17th and 20th century witch hunts

I have always been interested in early American history, especially the Salem witch trials, so when I first read The Crucible a few years ago I thought of it in terms of the historical period and its context. Upon rereading the play and thinking of the theme of our course I have found completely new meaning in The Crucible. I found an astonishing comparison between the Salem witch trials and the blacklist that I had never seen before. In Salem the term “witch hunt” was taken literally, yet the blacklist of the 1950s was another form of a “witch hunt” which I had never seen the similarities between until reading Miller’s commentary and criticism of The Crucible. I had always seen the accuser Abigail Williams as a servant looking to possess the power she could not have in the social contexts of the time, but her place in society and the power her accusations brought her were similar to the powers given to the accusers during the blacklist. Even the overwhelming power of being an accuser and not an accused individual is another parallel between the Salem witch trials and the blacklist. The fear and hysteria could be felt in The Crucible just as the struggles were felt in Inside Out. Many of Miller’s comments about the Salem witch trials speak to us in the shadow of the blacklist. He at one point writes “They were asked to be lonely and they refused” (171). He is speaking of those accused in the Salem trials, yet this same feeling seems to echo in the blacklist where those accused were ostracized like those in Salem, yet they came together to avoid the loneliness, where those in Salem could not be so lucky. When speaking of Salem he writes that “there was a sadism here that was breathtaking (166)” which is something I found when reading and learning about the blacklist. At one point he even writes about Salem “People then avowed principles, sought to love by them and die by them” (168). This to mean can also be a statement of those blacklisted. They had certain beliefs and had to give up their livelihoods to stand by those beliefs.
It is honestly a shame for me to see such comparisons between events about 250 years apart, yet the hysteria, accusations, and destruction of lives are comparable. To think that the horror of the Salem witch trials could or was ever replayed in our country’s history is shocking. To not look back and see the destruction of a community that the trials caused and then repeat such destruction over the entire nation is remarkable.