The Salem Witch Trials
description
Transcript of The Salem Witch Trials
The Crucible
Originated in Salem Village with Betty Parris, the only daughter of the town’s reverend, and her cousin Abigail
She began exhibiting odd behavior, convulsions, problems with speech, and skin sensations
The diagnosis: The girls had been bewitched
Political unrest between a very divided town—the town verses the village on the outskirts
Fear from Indian attacks and thoughts that it was a punishment from God
Fungus
First trial—May 27, 1692 Last trial—January 1693 By the end of the trials, nineteen people
were hanged, one was pressed to death, and possibly thirteen died in prison
All in all, 140 people were accused of being witches
The Great Fear
Daniel Fitzpatrick, St. Louis Post-Dispatch (February 23, 1947)
Passed by Congress on June 29, 1940
Made it illegal for anyone in the United States to advocate or teach the desirability of overthrowing the government
Law also required all alien residents in the United States over 14 to file a comprehensive statement of their personal and occupational status, as well as their political beliefs
Within four months, a total of 4,741,971 aliens had been registered
The main objective was to undermine the American Communist Party
The House of Un-American Activites Committee (HUAC) would investigate people suspected of unpatriotic behavior
Chaired by J. Parnell Thomas
In 1947, they began an investigation into the Hollywood Motion Picture Industry
Interviewed 41 people who attended voluntarily
During the interviews, they named nineteen people who they accused of hold left-winged views
Herbert Biberman, Lester Cole, Albert Maltz, Adrian Scott, Samuel Ornitz, Dalton Trumbo, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner, Jr., John Howard Lawson, and Alvah Bessie refused to answer questions
Known as the Hollywood Ten, they claimed that the 1st Amendment allowed them to refuse to answer any questions
They were all found guilty of contempt of congress and sentenced to between six and twelve months in prison
Larry Parks was the only actor in the original nineteen named
He agreed to give evidence to HUAC and admitted that he was a member of the Communist Party but refused to name anyone
Two days later, it was leaked to the press that Parks had named names, and that several other Hollywood icons were willing to name members
In June, 1950, three former FBI agents and television producer, Vincent Harnett, published Red Channels
This pamphlet listed the names of 151 writers, directors, and performers who claimed to be Communists
A free copy was given to those involved in employing people of the entertainment industry
All of the people named were blacklisted until they appeared in front of HUAC and convinced the members that they had completely renounced their past
Because of financial problems, Dmytryk decided to have his named removed from the blacklist
On April 25th, 1951, he appeared before the HUAC and answered all of their questions and named 26 former members of left-winged groups
Over 320 names were placed on the blacklist, including Arthur Miller