According to the Merriam Webster dictionary witch hunt may be defined as a searching out for persecution of persons accused of witchcraft or : the searching out and deliberate harassment of those (as political opponents) with unpopular views .
A witch hunt occurs any time a group of people persecutes another group unfairly, usually blaming that group for larger problems. Examples of “witch hunts” during the 20th century might be the Holocaust or the McCarthy trials:
Understanding the historical facts will give you a clear view and perspective to better understand the book and open your eyes to any form of modern day witch hunt.
During class you will watch a video about Puritan life in America. To help you complete your search please follow these links
New England Puritans
The Salem Witchcraf Trials 1692
Life in Salem 1692
The Story of the Witch Hunt
The People Behind the Trials
Experience The Trials
http://www.salemweb.com/memorial/
Salem Village Interactive Map
The Crucible was inspired by a 20th centurywitch hunt known as the Mcarthy Trials. Do you believe there are witchunts in our days? pick at least one and write a complete essay about it ,comparing and contrasting it to the Crucible and the Salem witch trials.
You MUST post this essay as a comment to this Post. Due date for this writing (2.2) project is February 16.
In Arthur Miller’s book “The Crucible”, the term witch hunt is clearly exposed and explained. Witch hunt isn’t only used when talking directly about the search of evidence of witch craft, but also when referring to any attempt to expose disloyalty, dishonesty in anyone regardless of the innocence of the subject.
ReplyDeleteThe book revolves around the accusations made because of the belief in witchcraft by the 1692 puritan habitants of Salem, Massachusetts. It starts by mentioning the sight of Reverend Parris of a group of girls dancing in the woods which led one of the girls to fall in a coma, this girl being Parris’ daughter Betty. When doctors prove this coma is caused by witchcraft the whole town is astonished and turns in need to figure out the root of the problem.
After a specialist in the topic is called, Betty is checked but no results are obtained until the girl wakes up screaming. Then all the girls involved in the dance including Parris’ niece Abigail start accusations towards many of the women in town including Tituba, Parris’ Caribbean slave who lead the dancing and the conjuring that went on in the woods with the girls.
The trials began because of the need to prove the existence of witches causing the appearance of the devil in Salem. After many accusations only a few confess and many are hanged. When the number of accused reached over 60 the girls were starting to be doubted. 19 men and women were hanged until Increase Mather, the father of Cotton Mather who had published a book that helped in the beliefs of witch craft, stated in a book that it “were better that ten suspected witches should escape than one innocent person should be condemned”. This was taken by the new court settled by the returning Governor Phips, which was composed by friends of Cotton Mather, and then it was decided that the trials and hangings would end.
The situation in the McCarthy era in 1950 has many parallels similar to “The Crucible”. In the McCarthy hearings many where suspected of being related to communism, so they were interviewed, forced to give up others’ names or even imprisoned and their names blacklisted.
In both cases there appear to be similarities such as having many found guilty with such little evidence and these being supported and actually taken in account because of the fear of communism spreading, just like in Salem, where everyone was supporting the trial because of the fear of the existence of witches and the devil in town. Also, everyone decided to go with it and follow McCarthy in the hearings like following the accusations on the trials because of the Red Scare when everyone feared of the thought of communism taking the U.S government.
In both cases there seem to be consequences related, where people had their lives basically ruined, and taken even if they were innocent but couldn’t find the ways to prove it.
These and many others are examples of how the process of witch hunt, where people are often accused and found guilty of cases where their innocence even though true, couldn’t be proved because of the reactions of the onlookers, people follow the accusations because they fear they obtain by being told to be afraid. Many of the cases of witch hunt end up in nations regret after looking back at the tragic misfortunes.
Jaime, here is my essay:Salem and the modern witch-hunts.
ReplyDeleteBy: Ariel Rausch.
The Salem witch trials were a series of accusations to various people in Salem, Massachusetts, these accusations were caused by mass hysteria and some misunderstandings, but generally because the authority led the people to believe something and out of desperation, they acted. In history, there have been countless witch-hunts that through propaganda, “brain-washing” and taking advantage of the situation, governments and high entities of power have achieved to make into destructive disasters.
A clear example of this kind of “modern witch-hunt” is of course WWII, or “The Holocaust” as it is also known. Hitler rose to power when Germany was most in need of a scapegoat for every one of the problems the country was having, poverty, humiliation before the rest of the world, a lost war, and of course Hitler blamed the Jews, for all of it.
And as in 1692 in Salem, people started persecuting them, with no particular reason, just fear, and hysteria, they started fearing them, loathing them, being disgusted by them and of course, they didn’t believe they could put the devil in their bodies, but, a full-on witch-hunt happened in those five years of war, where six million Jews were killed and just, because of mass hysteria.
So, we can see how the Salem witch-hunts resemble events like The Holocaust, and many others, because if you have enough people, and conviction, you can make anything happen.
Now-a-days there are many types of witch hunts which are similar and different from those of previous times. Even thought, at the end, all witch hunts have the same purpose and that’s what keeps the ones from these days connected to those from earlier days. There are many witch hunts that can be named (The Holocaust, Terrorism, and people against homosexuals, and cases that are more personal and less known, like The McCuan Kniffen Frame-up)
ReplyDeleteThe McCuan Kniffer Frame-Up is a case that took place in early 1982 when Becky, the oldest daughter of Alvin and Debbie McCuan, said her grandparent touched her inappropriately. After a doctor was able to proof this, Debbie’s psychotic stepmother, Mary Ann Barbour, though that nothing was being done about it and did everything possible to mark Debbie and Alvin as bad parents and after doing everything in her power, she got custody of her two granddaughters.
After this happened, the McCuan’s told Mary Ann they had witnesses that would proof that they deserved custody of their children, and they did; Scott and Brenda Kniffer. The next day, Mary Ann called a woman named Dana Markowitz and said "You won't believe what the girls are saying now!"; "There is a group of people involved in molesting the girls. They are all in on it!” Mary Ann said that both girls were molested in a sex ring.
That’s when a lot of people were named guilty, including the McCuan’s and the Kniffer’s. Even thought there were a lot of suspects and Becky and Dawn ( the McCuan’s daughters) went around saying what every suspect kept at their house, none of their homes where investigated to see if there was any evidence that could proof them blameworthy.
The kniffer’s were arrested and their sons were taken away from them; there was no doubt that the McCuan girls had been molested for a long period of time even though there had been no investigation of the suspects for evidence of any type of abuse against the minors. Even thought there was a lot of evidence that could make some of the suspects’ innocent, like the fact that the girls declared that they only blamed their uncle Tommy because Mary Ann told them to, the case became deeper.
The declaration of the girls led to investigation of the Kniffer’s home were no evidence of abuse was found. Their sons were taken to questioning about their parents and were told that the truth about their parents was already known and were practically obligated to lie about the innocence of their parents. As they declared that their parents were guilty at court, the “sex ring” was arrested and the McCuan girls were given to Mary Ann Barbour again.
ReplyDeleteDuring 1983-1984 trial, it was said that anyone defending the “molesters” were considered molesters as well and were part of the “sex ring”. Because of the children testimony, false medical reports, local reporting’s, etc. the McCuan’s and Kniffer’s were sentenced for 200 years which was greatly above averages of child abuse.
As a suggestion of a private investigator, Scott and Brenda took polygraph tests which they both passed but were not valid as it was not done with approval of the State Attorney General’s Office. In 1985, after many other "sex ring cases" were developed by the same District Attorney's Office, the Attorney General of California finally was compelled to investigate the procedures for questioning the children.
After the case was over, the Kniffen boys testified and said that their parents were innocent and they were obligated to lie, but unfortunately their parents, as well as the McCuan’s are still in jail.
This case is similar to the Crucible and the Salem Witch Trials because in both cases people are named guilty by children and the accusation made by them are of great matter. The consequences of this accusations lead to procedures which should not be taken and injustice can be seen in both of them. In the Crucible and in the McCuan Kniffen Frame-up, the law and those who where in charged didn’t act in a equal way; they didn’t hear both sides as they should’ve had and believed the ones they wanted to believe instead of the ones which the evidence proof innocent. Justice wasn’t made. In the Crucible and Salem Witch Trials the suspects were at least given the chance to declare themselves guilty to save themselves, but in the McCuan Kniffen Frame-up, even when a polygraph test was done, the “suspects” are still held against their right.
I think both cases are really similar with the only difference that the Crucible and the Salem Witch Trials are examples of witch hunts of earlier days, with more religious and spiritual matters, as for the McCuan Kniffen Frame-up, it’s a modern witch hunt which has more to do with social issues of these times. Both are examples of witch hunts in which a lot of people are stated responsible, by children, for really big deals and the law acts unfairly creating a big issue among everyone without giving a fair solution to the problem and choosing a side to defend.(2)
A witch hunt is a search for witches or evidence of witchcraft, often involving moral panic, mass hysteria and lynching, but in historical instances also legally sanctioned and involving official witchcraft trials.
ReplyDeleteIt mostly occurs at times when a group of people persecutes another group blaming them unfairly.
Now a day’s witch hunt still occurs in society and example is the HOLOCAUST. The holocaust was definitely and is still considered to be a witch hunt. During this time, Jews were being discriminated against by Nazis (Germans who took control of the government and believed they were "racially superior”). The Nazis, being led by the infamous Adolf Hitler (who was a man who had the power to move masses by getting them to follow his beliefs by his power in oratory), wanted to create the ideal race by persecuting those who they believed were inferior to them (which included not only Jews, homosexual, but the disabled and Slavic people who were persecuted for political, ideological, and behavioral grounds).
Before the Jews were sent to extermination camps, Nazi propaganda demonized them. There was a contradiction in Nazi propaganda: on one hand, they claimed that the Jews were inferior, but on the other hand, they were also portrayed as extremely clever and diabolically cunning.
We can compare the HOLOCAUST to one of the original witch hunt such as the one exposed in Arthur Miller's book, “The Crucible".
Witchcraft a serious event in seventeenth century, New England, was punishable by death.
The Crucible dramatization of the Salem witch trials, took place in Massachusetts, based on real events in 1692. In the story many people are accused and often hang or sent to jail because they were accused by girls of witchcraft.
Abigail, Betty and the girls are dancing in the woods making conjures with spirits while dancing naked, they got discovered by Reverend Parris(Betty’s father), Betty falls in a state of coma and this leads to the accusation that the girls were doing witchcraft; to escape up the punishment they accuse other women’s in the town of being witches.
There was a judge who went by last name Danforth; he believed the girls were telling the truth; while they were really accusing innocent women. Then Reverend Hale, an expert of witchcraft, was called. He at first believed they were witches, but then he denied this trying to help them.
Proctor got Mary Warren to testify against the girls but when Mary entered the room, Abigail and the girls started to scream that she was sending her spirit upon them, then at the end she accused John of being a wizard. John was accused, he discussed the possibility of lying in order to save his life but he was still hanged.
Many were accused and 19 were hanged, others who confessed ended up in jail. The accusations stopped after a new court, proposed by the governor, started doubting about the accusations made by the girls.
The trials finally ended after the court decided taking the statement written by the father of one of the authors of witchcraft books. “The statement read that it were better that ten suspected witches should escape than one innocent person should be condemned”
Belief in witchcraft has been shown to have similarities in societies throughout the world. It presents a framework to explain the occurrence of otherwise random misfortunes such as sickness or death, and the witch sorcerer provides an image of evil.
Laura: Essay: Compare and contrast witchcraft in the Middle Ages and nowadays.
ReplyDeleteIn the Middles Ages, more precisely in 1692, certain people were accused of something they were being or doing, at the time witchcraft.
This three events are similar in one way, this people were accused of something they weren’t, just like the term McCarthyism says, ‘The practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence.’ The people accused were being taken by beliefs superstitious people had, such as: Hitler thought the Jews were an impure race; McCarthy tried to uncover things by being rude, reckless, cruel and indecent, in The Crucible the people were accused of witchcraft by people lacking common sense.
The people during this times were scared, terrified to know who was good, who was trustable and who was ‘pure’, as Hitler said.
During my time reading this book/play, I enjoyed the craziest situations from reading habits being witchcraft, to being connected with the devil, and casting spells.
Nowadays witchcraft is thought of being completely different; it is connected to politics and common daily topics.
In 2004 the president of Colombia, at the time, Alvaro Uribe Velez started giving orders to highjack cellphones and computers, searching for corruption in mayors, senators, high range army commandants, and others.
This nowadays can be seen as modern witchcraft.
Laura: Essay: Compare and contrast witchcraft in the Middle Ages and nowadays.
ReplyDeleteIn the Middles Ages, more precisely in 1692, certain people were accused of something they were being or doing, at the time witchcraft.
This three events are similar in one way, this people were accused of something they weren’t, just like the term McCarthyism says, ‘The practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence.’ The people accused were being taken by beliefs superstitious people had, such as: Hitler thought the Jews were an impure race; McCarthy tried to uncover things by being rude, reckless, cruel and indecent, in The Crucible the people were accused of witchcraft by people lacking common sense.
The people during this times were scared, terrified to know who was good, who was trustable and who was ‘pure’, as Hitler said.
During my time reading this book/play, I enjoyed the craziest situations from reading habits being witchcraft, to being connected with the devil, and casting spells.
Nowadays witchcraft is thought of being completely different; it is connected to politics and common daily topics.
In 2004 the president of Colombia, at the time, Alvaro Uribe Velez started giving orders to highjack cellphones and computers, searching for corruption in mayors, senators, high range army commandants, and others.
This nowadays can be seen as modern witchcraft.
The crucible is a book that explains how in Salem Massachusetts the woman were persecuted for been accused of being making black magic. The majority of this suppose witches never in his life do does things but some persons accused some persons because they don’t liked it or only for a joke.
ReplyDeleteIn now these days in Cuba there hundreds of people being judge of have different political ideologist and now this persons are in danger because they are being persecuted and getting them in prison. The people in these prisons are dying of the sicknesses and the poor cleaning and the shortage of food in there.
I thing that this story is very similar to the situation of Cuba with his political prisoners because this political being judge from other people and they are in jail for no reason and in the book when Abigail and his friends judge some persons of the village of been making black magic in there.
But the differences of these 2 are that in the crucible are talking more about religious issues and in cuba are talking about political issues
A witch hunt is known as an investigation carried out, apparently to uncover alteration or destruction of public order or political stability of nation activities but actually used to harass and undermine those with differing views.
ReplyDeleteA witch hunt occurs any time a group of people persecutes another group unfairly, usually blaming that group for larger problems. This kind of situations can be seen in the story, “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller; that reflects the McCarthy case.
The Crucible is a story that tells us when a group of people is accused of witchcraft because of strange things that were happening in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. There were rumors that women were practicing witchcraft galvanize the town’s most basic fears and suspicions; and when a girl accuses a person of being a witch, self-righteous church leaders and townspeople insist that she be brought to trial.
The violence of the prosecutors and the impatience of neighbor to testify against neighbor created the destructive power of socially sanctioned violence.
The McCarthy witch hunt in United States was when the senator began a process of challenges, irregular processes, and blacklists against individuals suspected of communism. Trials, evidence and testimony in many cases distorted, destroyed the career of a great number of innocent Americans. This ends when McCarthy was censored because of conduct unbecoming a member of the Senate.
Belief in witchcraft has been shown to have similarities in societies throughout the world. It presents a framework to explain the occurrence of otherwise random misfortunes such as sickness or death, and the witch sorcerer provides an image of evil.
It can be tell that witch hunt is still seen today. There are reports of witchcrafts in Asia, Africa, America. And it exists not only the belief in witchcraft, but also the periodic appearances of witch-hunts are a human cultural universal
The horrible experience of witch hunt on Salem is a clear example of what the social sphere power can cause when it gather and organizes for a common cause, transforming laws and costumes with their word upon a problem that involves their society. In the case of Salem the social organization was upon the witches and the damned that, by the consideration of the people and the court, appeared through vain speculations and rumors. The reason of the unreason of the incomprehensible human minds plays a role on this outrageous chapter of our history.
ReplyDeleteFear induced on the costumes of the straight religious puritans, that came from England, came on to the most basic suspicions that the devil and its partisans were near, or in, the village to contaminate and torture their people. This, in addition to the predilection for minding other people´s business (pending for the opportunity of seeing failure, or abnormality, on the daily role of their neighbors), gave people from Salem reasons for trust on witches and damned demons on Earth (also the political weak condition to these strange problem). It is fault that Abigail (the pure daughter of reverend Parris), and the other girls, advantage when questioned about witchcraft (at the visit of Mr. Hale to the resting place of Betty), fixing their word to accuse other people and play with the mind of their neighbors (when Tituba is oppressed and starts the accusations through out the village). These accusations woke up the basic fears of the villagers and also the meddlesome abilities creating an atmosphere of hysteria, proceeding to the dreadful end of this chapter, with nineteen women and men murdered unfairly (from today´s perspective). Taking in mind all this socio-political, and cultural, mess caused by the moral panic, mass hysteria, and the whims of a group of rebels (the Salem girls who unholy cheat on the village) came to the disaster with nonsense or explication more than the insanity and madness of the inapprehensible humans.
The racism and xenophobic cultures through out Spain (and through the entire world) might be another example of this annoying chapter on human’s history. Spain has passed through different periods of what we can call witch hunting, from the middle ages and its Repopulation and Reconquest, their constant struggle with the “moors” and the Arabic empires that wanted to reign through their Christian terrains, the Inquisition and the persecution of Jews and Muslims, the abuse and put over the “Indians” in the conquest of America, the black slavery, etc. As you can see Spain has a good content of witch trials and persecutions through their history, but what is to actual ages? Xenophobia has being going on a crescent impact on the social scope of Spain. Rebel youth groups with political, social and international recrimination (with a solid cause) has been witch hunting (by the illegal ways) several races and cultural ethnics by considering them as an infection that would damage their beloved country. The preoccupation is that (as in The Crucible) these xenophobic groups are taking much part of the society´s concentration through the constant attacks and control of the public media with their ideologies and violent accusations. The persecution of the “witches” is taken by the organization by their own hands, and the only difference with the trials of Salem is that the political authorities and the global organizations for the human rights (not acquired in 1692) have a “complete” rejection for these violent groups.
ReplyDeleteThe episode of the witch hunt on Salem is one of the most famous cases of mass hysteria, and has been used in political rhetoric and popular literature as a vivid cautionary tale about the dangers of isolationism, religious extremism, false accusations, lapses in due process, and local governmental intrusion on individual liberties. For the conscience and sensibility of all the inhabitants of this world I can say that it is a constant still today that causes moral mess, and injustices, that comes with bad intentions, to put upon and trample over any difference that comes from the prejudices of a simple person and goes to all the society if we don´t act.
Augusto.