Graduation Year
2022
Document Type
Thesis
Degree
M.A.
Degree Name
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Degree Granting Department
History
Major Professor
Philip Levy, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Brian Connolly, Ph.D.
Committee Member
J. Scott Perry, Ph.D.
Keywords
bicentennial, dedication, memorial, Puritan, reconciliation
Abstract
This thesis is a study and contextualization of the 1885 Rebecca Nurse Monument and dedication in Danvers, Massachusetts, which took place around the bicentennial anniversary of the Salem witch trials. It places this nineteenth-century commemoration in conversation with the other centennial anniversaries of the witch trials. The Salem witch trials have been studied extensively by historians who have sought to determine the causes of the widespread panic. Other scholars have examined the memory of 1692 in later generations, paying particular attention to the landscape of modern Salem and their tourist economy. Few scholars, however, have given extended consideration to the commemorations that have taken place at the centennial anniversaries of the trials. I argue that doing so allows for a deeper understanding of the shifts in memory as well as purposes for commemorating every hundred years. A close reading of the sermons and speeches delivered at the 1885 dedication, together with retrospective accounts of the day, reveals the motivations and anxieties of the descendants of witch trial victims, accusers, and religious leaders. Overall, by closely examining the Rebecca Nurse Monument, this study places the action of commemoration at its center rather than the events of 1692.
Scholar Commons Citation
Scapicchio, Alaina K., "“Memories Rescued from the Mire of Oblivion”: The 1885 Rebecca Nurse Monument and Salem Witch Trials Commemoration" (2022). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/10354
