The McCarthy Era and the Salem Witch Trials :: Psychology, Social Issues, Persuasive

The McCarthy Era and the Salem Witch Trials The McCarthy era is very similar to the Salem Witch trials. They are both similar, because they both dealt with hysteria. Hysteria is an uncontrollable fear or outburst of emotion. Both things had to do with people accusing each other of people being communist, and people being witches. The McCarthy era, took place in the twentieth century. It had to do with people thinking that other people were communist. Since people thought that others were communist, they accused them of committing communism. Communism is, when people don't follow what the government says. The people that were accused of being communist, were persecuted by other people in the community. Then they were put to death. The U.S. senator Joseph Raymond McCarthy was the man who was against the rising of communism. His revolts against communism gave birth to the term McCarthyism. The Salem Witch trials took place in the seventeenth century in Salem, Massachusetts. They were considered to be America's most notorious episode of witchcraft hysteria. As in the McCarthy era, people who were even accused of being witches were persecuted. Many innocent people were killed because of the result of false accusations and many other women were put through many trials to determine if they were witches. Witches were considered outcasts of society. It was also considered a hysteria because it was blown out of proprtion. Much of this hysteria soon ended due to the sermon delivered by Cotton Mather. In his statement he argued against the mass convictions of innocent people. Some clergy finally decided to listen to his ideas and many of the accused were released from jail by the decision of the governor and because jails were overflowing. Hysteria has no place in a society because it is wrong. It causes chaos and confusion and in these cases death.