SALEM, MA — The debate over whether the City of Salem’s official seal — which has been in place since 1839 — should be changed based on its depiction of a Sumatran spice merchant as a symbol of the city’s trade history will be under the direction of a task force approved by a split vote of the City Council on Thursday.
The 8-3 vote came after a divided public comment among those who view the seal as an important part of the city’s history that should not be altered and those who say the use of a Southeast Asian merchant is exploitive and may promote a distorted viewpoint of that history from the Sumatran perspective.
“We have to take a deeper dive on this,” City Councilor Andy Varela said. “It would be uncouth and disrespectful not to have a larger conversation about our city seal. As we all know, history changes. And we need to be respectful and have these conversations. …
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“When it comes to the writing of history, there is a deeply engrained bias. … Narratives have been shaped, been reshaped, to fit an agenda. We cannot say that it hasn’t been. … We cannot exclude that British and American authors consistently drew parallels between Southeast Asians and Native Americans identifying them as savages or less than (European-Americans). This is something, after looking at all the historical documents that came in (to the Government Services Committee), that we need to discuss.”
The task force will include five residents and two historians, appointed through the mayor’s office and confirmed through the City Council, and will have up to 18 months to gather information, solicit and listen to public testimony, and then make a recommendation to the City Council to maintain or change the seal.
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Since the seal was incorporated via a city ordinance, the Council would then have the final say on whatever steps would follow.
“I am confident that this task force will be able to do what we are looking for them to do,” City Councilor Megan Stott said, “which is (conduct) an open, community conversation around the city seal, which is blatantly obvious after the public comments tonight, that is needed.”
City Councilor Cindy Jerzylo was among the Councilors who voted against the task force formation.
“Growing up in Salem I always viewed the city seal as honoring the Sumatran people for helping put Salem on the map,” she said. “I was saddened to recently hear that some find the city seal as a sign of racism. … How can we now say that the city no longer wants to honor or recognize that history that continues to enrich our city today?”
According to Destination Salem, the seal was commissioned by the city to be designed by George
Click Here: Australia Rugby ShopPeabody in 1839. Peabody was a descendant of some of Salem’s greatest pepper merchants and was himself a ship owner. Rather than depicting a scene of Salem, Peabody thought it fitting to draw a figure representative of a Sumatran merchant as a reference to where the pepper trade first began.
Since 1839, the seal has been used on official city documents and records. In addition, using the seal on anything other than documents pertaining to official City of Salem business is a violation of state law and local ordinances.
Those Councilors who supported the task force argued that voting against its formation would essentially end what is a necessary debate and that forming the task force itself does not mean changing the seal is a fait accompli.
“If there is a consensus among the working group, the task force, to change the city seal and there isn’t a consensus among the residents of Salem, there is no way I am going to vote for that,” City Councilor Patti Morsillo said. “That is the point of the task force is for them to do the work, the research.
“There is still a pretty high bar for me to say that I am going to vote to change the city seal. It has to come back from the task force with not only reasons (it should be changed), not only a design but a consensus among the Salem residents to do so.”
(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at [email protected]. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)
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