Similarities Between Salem Witch Trials And Mccarthyism

The Salem Witch Trials was a horrible piece of american history. Many people died because of the accusations made by others. Then nearly three hundred years later, the problem began again. In the 1940s-50 people were accused of being communist or communist sympathizers. This would eventually cause mass hysteria; which is when a group acts irrational out of fear, and would cause people to lose their career. The Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism have some stunning similarities and differences. The Salem Witch Trials began on January of 1692 when three girls: Elizabeth Parris, Abigail Williams, and Ann Putman, started having “fits” that were thought to be supernatural. Word got out about this unusual disturbance, and people started believing that the devil had gotten into their town. On February 29th, the people of the Salem began urging the girl to let them know who had caused this. The girls then revealed three names: Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborn. The three were …show more content…
history. These two points in time have some slight differences, but are based around the same idea. Both events would have people accused of crimes they didn’t commit; however, in Salem people were accused of being witches while anyone in the U.S. could be accused of being a communist, or a communist sympathiser. The two unlawful acts had one major thing in common: anyone could be accused. This could cause mass hysteria because everyone was afraid that their lives were in danger. The differences between the two are quite obvious. For example, twenty people were killed during the witch trials, and in the U.S. during the 40s and 50s people were just thrown in jail. Also, another similarity is that many people's life would be ruined just due to the fact that they were accused of a crime they didn’t commit, but they had no way to prove their innocence. The final similarity is that it all started out of fear and one single