Merrill Gates
Mr.Wood
June 5, 2011
Period D The Salem witch trials was a time of distress and suffering for many people and as history repeats itself, we see this beginning to happen again with the Concerned Citizens of the United Sates. In both of these cases, innocent people are being accused and rational thinking is being replaced with fear. The Crucible written about the Salem witch trials by Arthur Miller can be used to compare the Salem witch trials to the recent ordeal with Concerned Citizens of the United States. Both of these “witch hunts” have similarities and differences. In times of panic, people often loose their sense of rationality. Irrational thinking was used in the cases of the Salem witch trials and the Concerned Citizens of the United States. The Salem witch trials consisted of the Catholic church going on a witch hunt to rid Salem of the devil. Those accused could either falsely confess of witchcraft and name others who they saw conversing with the devil or be hanged. The Concerned Citizens of the United States (CCUS) is a group of people in Utah who have accused around 1,300 people of being illegal immigrants. The CCUS demands that these people be deported as soon as possible. In both cases, these accusations were made with no evidence. Thomas Putman, a character in The Crucible says that a women “is a murdering witch, bound to keep herself in the dark.”(I.110). He makes this serious allegation based on absolutely no factual evidence. The CCUS claims that the people named in this list are immigrants because of the way “they are observed in [their] neighborhoods, driving on [their] streets, working in [their] stores, attending [their] schools and entering [their] public welfare offices.” (“Above the Law”). An illegal immigrant cannot be identified by how they look or act. Also in both these cases religion played a role against the accused victims. In The Crucible if one was not a faithful Christian, they were almost automatically associated with witch craft. The first signs that John Proctor is being accused of witch craft is when Reverend Hale comes to his house to question him about his attendance at church. Hale notes “that [Proctor] is rarely in the church on Sabbath Day” (II.200). Those who were considered unfaithful Christians easily became suspects of witchcraft. The CCUS also noted religion as a warning sign for illegal immigrants. The head of the CCUS was recorded making the following statement “When walking past places of worship, [the suspected illegal immigrants] convey a look of shame across their faces. These looks of pure abashment further lead us to suspect their illegal presence.”(“Above the Law”). Both of religion and the absence of evidence led the CCUS and the Salem witch trials to accuse many people of crimes they most likely did not commit. Though there are similarities between these events, there are also some differences. The main differences between the CCUS accusations and the Salem witch trial accusations are the punishments for the convicted and the way pregnant women were regarded. Anyone guilty of witch craft was sentenced to death by hanging, and many people were
