This lamentable episode formed the basis of the great play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, in which the events are presented as an implicit paradigm & analogue to the hearings of the McCarthy UnAmerican Activities Committee of the Senate.

Wikipedia ~~

The Crucible is a 1952 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatization of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay during 1692 and 1693. Miller wrote the play as an allegory of McCarthyism, when the US government blacklisted accused communists. Miller himself was questioned by the House of Representatives' Committee on Un-American Activities in 1956 and convicted of "contempt of Congress" for refusing to identify others present at meetings he had attended.

I believe that the name to which the village was redesignated, Danvers, was chosen after the Deputy-Governor of the state at the time, who was instrumental in keeping the hearings going in the face of the doubt of many citizens.

~Michael~