The Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism are parallels in public hysteria. They swept across the nation and caused havoc to people that lived through it. Both trials were some of the most important in history. Although the witch trials and McCarthy hearings dealt with unfair actions from people of the government and misinformation being told to people; they are distinguished by the victims and the effects on the commoners.
Both started with accusations with no reasonable evidence. An accusation is a claim that someone has done something wrong or illegal. In both trials McCarthy and Abigail Williams were the driving force behind the accusations that spread around. People began to believe the rumours going around …show more content…
They do relate in more ways than one. One reason is accusations being made against commoners with no evidence or solid reason made the hysteria began. While McCarthy was the main force in McCarthyism, Abigail Williams was the main force in the witch trials in Salem. They both started the accusations and made the hysteria grow. In the witch trials there were many that died. No one died in McCarthy trials but there were lots of people affected and their lives then on changed (Miller 1145). The effect was so great that a lot of people had damaged reputations and they lost their …show more content…
Accusations led to the hysteria and misinformation led to people believing things that may or may not be true. Both the Salem Witch trials and McCarthy trials happened at different times in history but have similar outcomes. Many people became affected with the trials and their livelihood was destroyed. Both trials had deceitful, manipulative, lying people that made things really bad. The outcome of these trials made them known as two of the most important events in history. All because of a couple of girls, and one man willing to do anything to get the attention. They ended up getting the attention in a bad way and caused mayhem that would always be