Salem Witch Trials

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have established independence.

A much later effect of the Salem witch trials is the use of the term witch hunt in recent times. A great example of this was the communist witch hunts of the 1950s. It was very much like the Salem witch trials, in that very little evidence was needed to convict someone of being a communist, as well as the overwhelming pressure that people had to name names of other communists. This led to a system where if someone said you were a communist, you were a communist, and if you were a communist, you had to say who else was a communist. A huge factor that led to the end of this was public opinion, and public opinion was influenced by media much of the time. A lot of the media that criticized the system was inspired by the Salem witch trials. One of these was The Crucible, a play about the Salem trials that was an allegory to the communist trials of its era. It was media like this that led to the end of communist witch hunts, and public opinion would be very different if citizens couldn’t recall mistakes already made by the people of Salem.

The Salem witch trials had huge lasting effects after its end. From the remorse expressed by the courts and politicians of Salem, to the changed mindset that colonists had after the witch trials. Effects would last as far as the 1950s, where the mistakes that were made in the 1600s wouldn’t be repeated again. The Salem witch trials hugely affected the future of America and helped shape the country as we know it.