McCarthyism V. Salem Witch Trials

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Another difference between McCarthyism and the Salem Witch Trials was the severity of the consequences of being accused. While McCarthyism only resulted in the loss of people’s careers and in the worst cases imprisonment, the consequences of being accused of practicing witchcraft were much more severe as there was a death count of twenty. Though people were afraid of the communists, they did not just go off and kill them, they did however, hold public trials and try to have them punished. The people of Salem were so afraid of the idea of witches that they were willing to execute people based off of word of mouth alone. They were quick to “pull the trigger.” Luckily, the death sentence was not so easy to initiate in the 1950’s as it was in the 1690’s.

In conclusion, both of these incidents were times of hysteria and confusion and people’s lives were affected by this. When people get caught up in their emotions they tend to not make the best decisions and will be influenced by people without the use of facts, as seen in these two circumstances. The time of McCarthyism was very similar to the Salem Witch Trials in many ways, one being that both incidences lacked evidence to back up their claims; however, their differences such as the groups that were targeted, the people who became victims, and the severity of the consequences were very notable as well.

Works Cited

History.com Staff. "McCarthy Says Communists Are in State Department." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 08 Feb. 2016.

Lewis, Lionel S. Cold War on Campus: A Study of the Politics of Organizational Control. New Brunswick, NJ, U.S.A.: Transaction, 1988. 73+. Print.

Blumberg, Jess. "A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials." Smithsonian. Smithsonian.com, 23 Oct. 2007. Web. 08 Feb. 2016.