Comparing Mccarthyism And The Salem Witch Trials

These individuals may or may not have been witches, yet the jury many times chose to hang any accused individuals with or without reasonable cause. Today, much like during the Witch Trials, people are sent to prison for crimes they didn’t commit. Of course, many guilty people are sent to prison and rightfully so, but sometimes good lawyers are able to convince the jury unjustly sending innocent individuals to a life in prison. Though, Americans are not scared of being sent to jail for witchery, they are scared of being in the wrong place at the wrong time due to the fear of governmental polices.

When a person was accused, they had a "term of grace" for thirty to forty days where they could voluntarily confess their sin and atone for that sin. After that grace period was used up, they had a trial and if the judges found the accused guilty of the offense, the person was imprisoned. The accused's trial occurred only in the presence of two disinterested priests and the defense was in the hands of a lawyer. Witnesses were sworn in and if one lied they would be seriously punished- death being a possibility. (Blotzer, 1910) If a person was found guilty at the trial they could be burned at the stake. (Madden, 2003) These trials were called auto-da-fé, or Act of Faith, and would happen in a public place such as the main square in a town. After

During the Salem WItch Trials if someone was accused of witchcraft they would be arrested and forced to admit that they were a witch. ¨The accused witches were considered dangerous prisoners and were kept in dungeons underneath the jails away from the other prisoners,¨ (Brooks, 2015). The neighbors would falsely accuse their neighbor of witchcraft and the accused ¨witches¨ were taken from their families and forced into small damp disgusting dungeons underneath jails. ¨Historians believe the accused witches were victims of mob mentality, mass hysteria and scapegoating,¨ (Brooks, 2015). These people were blamed for all the wrong doing in these miserable people's

One similarity of the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism is that there is no evidence for the crime that the victims are being charged with. The individuals were being punished without proof; by being judged solely off of what people believe could be the truth. The Salem Witch Trials executed innocent people based off an idea that they possibly could have taken

Between February of 1692 and May of 1963 in Salem, Massachusetts, approximately 200 citizens were accused, arrested, and imprisoned for being suspected of acts of witchcraft. Of the 200, fourteen women and five men were hanged at Gallows Hill near Salem Village, one man was stoned to death while more than seventeen died in prison. It all began in 1691 when a few girls in town began experimenting with magic by surrounding themselves around a crystal ball in order to find an answer to a question. During June and September of the year 1692, hundreds of citizens were wrongfully executed after illogical trails found them guilty of acts of witchcraft. These trials occurred because of religious imatations, tainted food supply, property disputes, congregational feuds and young immature girls lacking attention.

In Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, an epidemic of being accused of witchcraft broke out. The epidemic lasted from February until May in 1692. People were accusing and being accused of witchcraft. A total of twenty people were executed, most of them were women, and all but one of those people were killed by hanging. If someone confessed to witchcraft, then he/she could have the chance to live but, he/she would be shamed the rest of your life. But if they didn’t confess, even if they were innocent, he/she would have been hung.

However, in modern time, most accusations are believed and perpetrators are facing consequences but during the witch trials, all accusations were firmly believed, although accusations

This period in America can be summed up in two words: Hysteria and Craziness. The 1692 notorious Salem witch trials started after some young girls from Salem Village, Massachusetts, purported to be possessed by demons. The girls accused some local women of bewitching them. As the wild hysteria spread across Massachusetts, a court was specially set up to listen to the cases. Bridget Bishop was the first witch to be convicted and later hanged in June. Eighteen more were hanged at the infamous Salem’s Gallows Hill, and several more children, women and men were sentenced as well, some months later. By September the same year, the craziness and hysteria had started to decrease, and public views turned against the rulings (Baker 2014). Even though the Massachusetts General Court eventually canceled the guilty judgments against the convicted and awarded compensation to their family members, resentment spread across the community. The agonizing legacy of the witch trials would be felt for many centuries.

Why Innocent People are Wrongly Convicted Introduction Attention grabber: “Wrongful convictions have been documented throughout history with incidents in 1611,1660,1792,1819,1820, and 1835 - not including the Salem Witch trials” (Krieger) Explanation: There are many different factors that contribute to false imprisonment such as: inaccuracy of eye-witnesses, perjured testimony, availability of DNA testing, accuracy of DNA testing, prosecutorial misconduct, and ineffective defense representation. These are only some of the few factors that lead to false imprisonment. B. Thesis: False imprisonment should not be a problem in today’s advanced society, there should be more precise ways to ensure that false imprisonment does not occur.

In the spring of 1692 the Salem witch trials began. During this time in history women accused of being witches often faced being torture, testing, and trials. Most of the time witches experienced executions if not that, put in jail. The townspeople tortured the accused witches in the most inhumane ways. This is considered a very dark and eerie time of the Puritans in Salem, Massachusetts (P., Shaunak).

In 1692, the town of Salem experienced one of America’s infamous cases. The Salem witch trials were hearings and prosecutions of people who were accused of witchcraft. These trials resulted in executions of 20 people, 14 of which were women.

This cause differs from the Anglo-Saxton era because defendants had no right to counsel, unlike today if someone cannot afford counsel the courts appoint someone to them. Today people fight to prove they did nothing wrong, when back then it was

One of the most well-known epithets in the United States is “innocent until proven guilty.” This means that until a prosecution has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that a person accused of a crime has indeed committed that crime, he or she is to be presumed innocent of all charges. In theory, this idea upholds the sense of democracy and fair trial upon which the country was founded. In practice, however, it is less so. Oftentimes, an accusation or a criminal charge defines the person accused, as he or she is already presumed guilty in the court of public opinion. Especially in the cases of high-profile trials, most people accept that the person

It is not rare to see someone accused of a crime, and for all practical purposes,

The early days of the Witch Trials in Europe and America were marked with many small trials held in villages throughout both continents with the first being recognized as the burning of accused witches in Valais Switzerland in 1428 with the estimated prosecuted being somewhere from 100 to 200 this is the recorded estimate until 1430 thereafter there are no records, this occurred after delegates from seven districts who urged authorities to investigate for sign of witchcraft