Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 12,13 (click to see context) from:
* The witch trial were actually orchestrated by the witches themselves, or at least a rogue faction of the witches, for some nefarious purpose.
to:
* The witch trial trials were actually orchestrated by the witches themselves, or at least a rogue faction of the witches, for some nefarious purpose.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 7,8 (click to see context) from:
Use of this trope can be... ''messy''. If handled in a way that casts the witches [[BadPowersBadPeople as]] [[AlwaysChaoticEvil sinister]] and implies they were in Salem from the time of its foundation, it could imply that one of the most infamous events of mass persecution in the US didn't fail because it was looking for a target that wasn't there, but because it wasn't looking ''[[ProperlyParanoid hard enough]]''.
to:
Use of this trope can be... ''messy''. If handled in a way It can risk the UnfortunateImplications that casts [[ProperlyParanoid the hysteria was actually justified]]. One or more of the following strategies are typically employed to ensure that the Salem witch-hunters will be portrayed as villainous even if witches [[BadPowersBadPeople as]] [[AlwaysChaoticEvil sinister]] are real:
* Witches are real, but it just so happens that there weren't any in Salem at the time of the witch trials.
* Witches are real andimplies they were in Salem from at the time of its foundation, it could imply that one the witch trials, but the story takes place in a verse in which [[GoodWitchVersusBadWitch witches are not necessarily evil]].
* Real witches would easily be able to protect themselves with magic, so the witch-hunters were only ever a danger to falsely accused {{Muggles}}.
* The witch trial were actually orchestrated by the witches themselves, or at least a rogue faction of themost infamous events of mass persecution in the US didn't fail because it was looking witches, for a target that wasn't there, but because it wasn't looking ''[[ProperlyParanoid hard enough]]''.
some nefarious purpose.
* Witches are real, but it just so happens that there weren't any in Salem at the time of the witch trials.
* Witches are real and
* Real witches would easily be able to protect themselves with magic, so the witch-hunters were only ever a danger to falsely accused {{Muggles}}.
* The witch trial were actually orchestrated by the witches themselves, or at least a rogue faction of the
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 40 (click to see context) from:
* ''Film/HocusPocus'' is about three witches hanged in Salem who are resurrected in TheNineties.
to:
* ''Film/HocusPocus'' is about three witches witches, hanged in Salem Salem, who are resurrected in TheNineties.TheNineties. Their backstory really doesn't fit with the historical record at all, unless they were supposed to be some separate case of suspected witchcraft.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 54 (click to see context) from:
to:
* Creator/StephenKing's Jerusalem's Lot (or Salem's Lot for short) also seems to be based on Salem, at least in name. The short story ''Jerusalem's Lot'' shows occult things going on in the town, while it's main appearance in ''Salem's Lot'' is more focused on vampires.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
[[AC:WebOriginal]]
* J. M. [=McNab=] of ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' [[http://www.cracked.com/article_24403_reminder-america-celebrates-mass-murder-every-halloween.html wrote an article]] about this, particularly how the world (including the modern town of Salem) has treated the history of the witch trials. He views it as carrying massive UnfortunateImplications, a celebration of the breakdown of law and order in the face of religious fanaticism, paranoia, and petty property disputes. In particular, he sees works of fiction that portray actual witches in Salem as validating the hysteria that fueled the witch trials, comparing it to a world where UsefulNotes/NaziGermany tried to justify UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust by accusing Jews of being vampires (which wouldn't have been far off from [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_libel real anti-Semitic conspiracy theories]]), and then, years later, ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' gave the Cullens a backstory about fleeing the Nazis.
* J. M. [=McNab=] of ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' [[http://www.cracked.com/article_24403_reminder-america-celebrates-mass-murder-every-halloween.html wrote an article]] about this, particularly how the world (including the modern town of Salem) has treated the history of the witch trials. He views it as carrying massive UnfortunateImplications, a celebration of the breakdown of law and order in the face of religious fanaticism, paranoia, and petty property disputes. In particular, he sees works of fiction that portray actual witches in Salem as validating the hysteria that fueled the witch trials, comparing it to a world where UsefulNotes/NaziGermany tried to justify UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust by accusing Jews of being vampires (which wouldn't have been far off from [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_libel real anti-Semitic conspiracy theories]]), and then, years later, ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' gave the Cullens a backstory about fleeing the Nazis.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
** And then it turned out that Sabrina got assigned the "witch" role amongst her field trip group (they were supposed to be part of a re-enactment, and AlphaBitch Libby exploited the opportunity that Sabrina lost her assignment card and didn't knew her role to accuse Sabrina and have the rest of the class bully her); even when the tour guide explicitly said at the end of the re-enactment that ''nobody'' had the "witch" role (as an exposition that paranoia was the biggest enemy of the Salem people).
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
** According to [[https://www.pottermore.com/collection-episodic/history-of-magic-in-north-america-en History supplementary material]] written by Creator/JKRowling for ''Film/FantasticBeastsAndWhereToFindThem'', there were at least two Scourers (rogue mercenary wizards) amongst the judges that instigated the Salem trials to settle their personal feuds. This led to several witches being killed alongside innocent [[{{Muggles}} No-Majs]] that were caught up in the hysteria.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 7,8 (click to see context) from:
Use of this trope can be... ''messy''. If handled in a way that casts the witches as sinister and implies they were in Salem from the time of its foundation, it could imply that one of the most infamous events of mass persecution in the US didn't fail because it was looking for a target that wasn't there, but because it wasn't looking ''[[ProperlyParanoid hard enough]]''.
to:
Use of this trope can be... ''messy''. If handled in a way that casts the witches as sinister [[BadPowersBadPeople as]] [[AlwaysChaoticEvil sinister]] and implies they were in Salem from the time of its foundation, it could imply that one of the most infamous events of mass persecution in the US didn't fail because it was looking for a target that wasn't there, but because it wasn't looking ''[[ProperlyParanoid hard enough]]''.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
Use of this trope can be... ''messy''. If handled in a way that casts the witches as sinister and implies they were in Salem from the time of its foundation, it could imply that one of the most infamous events of mass persecution in the US didn't fail because it was looking for a target that wasn't there, but because it wasn't looking ''[[ProperlyParanoid hard enough]]''.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 27 (click to see context) from:
* ''ComicBook/ShadeTheChangingMan'' "History Lesson": When Shade, Lenny and Kathy go [[TimeTravel back to the witch trials]], they end up taking ComicBook/JohnConstantine along with them.
to:
* ''ComicBook/ShadeTheChangingMan'' "History Lesson": When Shade, Lenny and Kathy go [[TimeTravel back to the witch trials]], they end up taking ComicBook/JohnConstantine along with them. The three land in trouble, of course, both because of Shade's powers and local prejudice against Lenny's Jewishness.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 19 (click to see context) from:
** A strange storyarc in ''[[TeamUpSeries Marvel Team-Up]]'' involved Comicbook/SpiderMan, the Comicbook/ScarletWitch, Comicbook/TheVision, [[ChromeDomePSI Moondragon]], and Comicbook/DoctorDoom time-traveling to Salem to fight a warlock who was involved in the Salem Witch Trials. Unfortunately, the heroes defeated the Warlock but could not stop innocent people from being hanged.
to:
** A strange storyarc in ''[[TeamUpSeries Marvel Team-Up]]'' involved Comicbook/SpiderMan, the Comicbook/ScarletWitch, Comicbook/TheVision, [[ChromeDomePSI Moondragon]], and Comicbook/DoctorDoom Doctor Doom time-traveling to Salem to fight a warlock who was involved in the Salem Witch Trials. Unfortunately, the heroes defeated the Warlock but could not stop innocent people from being hanged.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 92 (click to see context) from:
to:
* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'', taking place in and around UsefulNotes/{{Boston}} and eastern Massachusetts, has Salem as a location on the map, and the local witch trial museum is the subject of [[NightmareFuel one of the scariest sidequests in the game]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
unfortunate implications need citations
Changed line(s) 3,4 (click to see context) from:
However, one way or another, Salem has become associated with witchcraft. These days, it means the city enjoys a renaissance amongst the [[UsefulNotes/NeoPaganism neo-pagan]] community, who have set up shop there en masse. But in popular culture, it means that there are actual magic users, for good will or ill, who have been in Salem for quite a time, perhaps even dating back to the time of the Witch Trials. Use of this trope can be... [[UnfortunateImplications messy]]. If handled in a way that casts the witches as sinister and implies they were in Salem from the time of its foundation, it could imply that one of the most infamous events of mass persecution in the US didn't fail because it was looking for a target that wasn't there, but because it wasn't looking ''hard enough''.
to:
However, one way or another, Salem has become associated with witchcraft. These days, it means the city enjoys a renaissance amongst the [[UsefulNotes/NeoPaganism neo-pagan]] community, who have set up shop there en masse. But in popular culture, it means that there are actual magic users, for good will or ill, who have been in Salem for quite a time, perhaps even dating back to the time of the Witch Trials. Use of this trope can be... [[UnfortunateImplications messy]]. If handled in a way that casts the witches as sinister and implies they were in Salem from the time of its foundation, it could imply that one of the most infamous events of mass persecution in the US didn't fail because it was looking for a target that wasn't there, but because it wasn't looking ''hard enough''.
Trials.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 31 (click to see context) from:
* ''World's Finest'' #186 & #187 featured a two-part story in which Superman and Batman travel back in time to colonial New England (about a century after the Salem witch trials, but who's counting?) where they rescue a young woman falsely accused of witchcraft and then Batman is similarly accused and nearly burned at the stake.
to:
* ''World's Finest'' #186 & #187 featured a two-part story in which Superman and Batman travel back in time to colonial New England (about a century after the Salem witch trials, but who's counting?) where they rescue a young woman falsely accused of witchcraft and then Batman is similarly accused (by Superman, who is revealed to be possessed by a demon and uses his powers to make the townsfolk believe that Batman is a warlock) and nearly burned at the stake.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 55 (click to see context) from:
* ''Series/{{Bewitched}}'' had a series of episodes entitled "The Salem Saga" that not only launched Salem's Witchcraft-as-Tourism industry, but a statue of Samantha graces one of the main squares in the city.
to:
* ''Series/{{Bewitched}}'' had a series of episodes entitled "The Salem Saga" that not only launched Salem's Witchcraft-as-Tourism industry, but a statue of Samantha graces one of the main squares in the city.city and the [[http://www.hawthornehotel.com/ Hawthorne Hotel]] displays a page from the teleplay in the lobby.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* In ''Series/TheAddamsFamily'' episode "Halloween—Addams Style", Wednesday is crushed to hear from a neighbor that witches aren't real. So the family holds a seance in an effort to summon the spirit of Aunt Singe, an ancestor and a real witch who was burned at Salem.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 27 (click to see context) from:
* ''ComicBook/ShadeTheChangingMan'' "History Lesson": When Shade, Lenny and Kathy go [[TimeTravel back to the witch trials]], they end up taking JohnConstantine along with them.
to:
* ''ComicBook/ShadeTheChangingMan'' "History Lesson": When Shade, Lenny and Kathy go [[TimeTravel back to the witch trials]], they end up taking JohnConstantine ComicBook/JohnConstantine along with them.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 7 (click to see context) from:
Some overlap with LovecraftCountry may occur; in fact, Lovecraft himself set some stories in Salem and in [[NoCommunitiesWereHarmed Arkham]], a fictional town that's suspiciously like it.
to:
Some overlap with LovecraftCountry may occur; in fact, Lovecraft himself set some stories in Salem and in [[NoCommunitiesWereHarmed Arkham]], a fictional town that's suspiciously like it. RoswellThatEndsWell is very similar, only with {{alien|Tropes}}s instead of witches.
Changed line(s) 90 (click to see context) from:
to:
* This shows up in a ''{{racing game}}'', of all places. ''VideoGame/TheCrew'' features Salem, Massachusetts as one of the many small American towns you can visit (taking place in a WideOpenSandbox rendition of the entire United States), and appropriately, the place is [[HalloweenTown all decked out for a Halloween celebration]], with jack o'lanterns and other decorations lining the streets.
Changed line(s) 98 (click to see context) from:
to:
* The town of Blithe Hollow, Massachusetts in ''WesternAnimation/ParaNorman'' is an expy of Salem, one that has cashed in on its blood-soaked history by becoming a tourist trap. The plot revolves around the former townsfolk who led the witch hunt coming back as zombies [[spoiler:thanks to Agatha, the girl they condemned as a witch, cursing them in retaliation]].
** Danvers would still gain some spooky history to undeniably call its own, though. Namely, it's the site of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danvers_State_Hospital Danvers State Hospital]], a mental hospital that was designed to ''not'' be a BedlamHouse but, due to lack of funding and overcrowding, degenerated into one anyway. It's said to have been the birthplace of the {{lobotomy}}, as well as the inspiration for Creator/HPLovecraft's Arkham Sanatorium (which in turn inspired Arkham Asylum from the ComicBook/{{Batman}} comics), and it has a very storied reputation for being haunted (the film ''Film/{{Session 9}}'' was set there). Incidentally, it was built on the hill where John Hathorne, the judge of the Salem witch trials, had once lived. The place was progressively shut down between 1969 and 1992; what's left has since been renovated into an apartment complex.
Changed line(s) 103 (click to see context) from:
----
to:
----
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 16 (click to see context) from:
* The titular town of the ''[[http://www.comicvine.com/coffin-hill/4050-68149/ Coffin Hill]]'' series published by Creator/VertigoComics was settled by Emma Coffin, a witch who had fled the Salem Trials leaving nineteen innocents to die in her stead.
to:
* The titular town of the ''[[http://www.comicvine.com/coffin-hill/4050-68149/ Coffin Hill]]'' ''ComicBook/CoffinHill'' series published by Creator/VertigoComics was settled by Emma Coffin, a witch who had fled the Salem Trials leaving nineteen innocents to die in her stead.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 35 (click to see context) from:
* ''Bell, Book and Candle'' has Kim Novak as a Salem witch who has survived into the 1950s and uses her magic to romance Creator/JimmyStewart.
to:
* ''Bell, Book and Candle'' ''Film/BellBookAndCandle'' has Kim Novak as a Salem witch who has survived into the 1950s and uses her magic to romance Creator/JimmyStewart.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* ''Series/SleepyHollow'': In the "[[Recap/SleepyHollowS2E15Spellcaster Spellcaster]]" episode, Katrina reveals that she is descended from a coven of witches that lived in Salem. The trials were started by a warlock who led the coven after he lied about killing one of witches in self-defense when he really murdered her by accident while professing his love for her.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 88 (click to see context) from:
to:
* Although the trials in ''VideoGame/TownOfSalem'' largely exist to uncover and lynch members of the non-magical mafia, some setups may also include Witches that can control other players at night.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 55 (click to see context) from:
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': According to Giles, the Salem Trials was caused by the malign influence of the MonsterOfTheWeek from the "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E11Gingerbread Gingerbread]]" episode and it threatens to do the same thing to [[CityOfAdventure Sunny]][[TownWithADarkSecret dale]].
to:
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
** According to Giles, the Salem Trials was caused by the malign influence of the MonsterOfTheWeek from the "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E11Gingerbread Gingerbread]]" episode and it threatens to do the same thing to [[CityOfAdventure Sunny]][[TownWithADarkSecretdale]].dale]].
** Anya, who was [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld actually there]], makes the usual point that anyone with real magic powers could easily escape.
-->"So really it was only bad for the falsely accused, and, well, they never have a good time."
** According to Giles, the Salem Trials was caused by the malign influence of the MonsterOfTheWeek from the "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E11Gingerbread Gingerbread]]" episode and it threatens to do the same thing to [[CityOfAdventure Sunny]][[TownWithADarkSecret
** Anya, who was [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld actually there]], makes the usual point that anyone with real magic powers could easily escape.
-->"So really it was only bad for the falsely accused, and, well, they never have a good time."
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* When she was alive, [[OurGhostsAreDifferent Bathsheba]] from ''Film/TheConjuring'' was a satanic witch descended from [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Eastey Mary Eastey]], one of the women hanged at the trials.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
Some overlap with LovecraftCountry may occur; in fact, Lovecraft himself set some stories in Salem and in [[NoCommunitiesWereHarmed Arkham]], a fictional town that's suspiciously like it.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 42 (click to see context) from:
* The main character of ''Literature/ADiscoveryOfWitches'' is Diana, the last witch in a long line of Bishop witches who can trace their history back to the first woman executed in Salem.
to:
* The main character of ''Literature/ADiscoveryOfWitches'' is Diana, the last witch in a long line of Bishop witches who can trace their history back to the first woman executed in Salem. Her father, Stephen Proctor's ancestor John was also executed in Salem. Diana's aunt Emily Mather is a descendant of Cotton Mather, who played an influential role in the trials.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 42 (click to see context) from:
* The main character of ''Literature/ADiscoveryOfWitches'' is Diana, the last witch in a long line of Butler witches who can trace their history back to the first woman executed in Salem.
to:
* The main character of ''Literature/ADiscoveryOfWitches'' is Diana, the last witch in a long line of Butler Bishop witches who can trace their history back to the first woman executed in Salem.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 29 (click to see context) from:
to:
* ''World's Finest'' #186 & #187 featured a two-part story in which Superman and Batman travel back in time to colonial New England (about a century after the Salem witch trials, but who's counting?) where they rescue a young woman falsely accused of witchcraft and then Batman is similarly accused and nearly burned at the stake.
* ComicBook/GrantMorrisonsBatman run, which made a thing out of homaging and reconstructing wacky Silver Age concepts, did a more serious version of "time-displaced Batman + witch hunters in colonial New England" in the second issue of ''The Return of Bruce Wayne''.
* ComicBook/GrantMorrisonsBatman run, which made a thing out of homaging and reconstructing wacky Silver Age concepts, did a more serious version of "time-displaced Batman + witch hunters in colonial New England" in the second issue of ''The Return of Bruce Wayne''.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
So what is Salem, Massachusetts famous for? Witches. Well, more accurately, it's famous for the Witch ''Trials'', a period when bizarre behavior amongst the children led to a massive uptick in hysteria, which led to everyone accusing their neighbors of being witches, which led to a number of hangings. It's often held up as one of the greatest examples of mass hysteria and moral panics in American history, and the search for a reasonable explanation behind it has pointed to everything from an outbreak of ergotism to "People just be crazy, y'all."
However, one way or another, Salem has become associated with witchcraft. These days, it means the city enjoys a renaissance amongst the [[UsefulNotes/NeoPaganism neo-pagan]] community, who have set up shop there en masse. But in popular culture, it means that there are actual magic users, for good will or ill, who have been in Salem for quite a time, perhaps even dating back to the time of the Witch Trials. Use of this trope can be... [[UnfortunateImplications messy]]. If handled in a way that casts the witches as sinister and implies they were in Salem from the time of its foundation, it could imply that one of the most infamous events of mass persecution in the US didn't fail because it was looking for a target that wasn't there, but because it wasn't looking ''hard enough''.
If the author [[CriticalResearchFailure does not do any research]] about the trials, the people that were tried as witches will be shown as being [[BurnTheWitch burnt at the stake]][[note]] those convicted were hanged while [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giles_Corey Giles Corey]] was crushed to death because he refused to plead to the charges[[/note]] or only women will be depicted as the victims of the WitchHunt[[note]] more of the victims were women but several men were also arrested and/or killed[[/note]].
----
!!Examples:
[[AC:AnimeAndManga]]
* ''Anime/WitchHunterRobin'' In episode 12, "Precious Illusions", Robin meets a witch called Methuselah who is [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld over 400 years old]] and survived the Salem Witch Trials. The witch tells Robin of the various {{Witch Hunt}}s over the centuries and talks about the motives behind them.
[[AC:ComicBooks]]
* In ''ComicBook/{{BPRD}} Dark Waters'', three women were drowned in a lake by the intolerant priest in the Salem knock-off of Shiloh, Massachusetts. Centuries later, a similarly fundamentalist preacher goes running around causing trouble, and ends up dragged into the lake by their ghosts after their bodies are given a proper burial.
* The titular town of the ''[[http://www.comicvine.com/coffin-hill/4050-68149/ Coffin Hill]]'' series published by Creator/VertigoComics was settled by Emma Coffin, a witch who had fled the Salem Trials leaving nineteen innocents to die in her stead.
* Salem is home to the [[MageTower Tower of Fate]], sanctum of ''ComicBook/DoctorFate'', one of the most powerful magic users in DC canon.
* Creator/MarvelComics examples:
** A strange storyarc in ''[[TeamUpSeries Marvel Team-Up]]'' involved Comicbook/SpiderMan, the Comicbook/ScarletWitch, Comicbook/TheVision, [[ChromeDomePSI Moondragon]], and Comicbook/DoctorDoom time-traveling to Salem to fight a warlock who was involved in the Salem Witch Trials. Unfortunately, the heroes defeated the Warlock but could not stop innocent people from being hanged.
** The HiddenElfVillage of New Salem is inhabited by descendants of witches who fled Salem when the WitchHunt started there. The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem%27s_Seven protectors]] of the village are known as the [[TheNotableNumeral Salem Seven]]. The leader of New Salem, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agatha_Harkness Agatha Harkness]] has also worked as governess to [[Comicbook/FantasticFour Franklin Richards]] and magical tutor to Comicbook/ScarletWitch. She is several centuries old and may be one of the original witches from the Witch Trials.
** The miniseries ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spellbinders Spellbinders]]'' is set around a fictional Salem high school called John Hawthorne High School where magic is accepted as a fact. A large part of the plot revolves around the rivalries between magical students (wicks) and non-magical students (blanks), and between the various covens.
** ''Comicbook/TheTombOfDracula'' depicted the events in Salem as the result of the [[VampireMonarch Lord of the Vampires]] manipulating the villagers into killing one another in order to avenge {{Drac|ula}}'s mistreated former love interest.
** In the first issue of the ''Comicbook/XMen: Hellfire Club'' miniseries, Hiram Shaw (ancestor of Sebastian) is a minister in Salem who is hunting witches but is also a magic-user himself (and at one point claims to be the [[TheArchmage Sorcerer Supreme]]). It turns out [[HumanoidAbomination Dorm]][[DimensionLord ammu]] is behind the events, and Hiram is trying to stop it. Oh, and Hiram's son ends up running away with Abigail Harkness, from the same family as Agatha, and who is - of course - really a witch and burns the town down.
* Violet from the "Bride and Groom" arc of the ''Comicbook/{{Nightwing}}'' series is the daughter of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tituba Tituba]], the slave girl accused of teaching witchcraft in Salem. Violet has several powers including the ability to [[LifeDrinker drain the life forces]] of people to maintain her {{immortality}}.
* ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_{comics) Salem: Queen of Thorns]]'' from Creator/BoomStudios follows Elias Hooke, a former inquisitor for the Puritan Church who discovers that only innocent people were killed at the trials and the true supernatural evil in Salem was a manifestation of nature, the Queen of Thorns.
* The ''Salem's Daughter'' series published by Zenescope Entertainment is a [[WeirdWest supernatural western]] that features [[http://www.comicvine.com/anna-williams/4005-78765/issues-cover/ Anna Williams]], a witch living in Salem who hides her inherited powers in the fear of sparking another WitchHunt two hundred years after the original trials.
* ''ComicBook/ShadeTheChangingMan'' "History Lesson": When Shade, Lenny and Kathy go [[TimeTravel back to the witch trials]], they end up taking JohnConstantine along with them.
* Aramis Merrow from the ''Comicbook/SouthernKnights'' is a teenage sorcerer from the days of the Salem Witch Trials. His parents put him into a [[RipVanWinkle magical sleep]] when their coven was attacked and he was accidentally revived by the Knights when they moved into his old house.
* ''Comicbook/TarotWitchOfTheBlackRose'': The Black Rose Coven is based in Salem and several of its members were [[BurnTheWitch burnt at the stake]] during the trials.
* In the ''ComicBook/{{Zatanna}}'' comic, "Witch Hunt" [[MagiciansAreWizards Zatanna]] sends some [[TheWitchhunter witch hunters]] that attacked her back to the Salem trials where they are ironically mistaken for witches by the Salemites who prepare to burn them at the stake. As Zatanna watches them from afar, her narration reveals she’ll save them before they actually die.
[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* ''Bell, Book and Candle'' has Kim Novak as a Salem witch who has survived into the 1950s and uses her magic to romance Creator/JimmyStewart.
* The main characters of ''Film/TheCovenant'' are the descendants of five witch-families that fled from the Salem Witch Trials to the nearby Ipswich. To protect themselves, the families formed a covenant of silence to hide their powers. One family lusted for more power and was banished, their bloodline disappearing without a trace.
* ''Film/HocusPocus'' is about three witches hanged in Salem who are resurrected in TheNineties.
* ''Film/IMarriedAWitch'' starts off in the aftermath of father-and-daughter witches being executed in Salem. 250 years later, the spirit of the sexy daughter witch, having taken form as Veronica Lake, starts screwing with the descendant of the man that burned her.
* ''Film/TheLordsOfSalem'', where the titular Lords are a coven of infernal witches who date back to the Witch Trials and have been longing to get their revenge on Salem.
* The evil SplitPersonality that infects a past patient heard in recorded interviews and at least one of the cleanup crew in ''Film/{{Session 9}}'' {{may|be magic maybe mundane}} be of infernal origin. The {{abandoned| hospital}} mental hospital is located in Danvers, Mass, the former location of Salem Village.
* In ''Film/TheSorcerersApprentice'', one of Morgana's followers is Abigail Williams, one of the original accusers at the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abigail_Williams witch trials]] and herself a sorcerer.
[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* The main character of ''Literature/ADiscoveryOfWitches'' is Diana, the last witch in a long line of Butler witches who can trace their history back to the first woman executed in Salem.
* ''Literature/FearStreet'': The origin of the Fear Family {{curse}} started in Wickham Village during the Salem Witch Trials, when Benjamin and Matthew Fier had Susannah Goode and her mother burned at the stake. This was really an attempt to keep Susannah away from Benjamin's son, Edward. As it turned out, Susannah's father was the actual witch, and placed the curse on the Fiers for destroying his family.
* ''Franchise/HarryPotter'':
** It is probably not a coincidence that the [[TheMasquerade International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy]] was established officially in 1692, the same year that the Salem Trials started.
** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' has a throwaway mention of a group of American witches attending the Quidditch World Cup. Their campsite has a sign reading "Salem Witches' Institute".
* Creator/HPLovecraft was fond of dropping references to the Salem Witch Trials into his works, implying that characters such as Richard Upton Pickman had familial connections to genuine Salem witches.
[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* The witches in ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryCoven'' are all descended from witches who fled Salem to escape the witch trials.
* ''Series/{{Bewitched}}'' had a series of episodes entitled "The Salem Saga" that not only launched Salem's Witchcraft-as-Tourism industry, but a statue of Samantha graces one of the main squares in the city.
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': According to Giles, the Salem Trials was caused by the malign influence of the MonsterOfTheWeek from the "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E11Gingerbread Gingerbread]]" episode and it threatens to do the same thing to [[CityOfAdventure Sunny]][[TownWithADarkSecret dale]].
* The "The Witch is Back" episode of ''Series/{{Charmed}}'' shows that one of the Halliwell ancestors was [[CriticalResearchFailure lined up to be burned at the stake in Salem]].
* Mentioned in various {{Noodle Incident}}s on ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'' including the name of the [witch which is being punished by having [[BalefulPolymorph been transformed into]] a] cat, Salem. Although ironically enough when Sabrina's high school has a FieldTrip to the actual Salem in "The Crucible" episode, the fact that there were no witches in Salem is hammered home.
-->'''Sabrina''': I’ve been thinking about it and Salem sounds like a dangerous place for a witch.\\
'''Zelda''': The Salem witch trials had nothing to do with real witches.\\
'''Hilda''': Besides, that was three hundred years ago. There’s nothing to worry about now except for over priced souvenirs.
* ''Series/{{Salem}}'' is [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory very loose dramatisation]] of the witch trials, with a major change: witches are real, and they're pulling the strings behind the scenes to get the Puritans to kill innocent people.
* This [[http://youtu.be/Uj0VtiGp4Hw sketch]] from ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' plays the [[KangarooCourt unfairness of the trials]] for laughs. [[spoiler: Then at the end, the hand of the accused starts [[HolyBurnsEvil burning at the touch of a bible]] and he starts [[ShockAndAwe throwing lightning bolts]]. He is quickly found not guilty as the court runs away in fear.]]
* ''Series/TheSecretCircle'' takes place in New Salem, a town founded on little island in the Boston Harbor by six witch families who were fleeing the witch trials. The main characters are descendants of the families and inherited magic powers from their forebears.
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''
** In the Season 3 episode, "[[Recap/SupernaturalS03E09MalleusMaleficarum Malleus Maleficarum]]", the Winchesters visit a town in Massachusetts that is near Salem as they investigate cases of murder committed via witchcraft.
** In the TieInNovel, ''One Year Gone'', Dean discovers a [[{{Diary}} journal]] by one of his ancestors from the time of the Witch Trials that reveals all the people hanged were innocent and that real witches instigated the trials as a cover for their evil activities. At the end of the book, while fighting the witches, Dean summons the ghosts of all those killed in the Trials and they kill the two evil witches responsible for their deaths.
* ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'': The Bennet family of witches originally lived in Salem but relocated to Mystic Falls after the trials started.
-->'''Bonnie''': Was our family burned in the witch trials?\\
'''Sheila''': No, the girls that were persecuted in Salem were entirely innocent. You have to have more than ignorance to trap a real witch.\\
'''Bonnie''': How did we end up in Mystic Falls?\\
'''Sheila''': Our family fled Salem in 1692 and relocated here. Our ancestors lived in secrecy for over a hundred years. It's important that we still do.
* ''Series/WitchesOfEastEnd'': One of the many times that Freya and Ingrid were killed for using magic was at the Salem trials as shown in the "A Few Good Talisman" episode and the book it is based on. Also in the third book, ''Winds of Salem'', Freya is sent [[TimeTravel back in time]] to 1962 and has to avoid getting killed at the trials for a second time.
* The episode "[[Recap/TheXFilesS05E10Chinga Chinga]]" of ''Series/TheXFiles'' takes place in Maine, New England. Jane Froelich thinks that Melissa Turner is a witch, descended from a cursed lineage of Hawthornes in Salem. She also thinks Melissa's autistic daughter Polly is cursed, too.
[[AC:TabletopGames]]
* ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'' uses Boston as its central city, and as such, the mages of the area are tied to Salem. While they stayed under the radar of the Trials, one of the leading cabals of the area saw it as a warning of what might happen in the mages stayed separate, and used it as a reason for the area's Awakened to organize into a unified body.
* The jury is still out on if there was any magic users at the trials in the ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' setting but in the Sixth World, Salem has become a major centre for witches. This is mainly due to the number of followers of UsefulNotes/{{Wicca}} and other {{UsefulNotes/Neo Pagan|ism}} religions that were living in Salem before [[MayanDoomsday the Awa]][[TheDragonsComeBack kening]] who [[ReligionIsMagic gained powers]] when [[TheMagicComesBack magic returned]]. The percentage of magic users in Salem is estimated to be about six times the national average.
* ''TabletopGame/UnknownArmies'': A cabal called the New Salem Coven is mentioned as being unexpectedly wiped out by The Freebusters.
[[AC:{{Theatre}}]]
* ''Theatre/WitchesTheMusical'': [[spoiler: At the very end, it is shown that without a doubt, Abigail really is a witch. She really did gain power from [[DealWithTheDevil signing Satan's book]], and she uses it to kill [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Warren Mary Warren]].]]
[[AC:VideoGames]]
* In the BackStory of ''VideoGame/MurderedSoulSuspect'', the trials executed several [[ISeeDeadPeople mediums]], falsely accused of gaining their powers from a DealWithTheDevil. [[spoiler: The BigBad is the ghost of Abigail Williams, the girl who condemned several women to their death with her accusations during the trials, who is possessing people to kill mediums as the [[SerialKiller Bell Killer]].]]
[[AC:WebComics]]
* Averted in ''Webcomic/SomethingPositive'': a girl from a UsefulNotes/{{Wicca}}n coven [[http://somethingpositive.net/sp04242002.shtml claims to remember]] her [[{{Reincarnation}} past life]] of being burned at the stake at Salem. Davan calls her out on it.
* ''Webcomic/TimesLikeThis'': Cassie's reaction to a song - mentioning that she escaped being burned alive due to witchcraft accusations - was "it was a trip to Salem gone horribly wrong".
[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* In the ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDoo'' episode, "To Switch A Witch" there is a ([[ScoobyDooHoax fake]]) witch running around Salem. Not only do the townspeople instantly form a TorchesAndPitchforks mob, they also use the witchcraft museum exhibits like the dunking stool on the captured witch (Scooby-Doo in a dress).
* ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "The Magicks of Megas-Tu". A group of aliens with magical powers comes to Earth and is persecuted by human beings. They take refuge in Salem but are found out and harassed even there. Their situation was the basis of the Salem witch trials.
[[AC:RealLife]]
* Ironically subverted by the RealLife Salem, Massachusetts, in that the historical Salem Witch Trials did ''not'' take place there. They happened in Salem ''Village'', now called Danvers, which is about 14 miles from the city of Salem. (Hasn't stopped Salem from cashing in on its "witchy" reputation's tourist value, though.)
* In May 1878, a [[UsefulNotes/AmericanCourts civil case]] was held in Salem that is sometimes called the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_witchcraft_trial_(1878) second Salem witch trial]]. The plaintiff was Lucretia L. S. Brown, an adherent of the Christian Science religion, who accused fellow Christian Scientist Daniel H. Spofford of attempting to harm her through his "mesmeric" mental powers.
----
However, one way or another, Salem has become associated with witchcraft. These days, it means the city enjoys a renaissance amongst the [[UsefulNotes/NeoPaganism neo-pagan]] community, who have set up shop there en masse. But in popular culture, it means that there are actual magic users, for good will or ill, who have been in Salem for quite a time, perhaps even dating back to the time of the Witch Trials. Use of this trope can be... [[UnfortunateImplications messy]]. If handled in a way that casts the witches as sinister and implies they were in Salem from the time of its foundation, it could imply that one of the most infamous events of mass persecution in the US didn't fail because it was looking for a target that wasn't there, but because it wasn't looking ''hard enough''.
If the author [[CriticalResearchFailure does not do any research]] about the trials, the people that were tried as witches will be shown as being [[BurnTheWitch burnt at the stake]][[note]] those convicted were hanged while [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giles_Corey Giles Corey]] was crushed to death because he refused to plead to the charges[[/note]] or only women will be depicted as the victims of the WitchHunt[[note]] more of the victims were women but several men were also arrested and/or killed[[/note]].
----
!!Examples:
[[AC:AnimeAndManga]]
* ''Anime/WitchHunterRobin'' In episode 12, "Precious Illusions", Robin meets a witch called Methuselah who is [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld over 400 years old]] and survived the Salem Witch Trials. The witch tells Robin of the various {{Witch Hunt}}s over the centuries and talks about the motives behind them.
[[AC:ComicBooks]]
* In ''ComicBook/{{BPRD}} Dark Waters'', three women were drowned in a lake by the intolerant priest in the Salem knock-off of Shiloh, Massachusetts. Centuries later, a similarly fundamentalist preacher goes running around causing trouble, and ends up dragged into the lake by their ghosts after their bodies are given a proper burial.
* The titular town of the ''[[http://www.comicvine.com/coffin-hill/4050-68149/ Coffin Hill]]'' series published by Creator/VertigoComics was settled by Emma Coffin, a witch who had fled the Salem Trials leaving nineteen innocents to die in her stead.
* Salem is home to the [[MageTower Tower of Fate]], sanctum of ''ComicBook/DoctorFate'', one of the most powerful magic users in DC canon.
* Creator/MarvelComics examples:
** A strange storyarc in ''[[TeamUpSeries Marvel Team-Up]]'' involved Comicbook/SpiderMan, the Comicbook/ScarletWitch, Comicbook/TheVision, [[ChromeDomePSI Moondragon]], and Comicbook/DoctorDoom time-traveling to Salem to fight a warlock who was involved in the Salem Witch Trials. Unfortunately, the heroes defeated the Warlock but could not stop innocent people from being hanged.
** The HiddenElfVillage of New Salem is inhabited by descendants of witches who fled Salem when the WitchHunt started there. The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem%27s_Seven protectors]] of the village are known as the [[TheNotableNumeral Salem Seven]]. The leader of New Salem, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agatha_Harkness Agatha Harkness]] has also worked as governess to [[Comicbook/FantasticFour Franklin Richards]] and magical tutor to Comicbook/ScarletWitch. She is several centuries old and may be one of the original witches from the Witch Trials.
** The miniseries ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spellbinders Spellbinders]]'' is set around a fictional Salem high school called John Hawthorne High School where magic is accepted as a fact. A large part of the plot revolves around the rivalries between magical students (wicks) and non-magical students (blanks), and between the various covens.
** ''Comicbook/TheTombOfDracula'' depicted the events in Salem as the result of the [[VampireMonarch Lord of the Vampires]] manipulating the villagers into killing one another in order to avenge {{Drac|ula}}'s mistreated former love interest.
** In the first issue of the ''Comicbook/XMen: Hellfire Club'' miniseries, Hiram Shaw (ancestor of Sebastian) is a minister in Salem who is hunting witches but is also a magic-user himself (and at one point claims to be the [[TheArchmage Sorcerer Supreme]]). It turns out [[HumanoidAbomination Dorm]][[DimensionLord ammu]] is behind the events, and Hiram is trying to stop it. Oh, and Hiram's son ends up running away with Abigail Harkness, from the same family as Agatha, and who is - of course - really a witch and burns the town down.
* Violet from the "Bride and Groom" arc of the ''Comicbook/{{Nightwing}}'' series is the daughter of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tituba Tituba]], the slave girl accused of teaching witchcraft in Salem. Violet has several powers including the ability to [[LifeDrinker drain the life forces]] of people to maintain her {{immortality}}.
* ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_{comics) Salem: Queen of Thorns]]'' from Creator/BoomStudios follows Elias Hooke, a former inquisitor for the Puritan Church who discovers that only innocent people were killed at the trials and the true supernatural evil in Salem was a manifestation of nature, the Queen of Thorns.
* The ''Salem's Daughter'' series published by Zenescope Entertainment is a [[WeirdWest supernatural western]] that features [[http://www.comicvine.com/anna-williams/4005-78765/issues-cover/ Anna Williams]], a witch living in Salem who hides her inherited powers in the fear of sparking another WitchHunt two hundred years after the original trials.
* ''ComicBook/ShadeTheChangingMan'' "History Lesson": When Shade, Lenny and Kathy go [[TimeTravel back to the witch trials]], they end up taking JohnConstantine along with them.
* Aramis Merrow from the ''Comicbook/SouthernKnights'' is a teenage sorcerer from the days of the Salem Witch Trials. His parents put him into a [[RipVanWinkle magical sleep]] when their coven was attacked and he was accidentally revived by the Knights when they moved into his old house.
* ''Comicbook/TarotWitchOfTheBlackRose'': The Black Rose Coven is based in Salem and several of its members were [[BurnTheWitch burnt at the stake]] during the trials.
* In the ''ComicBook/{{Zatanna}}'' comic, "Witch Hunt" [[MagiciansAreWizards Zatanna]] sends some [[TheWitchhunter witch hunters]] that attacked her back to the Salem trials where they are ironically mistaken for witches by the Salemites who prepare to burn them at the stake. As Zatanna watches them from afar, her narration reveals she’ll save them before they actually die.
[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* ''Bell, Book and Candle'' has Kim Novak as a Salem witch who has survived into the 1950s and uses her magic to romance Creator/JimmyStewart.
* The main characters of ''Film/TheCovenant'' are the descendants of five witch-families that fled from the Salem Witch Trials to the nearby Ipswich. To protect themselves, the families formed a covenant of silence to hide their powers. One family lusted for more power and was banished, their bloodline disappearing without a trace.
* ''Film/HocusPocus'' is about three witches hanged in Salem who are resurrected in TheNineties.
* ''Film/IMarriedAWitch'' starts off in the aftermath of father-and-daughter witches being executed in Salem. 250 years later, the spirit of the sexy daughter witch, having taken form as Veronica Lake, starts screwing with the descendant of the man that burned her.
* ''Film/TheLordsOfSalem'', where the titular Lords are a coven of infernal witches who date back to the Witch Trials and have been longing to get their revenge on Salem.
* The evil SplitPersonality that infects a past patient heard in recorded interviews and at least one of the cleanup crew in ''Film/{{Session 9}}'' {{may|be magic maybe mundane}} be of infernal origin. The {{abandoned| hospital}} mental hospital is located in Danvers, Mass, the former location of Salem Village.
* In ''Film/TheSorcerersApprentice'', one of Morgana's followers is Abigail Williams, one of the original accusers at the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abigail_Williams witch trials]] and herself a sorcerer.
[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* The main character of ''Literature/ADiscoveryOfWitches'' is Diana, the last witch in a long line of Butler witches who can trace their history back to the first woman executed in Salem.
* ''Literature/FearStreet'': The origin of the Fear Family {{curse}} started in Wickham Village during the Salem Witch Trials, when Benjamin and Matthew Fier had Susannah Goode and her mother burned at the stake. This was really an attempt to keep Susannah away from Benjamin's son, Edward. As it turned out, Susannah's father was the actual witch, and placed the curse on the Fiers for destroying his family.
* ''Franchise/HarryPotter'':
** It is probably not a coincidence that the [[TheMasquerade International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy]] was established officially in 1692, the same year that the Salem Trials started.
** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' has a throwaway mention of a group of American witches attending the Quidditch World Cup. Their campsite has a sign reading "Salem Witches' Institute".
* Creator/HPLovecraft was fond of dropping references to the Salem Witch Trials into his works, implying that characters such as Richard Upton Pickman had familial connections to genuine Salem witches.
[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* The witches in ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryCoven'' are all descended from witches who fled Salem to escape the witch trials.
* ''Series/{{Bewitched}}'' had a series of episodes entitled "The Salem Saga" that not only launched Salem's Witchcraft-as-Tourism industry, but a statue of Samantha graces one of the main squares in the city.
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': According to Giles, the Salem Trials was caused by the malign influence of the MonsterOfTheWeek from the "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E11Gingerbread Gingerbread]]" episode and it threatens to do the same thing to [[CityOfAdventure Sunny]][[TownWithADarkSecret dale]].
* The "The Witch is Back" episode of ''Series/{{Charmed}}'' shows that one of the Halliwell ancestors was [[CriticalResearchFailure lined up to be burned at the stake in Salem]].
* Mentioned in various {{Noodle Incident}}s on ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'' including the name of the [witch which is being punished by having [[BalefulPolymorph been transformed into]] a] cat, Salem. Although ironically enough when Sabrina's high school has a FieldTrip to the actual Salem in "The Crucible" episode, the fact that there were no witches in Salem is hammered home.
-->'''Sabrina''': I’ve been thinking about it and Salem sounds like a dangerous place for a witch.\\
'''Zelda''': The Salem witch trials had nothing to do with real witches.\\
'''Hilda''': Besides, that was three hundred years ago. There’s nothing to worry about now except for over priced souvenirs.
* ''Series/{{Salem}}'' is [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory very loose dramatisation]] of the witch trials, with a major change: witches are real, and they're pulling the strings behind the scenes to get the Puritans to kill innocent people.
* This [[http://youtu.be/Uj0VtiGp4Hw sketch]] from ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' plays the [[KangarooCourt unfairness of the trials]] for laughs. [[spoiler: Then at the end, the hand of the accused starts [[HolyBurnsEvil burning at the touch of a bible]] and he starts [[ShockAndAwe throwing lightning bolts]]. He is quickly found not guilty as the court runs away in fear.]]
* ''Series/TheSecretCircle'' takes place in New Salem, a town founded on little island in the Boston Harbor by six witch families who were fleeing the witch trials. The main characters are descendants of the families and inherited magic powers from their forebears.
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''
** In the Season 3 episode, "[[Recap/SupernaturalS03E09MalleusMaleficarum Malleus Maleficarum]]", the Winchesters visit a town in Massachusetts that is near Salem as they investigate cases of murder committed via witchcraft.
** In the TieInNovel, ''One Year Gone'', Dean discovers a [[{{Diary}} journal]] by one of his ancestors from the time of the Witch Trials that reveals all the people hanged were innocent and that real witches instigated the trials as a cover for their evil activities. At the end of the book, while fighting the witches, Dean summons the ghosts of all those killed in the Trials and they kill the two evil witches responsible for their deaths.
* ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'': The Bennet family of witches originally lived in Salem but relocated to Mystic Falls after the trials started.
-->'''Bonnie''': Was our family burned in the witch trials?\\
'''Sheila''': No, the girls that were persecuted in Salem were entirely innocent. You have to have more than ignorance to trap a real witch.\\
'''Bonnie''': How did we end up in Mystic Falls?\\
'''Sheila''': Our family fled Salem in 1692 and relocated here. Our ancestors lived in secrecy for over a hundred years. It's important that we still do.
* ''Series/WitchesOfEastEnd'': One of the many times that Freya and Ingrid were killed for using magic was at the Salem trials as shown in the "A Few Good Talisman" episode and the book it is based on. Also in the third book, ''Winds of Salem'', Freya is sent [[TimeTravel back in time]] to 1962 and has to avoid getting killed at the trials for a second time.
* The episode "[[Recap/TheXFilesS05E10Chinga Chinga]]" of ''Series/TheXFiles'' takes place in Maine, New England. Jane Froelich thinks that Melissa Turner is a witch, descended from a cursed lineage of Hawthornes in Salem. She also thinks Melissa's autistic daughter Polly is cursed, too.
[[AC:TabletopGames]]
* ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'' uses Boston as its central city, and as such, the mages of the area are tied to Salem. While they stayed under the radar of the Trials, one of the leading cabals of the area saw it as a warning of what might happen in the mages stayed separate, and used it as a reason for the area's Awakened to organize into a unified body.
* The jury is still out on if there was any magic users at the trials in the ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' setting but in the Sixth World, Salem has become a major centre for witches. This is mainly due to the number of followers of UsefulNotes/{{Wicca}} and other {{UsefulNotes/Neo Pagan|ism}} religions that were living in Salem before [[MayanDoomsday the Awa]][[TheDragonsComeBack kening]] who [[ReligionIsMagic gained powers]] when [[TheMagicComesBack magic returned]]. The percentage of magic users in Salem is estimated to be about six times the national average.
* ''TabletopGame/UnknownArmies'': A cabal called the New Salem Coven is mentioned as being unexpectedly wiped out by The Freebusters.
[[AC:{{Theatre}}]]
* ''Theatre/WitchesTheMusical'': [[spoiler: At the very end, it is shown that without a doubt, Abigail really is a witch. She really did gain power from [[DealWithTheDevil signing Satan's book]], and she uses it to kill [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Warren Mary Warren]].]]
[[AC:VideoGames]]
* In the BackStory of ''VideoGame/MurderedSoulSuspect'', the trials executed several [[ISeeDeadPeople mediums]], falsely accused of gaining their powers from a DealWithTheDevil. [[spoiler: The BigBad is the ghost of Abigail Williams, the girl who condemned several women to their death with her accusations during the trials, who is possessing people to kill mediums as the [[SerialKiller Bell Killer]].]]
[[AC:WebComics]]
* Averted in ''Webcomic/SomethingPositive'': a girl from a UsefulNotes/{{Wicca}}n coven [[http://somethingpositive.net/sp04242002.shtml claims to remember]] her [[{{Reincarnation}} past life]] of being burned at the stake at Salem. Davan calls her out on it.
* ''Webcomic/TimesLikeThis'': Cassie's reaction to a song - mentioning that she escaped being burned alive due to witchcraft accusations - was "it was a trip to Salem gone horribly wrong".
[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* In the ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDoo'' episode, "To Switch A Witch" there is a ([[ScoobyDooHoax fake]]) witch running around Salem. Not only do the townspeople instantly form a TorchesAndPitchforks mob, they also use the witchcraft museum exhibits like the dunking stool on the captured witch (Scooby-Doo in a dress).
* ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "The Magicks of Megas-Tu". A group of aliens with magical powers comes to Earth and is persecuted by human beings. They take refuge in Salem but are found out and harassed even there. Their situation was the basis of the Salem witch trials.
[[AC:RealLife]]
* Ironically subverted by the RealLife Salem, Massachusetts, in that the historical Salem Witch Trials did ''not'' take place there. They happened in Salem ''Village'', now called Danvers, which is about 14 miles from the city of Salem. (Hasn't stopped Salem from cashing in on its "witchy" reputation's tourist value, though.)
* In May 1878, a [[UsefulNotes/AmericanCourts civil case]] was held in Salem that is sometimes called the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_witchcraft_trial_(1878) second Salem witch trial]]. The plaintiff was Lucretia L. S. Brown, an adherent of the Christian Science religion, who accused fellow Christian Scientist Daniel H. Spofford of attempting to harm her through his "mesmeric" mental powers.
----
