Salem

Salem (pop. 38,264), manufacturing city in northeast Massachusetts, seat of Essex County, on an inlet of Massachusetts Bay. Founded in 1626, it soon became a major port, crucial for trade with China. Today tourists appreciate it as the site of witchcraft trials (1692), and as the birthplace of Nathaniel Hawthorne, whose home has been preserved. Other sights include Pioneer Village, a reproduction of a 1630 settlement, and the House of the Seven Gables (1668), about which Hawthorne wrote his novel of the same name.

See also: Massachusetts.