burning at the stake happened over in Europe over a much longer period.
Then it was back to Boston and a visit to the North Church where poems will tell you Paul Revere hung two lamps out to let everybody know the Brits were coming by sea. Actually it was 2 people who worked at the church who hung up the lamps while Paul and 29 of his best buddies were riding the country side warning people. Also, the Brits came by river, but river obviously doesn't rhyme as well as sea.
The magnificent pipe organ inside the church.
And the famous steeple where the lamps hung.
Now, don't you feel just a little bit smarter!
No comments:
Post a Comment