Salem Women's Heritage Trail facts for kids

The Salem Women's Heritage Trail is a special walking path created in 2000. It was put together by local historians, people who manage museum collections (called curators), librarians, and other interested citizens. The trail helps us remember the amazing women who have helped shape Salem, Massachusetts for over 400 years! This includes women from colonial times and even earlier, when Native Americans lived in the area called "Naumkeag."

While Salem is famous for the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, this trail shares many more stories about women. A guide book for this self-guided walk was published in 2000 by author Bonnie Hurd Smith. The trail officially started at The House of the Seven Gables, which is one of the places on the trail.

Discovering Salem's Important Women

The Salem Women's Heritage Trail features many important women. Here are just a few:

• The famous "Peabody Sisters of Salem": Elizabeth, Mary, and Sophia. They were even the subject of a book by Megan Marshall!
• Caroline Emmerton and Caroline Plummer: These two women were leading philanthropists in Salem. A philanthropist is someone who gives money and time to help others and good causes.
• Susan Burley: She supported the famous writer Nathaniel Hawthorne.
• Sarah Parker Remond: A great abolitionist speaker. Abolitionists were people who worked to end slavery. Sarah used secret tunnels in town to help the Underground Railroad, which was a network that helped enslaved people escape to freedom.
• Charlotte Forten: An African American educator.
• Louisa Lander and Sarah W. Symonds: Talented artists.

What Topics Does the Trail Cover?

The trail talks about many important topics related to women's history, such as:

• Suffrage: This means the right to vote.
• Abolition: Ending slavery.
• Education: How women helped create schools and learning opportunities.
• The arts: Women's contributions to painting, music, and more.
• Business: Women who started and ran businesses.
• Philanthropy: Women who gave back to their communities.
• Historic preservation: Protecting old buildings and places.
• Native American rights: The fight for fair treatment of Native Americans.
• The Salem Witch Trials: Looking at the women involved in these famous events.

Groups on the Trail

The trail also highlights important organizations that women were part of:

• The Salem Female Anti-Slavery Society
• The Salem Woman Suffrage Club
• The Salem Lyceum Society
• The Salem Women's Indian Association

Connections to Other Trails

Did you know that some women on the Salem trail are also featured on the Boston Women's Heritage Trail? And vice versa! For example:

• Lucy Stone from Boston spoke in Salem against slavery and for women's right to vote.
• Salem's Sarah Parker Remond first stood up against racism in Boston.

Both the Salem and Boston trails are part of a national guide and website that features walking trails about women's history across the United States.

Updates to the Trail in 2009

In 2009, the Salem Women's Heritage Trail guidebook became a website. This new website included all the information from the book, plus new additions. One exciting new addition was the election of Salem's first woman mayor, Kimberley Driscoll, in 2005!