Over three hundred years ago in the town of Salem Massachusetts a problem was laid into our hands. A problem that will haunt our nation for years and years to come. When our nation was faced with a simillar problemit was almost taken the same as it was with the Salem Witch Trials. This problem was called McCarthyism.
Many people feel that the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism was just about the same conspiracy, but more than two hundred and fifty years later. One day two girls and an Indian slave were caught dancing in a field, the two girls knew that they would get into trouble because the puritans didnt believe much in having fun. They knew that if they acted “bewitched” then it would save them a lot of trouble. So the girls started to go into convulsions, and act very weird. (Linder, Douglas. P1).
This led part into something that is shunned upon in our nations history. This was the beginning of the Salem Witch Trials. In the late 1940s we found out that Russia had gotten the atomic bomb secret from two spies. This and other small things sparked the era of McCarthyism, the era many people would like to forget.
Senator Joe McCarthy was a very talented man. He had ways of intimidating people very easy and very fast (Cook, Fred J p5). Senator Joe McCarthy knew how to work the public, and he knew that if he sparked up the communist issue with many people he would get his seat in the senate. This was another era in our nation that people would rather forget.
This era ruined peoples lives and made them “black listed” from Hollywood forever. McCarthyism and The Salem Witch trials are very common for many reasons. They both started up because of the selfishness of others. If Joeseph McCarthy were not so selfish then the people that he accused would have had a job, and the would not have been shunned by the comminity. If the two girls were not so selfish then 19 people would have their lives back.
This shows how McCarthyism and The Salem Witch Trials started off as somebody trying to get out of trouble, or somebody trying to get a higher seat in public but ended up as two of the most horribly looked upon events in American history. The Salem Witch Trials did not have a very good court system. As Mr. Larry Gragg explains the legal matters “Governor Phips faced a legal dilemma The Massachusetts Bay colony had made the practice of witch craft a felony under the authority of a charter granted by Charles I in 1629.
That document, however, had been revoked in 1686. Two years later, the colony became part of the Dominion of New England. Since the 1689 overthrow of Edmond Andros, the Dominion governor Massachusetts had existed in a legal limbo while its agents negotiated with William III for a new charter. Technically, then, no law against witchcraft existed. Governor Phips, who had arrived with a new charter, was unable to convene another provincial legislature to confirm the old statue until June 8.
But he didnt want to wait that long so he appointed a special court of Oyer and Terminer (a judicial body to hear and determine) on May 27. He selected Deputy Governor William Stoughton and 8 leading merchants and landowners to serve on the court. ” “They took various kinds of intangible evidence including direct confessions, supernatural attributes, and reactions of the afflicted girls were used” (Dialogue Based on the Examination of Sara Good, by Judges Hawthorne and Corwin p5). They decided to accept “Specter Evidence” That is if someone in the community said that the accused person let the devil use their shape.
They thought that was the best evidence because they figured you had to let the devil take your shape, and he couldnt take it without your permission. The court of Joe McCarthy was also very unlawful. According to 1950-1954: a man without a cause. “there was an obvious case of “guilty until proven innocent” as opposed to innocent until proven guilty.” Since they didnt have and tangible evidence against these people they couldnt throw .
