Salem Witch Trials Research Paper

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How do people handle the trials and tribulations in their lives? All people handle trials in their lives differently. During the years of the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism, people felt an overwhelming sense of fear for their lives that sparked a mass hysteria. Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism are similar by how people lost their loved ones, government was making people feel like they had no say, and they were scared to do anything or they would be accused of being a witch. Salem Witch Trials began in 1692 and ended in 1693 in Massachusetts (Blumberg, 1). The trial started with a group of girls because Parris, one of the girl’s uncle, saw them dancing in the woods (Witchcraft). Three towns people were called witches including Parris’s slave Tituba (Witchcraft). Parris’s daughter Elizabeth and niece Abigail started having “fits”(Blumberg, 1-2). They screamed, threw things, uttered peculiar sounds, and contorted themselves into strange position (Blumberg, 1-2). Local doctors blamed the “supernatural”(Blumberg, 2). There were more than 200 accused, but 20 people and 2 dogs were executed (Witchcraft). One person was pressed to death by a pile of rocks (Witchcraft).…show more content…
In 1947, President Truman had ordered backgrounds checks of every civilian in service to the government (McCarthyism, 1). McCarthyism was ran by Senator Joseph McCarthy (McCarthyism, 1). He accused people of being communist. Many respected people were question (McCarthyism, 1). Eisenhower had no love for McCarthy (McCarthyism, 1). Television illustrated the mean-spiritedness of McCarthy's campaign (McCarthyism, 3). February 20, 81 cases were made (McCarthyism, 2). McCarthy gave a speech to the Women’s Republican Club of Wheeling in West Virginia on February 1950 in which he claimed to hold in his hand a list of 205 communists in the state department (Wall,

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