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Salem (Massachusetts)

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Salem is a city located in Massachusetts, in the United States of America.

It was founded as an English Colony by Puritans in 1626 AD, it is known primarily as the site of the Salem Witch Trials.[1]

History

17th Century[]

The sorceress Agatha Harkness settled in Salem and formed her own coven of witches hoping to freely practice magic in the New World.[2]

In 1686 AD, a man asked a woman to marry him and is turned down so he plants evidence to get her condemned as a witch. They pursue her through the forest and the man hurts his leg so they leave him behind to pursue her. She returns to the man to get revenge and says "So you called me a witch? Well, you were close!" as she bares her vampire fangs.[3]

In 1691 AD, Dracula reached out to the girl Charity Brown and asks her to call him master, offering her every desire. She agrees to let Dracula be her master and he marks her with his sign: a bat-shaped mark on her breast. The Villagers discover the marking and she was trialed as a witch. When Dracula arrived and found her already executed, he decided to get revenge on the village. He picked a girl named Tituba and turned her into a vampire. She was then sent to orchestrate events that would lead to the Salem Witch Hunts.[4]

Salem Witch Trials[]

The Salem Witch Trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft between 1692 to 1693 AD.[1]

In August 1692, two young girls Betty Parris and her cousin Abigail Williams began to convulse their bodies and speak in tongues. Her father, the Reverend Parris, immediately called on a doctor and was both diagnosed as being bewitched. The Puritans of the village believed the girls was possessed by Satan. After hearing about the girls behavior from the witnesses Mary Walcott, Ann Putnam, Elizabeth Hubbard the paranoid community agreed that they had been affected by Witchcraft. The girls blamed three women, including Tituba, a Caribbean slave who was known as a fortune teller, as well as Sarah Good and Sarah Osbourne. It was revealed Cotton Mather, a witch-hunter who came Salem, was given mystical powers by the Dark Rider who hoped to feed off their paranoia.[1]

The girls was thrown in jail to await trial for practicing witchcraft. Tituba confessed to have seen Satan and that there was a coven of witches living in the area. The girls insisted they were innocent but the court did not believe them, and found all three women guilty and the three was hanged. Over the next few weeks other girls accused other townspeople, men and women torturing them all including George Burroughs, John Proctor, and his wife Elizabeth Proctor.[5]

During all this Cotton Mather was sent to the future to capture Scarlet Witch and returned her to the past with him. They were pursued by Spider-Man and the Vision who prevented her execution at the hands of Salem's villagers,[6] but were captured by Mather and the townspeople. He then contacted the Dark Rider, but their meeting was interrupted by Spider-Man and Vision who had escaped from prison as well as Doctor Doom who had traveled to the past as well.[1] Mather believed him to be an Angel but was knocked away by a disgusted Doom.[5] The Dark Rider captured Doom, and Mather assisted him in draining his energies. The Rider then demanded he stab Wanda, but he was interrupted by Moondragon. Spidey rushed to rescue the of the other accused townsfolk but he was to later and found them all hung.[7] After they were defeated, Mather attempted to tell the people of Salem what had happened, but everyone believed him to be insane.[8]

Firestar when she was accidentally sent back in time to 1692 while fighting the Sphinx. Believing her to be a witch the Puritans tried to burn her at the stake. She fought back but was saved by Agatha Harkness leading her to safety.[2] Agatha revealed that she approved of the trials, believing them necessary for the magical people to grow stronger; she even sent some of her coven to cull the weak. She asked Firestar to join her but she refused. Firestar begged Agatha to find another option. Her pleas did not fall on deaf ears and Agatha agreed and settled the town of New Salem, a secret magical community in what would be known Colorado.[9]

Later that year Hiram Shaw Earth's Sorcerer Supreme and Reverend of the town of Salem. He had taken on the position after the last reverend was banished for witchcraft. His son was in a relationship with Abigail Harkness, whom Hiram believed was a witch and thus disapproved. He forbade Obadiah from seeing her, but Obadiah disobeyed, believing that Abigail was innocent. One night, he was summoned by Dormammu. Dormammu warned Shaw that his lust for power would damn his entire family for all time. He offered Shaw protection in exchange for Shaw's submission, but Shaw refused. When Shaw returned to Earth, he found his wife, Sarah Shaw, dead. Hiram blamed Abigail and had her arrested for witchcraft and murder. She was sentenced to death but Obadiah rescued her and the two escaped town. Hiram sent a pack of townsfolk after them. Abigail revealed that she was indeed a witch and killed the townspeople with a blast of fire. Only Hiram survived.[10]

A young Mutant; girl named Gloria Knoblach lived in Salem and was accused of being a witch. She was judged guilty and hung in June that year.[11]

Another woman is accused of being a witch. Her lover pleads her case and the jury finds her not guilty. While traveling to a minister to be wed, she is thrown from the carriage and injured. The man examines her and says she isn't seriously hurt but must be treated by a doctor within the hour to prevent it getting worse. She exclaims we can't get to a doctor in an hour. He says it is not impossible for someone who can ride a tree branch or broomstick. "You still don't believe I'm not a witch, despite what you said in the courtroom!" she cries, and he replies "Nonsense! I know YOU'RE not the witch." as he hops on the tree branch and speeds away.[12]

18th Century[]

In the early 1700's, another woman was accused of being a witch by another who wished to get even for being jilted by her former boyfriend. The boyfriend defended his new girlfriend against the accusations, but when he proposed, she turned him down. It turned out the accusations were true.[13]

Modern Era[]

Salem remained a major hub for magic-users and as such, at John Hathorne High School, there are rivalries between magic-using students ("wicks"), decedents of the original magic users who came to Salem, and regular students ("blanks").[14] In order to foil an attempt by the mutant magic-thief Chad Barrow to steal the magic of Salem, a group of teenage wicks banded together as the Spellbinders.[15]

When the True Faery king of the Old Ones, Oberoth'm'gozz (under the guise of Doctor Strange), caused random magical effects and manifestations, including the sightings of 13 possible Sabrinas, and the disappearance of the W.A.N.D. (Wizardry Alchemy Necromancy Department)'s point man there. W.A.N.D. director Pandora Peters then went herself to Salem.[16]

Alternate Realities[]

Earth-9047[]

Salem (Massachusetts) from What The--?! Vol 1 22 001

Welcome to Salem!

Salem was overcome by witch-hunting fever in 1692, with citizens accusing each other of being witches and Judge Hathhorny arranging the burning of the Ivory Wench at the stake. Time-traveling Forbush Man -who wanted to just cheat in recent horse races- corrected the anachronism by pointing that, historically, Salemites only hanged witches, never burning them; Hathhorny, thanking the reference, decided the hang both Ivory Wench -unhappy at the situation- and Forbush. Forbush, understanding that his gallows mate was the ancestor of the Scarlett Wench -a mutant superheroine of the universe Forbush inhabited- and that she may have illusion mutant powers, convinced the Wench to conjure a vision to scare the angry mob - it worked and they were indeed scared, as they disliked the Vision's (then) new uniform. Grateful at being saved, the Ivory Wench courted Forbush, albeit just before their first kiss, Forbush was returned to his time.[17]

Points of Interest

Residents

Earth-9047[]

Irving Forbush from Earth-665 visited Earth-9047's Salem.[17]

Notes

Trivia

See Also

Links and References

References

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