Comparing the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism in...

The Salem witch trials and the story of Joseph McCarthy are very similar; they both accused innocent people of doing things that were â€Å"bad† at the time. The Salem Witch trials were persecutions of men and woman on account of performing witchcraft. Two girls accused a woman of doing witchcraft and then the accusations continued, people accused other people to relieve their own punishment in a last ditch effort to save their lives, but it was in vein. After the witch trials were over â€Å"19 had been killed and an elderly man pressed to death under heavy stones†(Linder). â€Å"Some accused of witch craft were burned at the stake all in the name of justice†(Brown). Others were finally let out of jail after being in imprisonment for months at a time.†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"Arthur Miller made the play called â€Å"The Crucible† during the 1950’s as a response to McCarthyism and the U.S. Governments blacklisted people.†(Blakesley ). Miller was then question and accused of â€Å"Contempt of Congress† for not identifying people that were at meetings he attended. McCarthyism and The Salem Witch Craft Trials have been two very wrong things that have happened in the history of the United States for a lot of reasons. First off they both wrongfully accused innocent people of performing not accepted actions of those times. In America you have a right of free will and in both cases they were denied this right just because of someone else’s opinion. In both cases of the Salem Witch Craft Trials and McCarthyism people were being accused of acts with little evidence. People pointed fingers at others so they wouldn’t get blamed for anything, so there was a scare factor taking place. Large groups of people supported these acts maybe because of a get on board everyone’s doing it theme, and if you disagreed you were considered a witch or a communist. Our country supported McCarthy until later we soon regretted it. During the 1940’s and 1950’s communism was a scare in the U.S. so McCarthy capitalized on the subject and said two hundred card carrying communist were in the U.S(PBS). With the Salem Trials people capitalized on the scare of witches and everyone starting accusing the â€Å"weird† people. Accusations weather true or false canShow MoreRelatedThe Crucible By Arthur Miller Essay1646 Words   |  7 Pagesnever actually referenced it in the play. Although Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is set in the late 1600s, it offers a fine example of allegory of McCarthyism in the 1950s. During the late 1600s in Salem, Massachusetts, people are experiencing a somewhat mass hysteria as the witch trials occur. The main plot of the play revolves around a group of people in Salem. 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