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