The Communist "witch hunts" of the 1950s prompted Arthur Miller to write about the mass hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials in his play, The Crucible. Miller captured the paranoia and hatred of the 1692 Salem Witch Trials and made a controversial reference to his own society's Witch Hunts during the 1950s. Miller told us the stories of the lives of John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor, Abigail Williams and others during the 1692 Witch Trials in Salem, Massachusetts. The quiet Salem community was living happily in their own sleepy world, until several local girls fell ill as their sickness was blamed on witchcraft. .
Throughout history millions of people have been scorned, accused, arrested, tortured, put to trial, and persecuted as witches. One would think that by the time the United States was colonized, these injustices on humanity would have come to an end, but that was not so. In 1692 a major tragedy occurred in America, the Salem witch trials. It all began, when a group of girls accused others, generally older women, of consorting with the devil (Nelson 42). The witchcraft hysteria in Salem, Massachusetts resulted from the strict Puritan code which aroused the girls" interest in superstition and magic and caused strange behavior.
The Salem witch trials were based on the Puritans" belief in the conflict between God and Satan. Puritans had always believed that they were the new chosen people, abandoning a land of sin and oppression to establish the Promised Land (New England). .
Puritans beliefs were rooted in contrasts. They believed that if there was something good there must be something bad to contradict it. For instance, since there was a God, there must be a Devil (43). Since there is good, there must be evil, and since there are saints, chosen to do God's work on earth, there must be witches, who are instruments of the Devil.
However, if someone were to not believe in witches they were considered heretics in Salem.
