McCarthy vs. Salem Witch Trials
McCarthy vs. Salem Witch Trials
Often times it has been stated that history repeats itself, I have found an example of a situation where it did. Lots of people think that the McCarthy hearings of the 1950s are a repeat of history from the Salem witch-hunts of 1692. In both cases, all of the accusations were false, and also fictitious. Also in both cases, the main reason people were blamed was so that ones who were condemning would receive their own personal gain. In both parties, McCarthy and the girls, they accused people to make themselves look better to others and gain respect. They both gained respect from others, which was something they did not have a lot, which is one of the main reasons McCarthy started his Red Scare, and it also played a small role in why the girls accused so many people. In 1692, people blamed of being witches were used as scapegoats for society’s problems, and then again in 1950, those blamed of being communists were used as scapegoats for society’s problems. In the long run, both cases were worthless except for the lessons that it may teach those who look back at the awful experiences. Many people were killed in the small town of Salem and the ones who weren’t killed had their reputations forever lowered. Everyone who was charged by Joseph McCarthy had his or her own reputation diminished as well. All of this could have been prevented if the people involved would have only opened their blinded eyes and saw the truth, the truth which lied right in front of their faces.
One night in the small New England town of Salem, Massachusetts, three young girls and a slave from Barbados were caught dancing naked in the forest around a large kettle. This wasn’t something that girls normally did in the 1600s and was also socially unacceptable, as was also considered to be of the devil. These girls, Abigail Williams, Betty Parris, Mercy Lewis, and Tituba the slave were immediately accused of being witches just because they were dancing in the woods. In order to get themselves off the hook, the girls pointed their fingers at other women in the town of practicing witchcraft. They indicted some women because their names popped into their heads, but one particular girl, Abigail Williams, accused a woman named Elizabeth Proctor because she had...