Letter from Cotton Mather to William Stoughton, September 2, 1692

The Cambridge Association was an influential group of Congregational clergymen in the Boston area who regularly met in the Harvard College library between 1690 and 1697. The minutes of their meetings shed important light on the oft-debated question of the Puritan ministers influence on the witchcraft trials.

The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused. Thirty people were found guilty, nineteen of whom were executed by hanging (fourteen women and five men). One other man, Giles Corey, died under torture after refusing to enter a plea, and at least five people died in jail.Arrests were made in numerous towns beyond Salem and Salem Village (known today as Danvers), notably Andover and Topsfield. The grand juries and trials for this capital crime were conducted by a Court of Oyer and Terminer in 1692 and by a Superior Court of Judicature in 1693, both held in Salem Town, where the hangings also took place. It was the deadliest witch hunt in the history of colonial North America. Fourteen other women and two men were executed in Massachusetts and Connecticut during the 18th century.The episode is one of colonial America's most notorious cases of mass hysteria. It was not unique, but a colonial manifestation of the much broader phenomenon of witch trials in the early modern period, which took the lives of tens of thousands, mainly in Protestant Europe and the Americas. In America, Salem's events have been used in political rhetoric and popular literature as a vivid cautionary tale about the dangers of isolation, religious extremism, false accusations, and lapses in due process. Many historians consider the lasting effects of the trials to have been highly influential in the history of the United States. According to historian George Lincoln Burr, "the Salem witchcraft was the rock on which the theocracy shattered."At the 300th anniversary events in 1992 to commemorate the victims of the trials, a park was dedicated in Salem and a memorial in Danvers. In 1957, an act passed by the Massachusetts legislature absolved six people, while another one, passed in 2001, absolved five other victims. As of 2004, there was still talk about exonerating all of the victims, though some think that happened in the 18th century as the Massachusetts colonial legislature was asked to reverse the attainders of "George Burroughs and others". In January 2016, the University of Virginia announced its Gallows Hill Project team had determined the execution site in Salem, where the 19 "witches" had been hanged. The city dedicated the Proctor's Ledge Memorial to the victims there in 2017.

The Great Salem fire of June 25, 1914, destroyed 1,376 buildings and made over 18,000 people homeless or jobless in Salem, Massachusetts, U.S. It was among the last of the great industrial fires that plagued North American cities in the 19th century. Of the families it affected – burning homes or the breadwinner's workplace – 43% were Franco-American. Because so many people were left jobless after the city's largest employer burned down, the fire encouraged the creation of the United States Employment Service.

Located in Salem, Massachusetts and owned by the Peabody Essex Museum the Cotting–Smith Assembly House was built in 1782 and is located at 138 Federal Street in the Federal Street District. Built as a Federalist Clubhouse in which balls, concerts, lectures, and other events might be held. George Washington attended a dance here. The original architect is unknown, but the house was later remodeled by Samuel McIntire for use as a private residence. The house is in the Federal style and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The building can be rented for special events.

The Stephen Phillips House is a historic house and museum located in the McIntire Historic District in Salem, Massachusetts, United States and was designed by Samuel McIntyre. Phillips House began with Elias Hasket Derby, one of America's first self-made millionaires from the sea trade. When he died in 1799, his daughter, Elizabeth and her husband, Captain Nathaniel West, inherited his farm in Danvers, Massachusetts. They built a country house on the property, sparing little expense. A grand estate was in the making. In 1806, shortly after the house was completed, a divorce forced Nathaniel off the property. After Elizabeth died in 1814, the house was left to her three daughters. When one of the daughters died in 1819, Nathaniel inherited one-third of the estate. He proceeded to move four rooms to Salem, the museum's present location. At that time, he added a hallway, a third floor, and a back ell section. In 1911, Stephen W. Phillips bought the house, moving in with five generations of family furnishings. He lived in the house until his death in 1955. The house remains as it was at that time, containing an eclectic collection representing the Phillips's extensive travels. The Phillips House is now owned and operated as a historic house museum by Historic New England and is open for public tours. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

Salem Hospital, formerly known as North Shore Medical Center, is a Level III trauma center located in Salem, Massachusetts. A member of Mass General Brigham since 1996, it offers comprehensive medical and surgical services and includes emergency/trauma departments and a birthplace. It includes Salem Hospital and the Mass General Brigham Healthcare Center in Lynn, as well as outpatient care and urgent care. The Medical Staff includes nearly 800 affiliated physicians representing primary care, family practice and 50 additional sub-specialties. It is affiliated with Tufts University School of Medicine. Salem Hospital is a general medical and surgical hospital which had 199 licensed beds as of 2023, with plans to expand to 212 by early 2024. The hospital had 19,467 admissions in the latest year for which data are available. It performed 4,409 annual inpatient and 7,955 outpatient surgeries. Its emergency department had 90,149 visits for 2012. A helipad at Salem Hospital is a helicopter transportation hub, with multiple daily flights to hospitals all over Boston.

The Chestnut Street District is a historic district bounded roughly by Bridge, Lynn, Beckford, and River Streets in Salem, Massachusetts. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and enlarged slightly in 1978. The district contains a number of architecturally significant works of Samuel McIntire, a builder and woodworker who had a house and workshop at 31 Summer Street, and who designed and built a number of these houses, and others that display the profits made in the Old China Trade by Salem's merchants. The district is a subset of a larger locally designated McIntire Historic District.

The Salem Athenaeum, founded in 1810, is one of the oldest membership libraries in the United States. The Athenaeum is located at 337 Essex Street in Salem, Massachusetts in the McIntire Historic District. In 2023, the athenaeum successfully completed a restoration project for the historic building. They are currently raising funds to make the building more accessible to meet modern library standards.

The Pickering House (circa 1664) is a First Period Colonial house at 18 Broad Street, in Salem, Massachusetts' McIntire Historic District. The house was owned and occupied by ten successive generations of the Pickering family including Colonel Timothy Pickering. This house is believed to have been the oldest house in the United States continuously occupied by one family. However, in 1998, the Goodhue family moved into the house, with Albert Goodhue as the primary caretaker. It is located at 18 Broad Street, Salem, Massachusetts and is open to the public under the auspices of the nonprofit Pickering Foundation. Across the street is the Broad Street Cemetery, one of the three oldest in Salem.

Brevet Brigadier-General James Miller (April 25, 1776 – July 7, 1851) was a senior officer of the United States Army who commanded infantry in the Canadian Theater of the War of 1812. After the war, he served as the first governor of Arkansas Territory from 1819 to 1824. He also served as the superintendent of Indian affairs for the territory. It was during his term as governor, and partly due to his influence, that the territory's capital was moved from Arkansas Post to Little Rock.

Harmony Grove Cemetery is a rural cemetery in Salem, Massachusetts. It was established in 1840 and is located at 30 Grove Street. The cemetery is approximately 35 acres in size and was designed by Francis Peabody and Alexander Wadsworth.The cemetery includes the Gothic revival Blake Memorial Chapel of 1905.

Hamilton Hall is a National Historic Landmark at 9 Chestnut Street in Salem, Massachusetts. Designed by noted Salem builder Samuel McIntire and built in 1805–1807, it is an excellent instance of a public Federal style building. It was built as a social space for the leading families of Salem, and was named for Founding Father and Federalist Party leader Alexander Hamilton. It continues to function as a social hall today: it is used for events, private functions, weddings and is also home to a series of lectures that originated in 1944 by the Ladies Committee.Hamilton Hall is a three-story brick structure at the corner of Chestnut and Cambridge Streets, with its gable end front facing Cambridge Street. The brick is laid in a Flemish bond pattern. The entrance facade is five bays wide, with a center entry consisting of double doors sheltered by a Greek Revival porch added c. 1845. This rectangular portico has a flat roof, supported at each corner by two Doric columns. The first floor of the long side (facing Chestnut Street) consists of six bays, of which five are windows and one is a door. The upper level (equal in height to the upper two levels on the front facade) consists of five large Palladian windows set in a slightly recessed arch. Above each of these is a panel with decorations carved by McIntire. The outer four have a swag design, while the central one features an eagle and shield.Construction of the hall was funded by a group of Salem's Federalist merchant families, and cost $22,000. Originally, retail spaces at the entrance on the ground floor housed vendors who sold goods for use in the events held in the upstairs function space. The second level ballroom features an unusual curved balcony and a sprung floor suitable for dancing.The building was declared a National Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. It is a contributing property to the Chestnut Street District, and part of the local McIntire Historic District, in which a high concentration of McIntire's works are found.