History repeats: Witch Hunts
By: Riley Lopez
Tags: Cold War, Witchcraft, Witch, Communism

11 March 2019

Photo by Arie Wubben on Unsplash

Throughout the 1940s and 50s, Americans feared the invasion of communism. The Soviet Union was becoming increasingly powerful, and the threat of a nuclear holocaust was a prominent concern for the citizens of the United States. Paranoia emanated. People began to suspect there were undercover communists within the U.S. government, law enforcement, and Hollywood. Then on February 9, 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy (from Wisconsin) proclaimed “I have in my hands a list of 205… a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who never the less are still working and shaping policy in the State Department.” This led to widespread fear, which inspired hysteria, intolerance, and paranoia. The events that followed McCarthy’s allegations almost exactly mirror the events surrounding the Salem witch trials in 1692. The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of puritans accused of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. More than 2 people were accused of having ties with the devil and practicing witchcraft, and twenty people were executed by hanging.

In 1952, Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible, an allegory for McCarthyism using what happened during the Salem witch trials. Miller was inspired to write it because he “was motivated in some great part by the paralysis that had set in among many liberals who, despite their discomfort with the inquisitors’ violations of civil rights, were fearful… of being identified as covert communists if they should protest too strongly” (Miller). He, himself was accused of being a communist. On June 21, 1956, Miller testified before the House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) about his political leanings. He was called into question because one of his plays was put on by a communist organization (Glass). A parallel between the 1692 Salem witch trials and HUAC’s methods encouraged citizens to betray each other. Miller was asked to name names of other guilty parties, and like John Proctor, during the Salem witch trials, Miller didn’t and they were both charged with contempt of court.

In Salem, the Puritans feared Satan was living in the woods and constantly attempting to take away their children’s innocence, so when Abigail, Betty, and other girls are caught dancing in the woods and singing (“The Afflicted Girls of Salem Village”), the worst was assumed; the girls were witches and working with the devil. Fear of evil drove the townspeople to assume the worst. McCarthy instilled similar fear in Americans by declaring his own witch hunt in an already tense period. He told America that the communist threat was real. He told them that communists had infiltrated the government, the media, Hollywood, and the schools they sent their children to. After McCarthy claimed to have a list of American communists, no one questioned him in fear their name would appear on it (“McCarthyism and the Red Scare”). This led to widespread hysteria.

Although McCarthy’s claims were unsubstantiated, the people he accused were met with an increased amount of hostility and intolerance. They were automatically assumed to be guilty, and put on trial, expected to give up the names of their fellow communist sympathizers. In Salem, the people who were accused were immediately thrown in jail and forced to await trial. Most accusations were based solely on Abigail’s word, and no other physical evidence. Some accusations were only made because the accuser had something to gain from the downfall of whoever they were accusing:

HALE. Abigail were stabbed tonight; a needle were found stuck into her belly-

ELIZABETH. And she charges me?

HALE. Aye. (Miller 76)

Abigail accused Elizabeth Proctor because she thought if Elizabeth were out of the picture, John Proctor would be all hers.

Reputation and power were two driving forces of the accusations. In the Crucible, by Arthur Miller, after Abigail and the other girls were caught dancing in the woods, Abigail tries to make sure they all have their story straight:

ABIGAIL. we danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam’s dead sisters. And that’s all. And mark this. Let either of you breathe a word… about other things. And I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will a pointy reckoning that will shudder you. (Miller 20)

Abigail fears her reputation would be tarnished by the accusations of witchcraft. Abigail also has a lot to gain by making the accusations. Before the allegations of witchcraft started, Abigail had little power in society; once she started accusing people, she became one of the most powerful people in Salem. Her low status in “normal times” ironically gave her a great deal of power during the trials because no one thinks she’s smart or devious enough to make it up. McCarthy, similarly, went through similar social climbs. At one point he was a “political dead weight” (“McCarthyism: Rule by Fear”), and then rose to the most powerful man in the United States government.

McCarthy’s antics were initially tolerated because his attacks were directed against the Democratic administration of Harry S. Truman. When Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower entered the White House in 1953, however, McCarthy’s recklessness and erratic behavior became unacceptable and the senator saw his authority slowly slipping away. In a last-ditch effort to revive his anti-communist movement, McCarthy made a crucial mistake. He proposed that the U.S. Army was “soft” on communism and opened public hearings into the Army. During the following weeks of hearings, the senator, became increasingly enraged, barking and screaming at witnesses, and finally declaring that one highly decorated general was a “disgrace” to his uniform. A week later, the hearings came to a close. McCarthy was exposed as a reckless bully and was officially censured by the U.S. Senate for contempt against his colleagues and conduct contrary to “senatorial traditions”. Like McCarthyism, the hysteria of the Salem witch trials began to lose steam. The governor of the colony, upon hearing that his own wife was accused of witchcraft ordered an end to the trials; but not after 20 people and 2 dogs were executed for the crime of witchcraft. One person was even pressed to death under a pile of stones for refusing to testify.

History repeated itself with the Salem witch trials and 1950’s McCarthyism. They both emanated on the basis of fear and hysteria. Both events encouraged citizens to betray each other. Both Abigail Williams and Joseph McCarthy made their claims on little to no evidence in order to gain power in society. The majority of the people accused, of either witchcraft or communism, were wrongly accused. Both historical events used vulnerable groups of individuals as scapegoats to try and maintain power over social norms.

Works Cited

Glass, Andrew. “Arthur Miller testifies before HUAC, June 21, 1956.” Politico, 21 June 2013, www.politico.com/story/2013/06/this-day-in-politics-093127.

“The Afflicted Girls of Salem Village.” Legends of America, 10 Jan. 2019, www.legendsofamerica.com/ma-salemafflicted/.

“McCarthyism and the Red Scare.” Miller Center, University of Virginia, millercenter.org/the-presidency/educational-resources/age-of-eisenhower/mcarthyism-red-scare.

McCarthy, Joseph. “Enemies from Within.” Republican Women’s Club, 9 Feb. 1950, Wheeling, WV. Address.

“McCarthyism: Rule by Fear.” Planet POV, Planet POV, 26 Mar. 2011, planetpov.com/2011/03/26/mccarthyism-rule-by-fear/.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. Penguin Books, 1982.

Miller, Arthur. “Why I Wrote The Crucible.” New Yorker, 21 Oct. 1996.