The Salem Witch Trials Vs. Red Scare

During the period of late seventeenth century in colonial Salem, Massachusetts, two girls began acting in an uncanny manner. These girls then accused two woman and a slave for being witches; which caused the town of Salem to emerge into a period of witch cleansing. Mostly, the people of Salem were Puritans who found many different reasons to accuse one of being a witch. The start of the witch trials began in 1692 and ended in 1693 by Governor Phips; whose wife was prosecuted as a witch. These Salem Witch Trials began by religious superstition, the appearance of the perceived witch, and through torture and forced confessions.

Puritans had many beliefs that affected the Salem Witch Trials, these were based on how the attendance or lack of attendance of the church, how people should behave, social class, and the way the government should be handled. Puritans were English Protestants that came to America in 1630. They sought to reform the Church of England. When they first came to America they settled at Salem, Massachusetts. The main reason the Puritan’s came to Salem was for freedom of religion which they did not have in England. The Puritans also came because they believed that the Church of England was not religious or enforcing religion enough. Puritans were just like the Pilgrims. Years later the Salem Witch Trials started in 1692 and ended

After Doctor Griggs examined the girls, he diagnosed them with “being victims of black magic,” as stated in the article “Were Witches Burned at the stake During the Salem Witch Trials?” written by Evan Andrews. After the diagnosis had been made, five more young girls of the community began contracting similar symptoms (“Salem Witch Trials”).

Robert Calef was a merchant in Massachusetts during the witch hunts of 1692. The primary source that is being analyzed isn’t about him but is from many stories that he collected and put them together in a manuscript. This manuscript that contains true accounts about the trial and it included the attempted escape of Mrs. Cary of Charlestown Massachusetts told from her husband Nathaniel Cary’s viewpoint. I believe that Nathaniel Cary wanted this account to be written in order to highlight and expose how the puritans handled the witch trials and specifically the trial against his wife and to inform people of what was truly happening in New England at the time. In this primary source analysis, I will be discussing what this document tells us

In Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, faith was central to the government, just as freedom was the basic foundation of the American government in 1947. Faith and Freedom are both taken personally to a sizable sum of people, but the true meaning of those words varies from each individual to the next. Despite the thought that each person owns their own definition of the words “Faith” and “Freedom”, people who resided in Salem in 1692 were judged so harshly due to the fact that they did not have the same beliefs or morals as politicians or others who were put in charge above them. Salem is a direct parallel to the McCarthy era when people were accused of being communist due to a different thought system that they possessed that others in the government

Fear often dictates how people’s mindsets are set up and how they behave during day to day trials and tribulations. Fear is something that can be beautiful and accepting when the fearful allows it to not overcome them but also dangerous and ugly when a concoction of fear and lies is made. We can see this during the 1950’s when The Red Scare took place and in the past with The Salem Witch Trials, both of which black listed people and ruined reputations while also, sadly, taking lives. The two subjects have many similarities, as they allowed history to repeat itself but also many differences, nevertheless they are often put in the same boat, and the question is… Why?

Colonial Massachusetts in the late 1600s was very complex. The small colony consisted of mainly puritans, who had come to escape from the Church of England. Puritans believed that those chosen by God to be saved — the elect — would experience "conversion." In this process, God would reveal to the individual His grace, and the person would know he was saved. One of the many issues within the society was religion. A very big problem that would cause a lot of tension and problems later on was witchcraft. The Salem witchcraft hysteria started because of personal jealousies, it targeted those who went against puritan beliefs, and it was an explanation of all the weird things happening.

Who can you trust in a world filled with enemies and those who are ambitiously self-centered? That is a question many people faced in the seventeenth century; similarly another time period had the same thought: The Red Scare. The Red Scare and the Salem Witch Trials were both tragic events that turned everyone against each other based on weak testimonies. Many respected people lost their lives because of this abnormal widespread fear. To make it more alarming, once accused it was extremely difficult to get one’s name cleared because there was very little room for rebuttal. Many factors that caused such a violent outcome of the Salem Witch trials including the dissension among citizens, the repressed girls of Salem and the Puritan religious beliefs which is very similar to the factors that made Red Scare so disastrous.

Mass hysteria breaks loose, compromising the lives of innocent people however this is a recurring occurrence. History repeats itself, such as in the events of the Salem witch trials and the Red scare. The Red scare being “hysteria over the perceived threat posed by Communists in the U.S. ...“ ( Red Scare, History.com) likely due to the cold war, as tensions were high with communist Russia. It took place in late 1940’s and early 1950’s. The Salem witch trials (1692) were a series of accusations of witchery and being inline with satan. This caused the death of many people and the destruction of lives (Salem Witch Trials, History.com). Both events were similar in the hysteria that they caused and yet different in the detail as to what caused the hysteria. Furthermore, the Red scare and the Salem witch trials have many similarities and differences.

The evidence of witchcraft and related works has been around for many centuries. Gradually, though, a mixture a religious, economical, and political reasons instigated different periods of fear and uncertainty among society. Witchcraft was thought of as a connection to the devil that made the victim do evil and strange deeds. (Sutter par. 1) In the sixteenth, seventeenth, and twentieth century, the hysteria over certain causes resulted in prosecution in the Salem Witch Trials, European Witchcraft Craze, and the McCarthy hearings. These three events all used uncertain and unjustly accusations to attack the accused.

The Salem Witch trial and the Holocaust were very analogous events because the people in both of these events were oppressed and were treated under severe circumstances, but the people that were affected by the Salem Witch trials were in better circumstances than the people living during the Holocaust and in the concentration camps. During the Salem Witch trials, the people convoluted in it were given appropriate living conditions, while in the Holocaust, they were excruciating for most people. The Salem Witch trials transpired from 1692 – 1693 in Massachusetts. More than two hundred people were suspected of the begin witches and of the two hundred, about twenty of them were executed.

Many tragic events in history have shared a common link to one another. The comparisons of the Salem witch trials and McCarthyism are examples of two events in the United States’ past that explain how history repeats itself. When looking at the two historical events, we can see that mass hysteria and propaganda ruined the lives of many people. Mass hysteria can be defined as a condition affecting a group of persons, characterized by excitement, irrational behavior, beliefs, or inexplicable symptoms of illness. Respectively, propaganda refers to information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread in order to harm a person, group, or help a movement. Both the Salem witch trials and the second red scare were an irrational fear that something terrible

Life in the New England colonies during the 1600’s proved to be harsh with the constant fear of Native American attacks, scarce food, freezing winters, and conflicting opinions about religion. From this perpetual state of distress, the Salem Witch Trials were birthed, causing a wave of hysteria in Salem Village and Salem Town. Though the exact day and month is uncertain, historians can claim that the trials emerged in early 1692 and came to a close in 1693. The Salem Witch Trials started in 1692 with more than one hundred fifty people being accused of practicing witchcraft, and the trials finally ended with the courts declaring there was no evidence in the cases being tried, and the Governor stopped the trials because his wife was accused.

The witch trials all started in 1692 after a group of girls created conflict throughout Salem Massachusetts. The group of girls in Salem Village claimed

The Salem Witch Trials began in Salem, Massachusetts, 1690. To this day it is not completely clear why these trials began, but some believed that physical and/or mental illness, like hysteria, was the cause. Others suggest that some of the local plants had been poisoned. The most reasonable cause was that there was a pact amongst a group of girls that wanted revenge on some of the people in the town; since they accused many and had similar accusations that could have been rehearsed. Other explanations include that the Puritans, coming from the same views from Europe, believed that witchcraft was possible.