McCarthyism V. Salem Witch Trials

Matt Jones

Donna Glass, Instructor

English 1213

26 February 2016

McCarthyism V. Salem Witch Trials

“Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist party?” This was a well-known phrase among people of the late ‘40s, early ‘50s because the United States was going through McCarthyism, or what they now call a “modern day witch hunt.” McCarthyism is often likened to the Salem Witch Trials because of their many similar characteristics. McCarthyism and the Salem Witch Trials have a lot in common, such as the lack of evidence, as well as many things that make them different which includes: the groups that were targeted, the social status of people who wrongfully became victims, and the severity of the consequences.

Something that both of these cases had in common was that the prosecutors had little to no evidence when they would point their fingers. They drove off of people’s paranoia and hysteric mindset to condemn the chosen group of “guilty” people. And if they tried to stand up for themselves and say they were not guilty, it only made their circumstances worse and people did not believe them. In the case of McCarthyism the defendant would plead the fifth, to which McCarthy would reply that not answering is "the most positive proof obtainable that the witness is Communist,” (Lewis 73). Similarly, the ones who were accused of witchcraft were not allowed to really defend themselves either because if they tried they would accuse them of lying just as the victims of McCarthyism. For example, Bridget Bishop, a flamboyant woman who lived in Salem, was not allowed to defend herself and when she denied her association with witchcraft they said it was because she was guilty.

One thing that differentiates these two incidences was the groups of people who were targeted: McCarthyism targeted communists, while the Salem Trials targeted witches. McCarthyism occurred during a time directly after World War II, when people were still afraid of the Soviet Union and communism, which made it easy to stir people up. A guy named Joseph McCarthy took advantage of the hostility against communists in the United States and decided to give a speech in which he claimed that he knew about more than two hundred traitors working in the United States Government who were communists or communist-sympathizers (McCarthy Says Communists Are in State Department). On the other hand, the Salem Witch Trials began around the time that the European witch hunts were winding down around the 1690’s. The people of Salem were on guard for witches because they were having issues getting along with new settlers and they believed all of the unrest was the Devil doing his work in the town (Blumberg). So then, when a girl named Abigail Williams was found twitching and jerking they wanted to find a reason and she began to accuse people of witchcraft.

The social status of the people who were accused of wrongdoing were drastically different. While Joseph McCarthy accused people who worked for the government to put himself in the spotlight, Abigail Williams tended to pick out the weak citizens who she knew everyone would easily turn against. In the case of McCarthyism, the accused were government officials who worked in the Department of State; whereas, the “witches” were mostly made up of indentured servants, single or widowed women, or poor, elderly women. For example, Abigail Williams chose to blame Tituba, who was a slave, for bewitching her.