Salem Witch Hunt Essay

The three most horrific modern day witch hunts were the Salem witch trials, McCarthyism, and Rwanda. These three witch hunts caused mass hysteria throughout their communities, where people were discriminated, persecuted, and killed. The Salem witch trials occurred in colonial Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693. More than 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft and twenty were executed. Eventually, the colony admitted that the trials were unethical and a huge mistake. Rwanda is a country in central africa with a population around ten million people. The Belgians, who took control of rwanda after world war I, used the already existing Tutsi and Hutu differences as a part of their colonial system. The Hutus were used for labor, and

the Tutsi supervised the Hutus. In 1959, the Hutus overthrew the tyrant Tutsi king for the discrimination that was put on them. Over the next several years, thousands of tutsi were killed. After world war II, a growing number of americans feared that communism would gain strength in the united states. Senator joseph Mccarthy declared that he had a list of 205 government officials that belonged to the communist party. Even though the falsely accused communists were never proved guilty, their lives and careers were ruined at the hands of senator mccarthy. These three horrific witch trials would prove to be the three worst of all time.
The salem witch trials started when a group of young girls said they were possessed by the devil. The group of girls accused three local women of witchcraft. Bridget bishop, one of the three women accused, was the first person to be hung. Later that year, 150 other people would be falsely accused of witchcraft. A quote based on witchcraft stated that “everyone loves a witch hunt as long as it's someone else's witch being hunted”(Kirn). This quote means that people would blame other individuals of witchcraft to save themselves from being hung or imprisoned, rather than tell the truth. Innocent people shouldn't be killed or persecuted because of individual’s power or influence.
The hutus and tutsis were always in conflict, the tutsis were always considered taller, leaner, lighter skinned, and overall better looking. The Hutus were shorter, stockier and had a darker shade of skin. The Rwanda genocide started when a plane carrying the Major General Habyarimana and Burundi’s president Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down over Kigali, leaving no survivors. Tutsi blamed hutus for shooting down the plane, causing a civil war to break in 1994. Years after the plane crashed, thousands of tutsi were killed and over 150,000 people were exiled from Rwanda. A quote about rwanda is, “when you're being judged by someone that has no idea who you are....”(Adler). This quote relates to Rwanda because Hutus were judged on their appearance and their religious and cultural values. Rwanda was a witch hunt because of the accusations made on the Hutus, the hysteria that plagued Rwanda, and the mass amount of people that were killed.
Joseph mccarthy was a anti communist senator for the state of wisconsin, he said that he had a list of people who worked for the federal government and belonged to the communist party.

Senator mccarthy used this list to instill hysteria in the american people. Those people were then exiled or persecuted, even though senator mccarthy lacked evidence to try this falsely accused people. A quote from the time period of mccarthyism was “I profoundly believe that in the struggle against communist and their organizations… we cannot and should not resort to the methods and forms employed by the communist party”( Kravchenko). This quote clearly explains how there was hysteria in america during the cold war. Mccarthyism is a modern day witch hunt because of the mass hysteria that spread through the united states, and the people that were blacklisted and exiled for being falsely accused of being communist.

Rwanda, Salem, and Mccarthyism were witch hunts because people were falsely accused of crime, and people were discriminated or killed because of their ethnic values. Over 200 people were falsely accused of witchcraft in Salem. Communists were discriminated because of the fear of hysteria in America. Hutus and Tutsi were killed because of their ethnics, culture or appearance. Witch hunts leads to nothing, but chaos and

problems.