Salem State University - Clipper Yearbook

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1934 .sk 71 tx. Ulbemer balem in the behtnteenth Qlenturp Though merchants may lie by authority, we have tried to keep our Yuan Book close in spirit to that which a Merchant living in the Seventeenth Century in Salem might have seen himself or might have heard from the mouths of very honest persons of experience and knowledge. We have kept in mind, in our free mingling of past and present, a Merchant's Memory Book. The Merchant of the Seventeenth Century opened the way for his more famous successors. There were few more prosperous areas in the Colony than the Township of Salem which, in 1635, included Danvers, Beverly, Nlanchester, Wenham, part of Lynn, Middleton and. Topsfield, and Marblehead, in addition to the present limits. Development was rapid in this territory on which, in 1626, Roger Conant landed with his twenty-seven companions. One of I-ligginson's early letters states that Naunkecke contained half a score of houses, built, and a fayre house newly built for the Governor and about 200 planters settled. Pioneer Village shows this earliest type of dwelling. Before 1700, the Corwins, Brownes, Pickerings, and others were approaching Old World standards of living. Our Merchant's interests were not in trade alone, and the goose-quill man could write verses on his letter-sheets behind the propped-up ledgers, and read the Song of Solomon so many verses before bedtime, because it was the Bible. Before the end of the century every English ship was bringing books, and whole libraries came for Harvard College or to be broken up and sold to the public. There was a steady sea of traliic and an active correspondence with English scientists, divines, and men of letters, broken only during the Restoration. A London bookseller, visiting Boston in 1686, found the city stirring with his kind, and Salem was the third town in Massachusetts to set up its own public printing press. As the Merchant was thus familiar with both Cavalier and Roundhead literature, it is natural to lind echoes of Herrick, Pepys, and Carew, as well as of Bunyan, Fuller, and Milton. The Merchant of the literary type, so well represented by Thomas Maule, was of broader culture than the superficial observer has realized. The Witchcraft Delusion of 1692 showed the age at its worst, but we have the memory of Samuel Sewall's public apology. It was the time and not the place which caused the reign of terror. A bright spot in the dismal picture is the fact that it was here in Salem that the delusion was finally dispelled, causing a general awakening all over the country and in England. Superstition was not caused by lack of education, for that was ever dear to the hearts of the founders of Salem Town. Between 1626 and 1700 came a rapid and significant change in living conditions, the pioneer huts and slab houses, cheerless and crude, gave place to comfortable and substantial dwellings, the rude furniture was replaced by liner pieces, the Bible and a few schoolbooks were augmented and became libraries, the herb garden expanded into a pleasance spot. Such progress is a tribute to the Salem Merchant. L. GLUQETH, '34 7