West of Massachusetts laid a great forest, inhabited by the Plains Indians. Despite increasingly hard efforts, the people of Massachusetts only managed to convert a very small amount of Indians to the Christian faith. Angered by this, the people of Massachusetts felt very isolated in their beliefs – it seemed to them that they were holding Gods only candle which could light the world. In some ways, this belief was very helpful and encouraging to tem, as it gave them a purpose for working hard. However, it also encouraged them to behave in an arrogant and self-righteous way.
The idea of McCarthyism originally came from ‘The Alien Registration Act’ passed by Congress on 29th June 1940. This made it illegal for anyone in the United States to advocate, abet, or teach the desirability of overthrowing the government. The main objective of the Alien Registration Act was to undermine the American Communist Party and other left-wing political groups in the United States. It was decided that the House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), which had been set up by Congress under Martin Dies in 1938 to investigate people suspected of unpatriotic behaviour, would be the best vehicle to discover if people were trying to overthrow the government. If people called before the HUAC refused to name names, they were added to a blacklist that had been drawn up by the Hollywood film studios. Over 320 people were placed on this list that stopped them from working in the entertainment industry. This included Leonard Bernstein and Charlie Chaplin. It was then decided to use the Alien Registration Act against the American Communist Party. Leaders of the party were arrested and in October 1949, after a nine-month trial, eleven members were convicted of violating the act. Over the next two years another 46 members were arrested and charged with advocating the overthrow of the government.
On 9th February 1950, Joseph McCarthy, a senator from Wisconsin, made a speech claiming to have a list of 205 people in the State Department known to be members of the American Communist Party (like the people of Massachusetts, he had a great feeling of self righteous indignation towards others). The list of names was not a secret and had been in fact published by the Secretary of State in 1946. These people had been identified during a preliminary screening of 3,000 federal employees. Some had been communists but others had been fascists, alcoholics and sexual deviants. If screened, McCarthy's own drink problems and sexual preferences would have resulted in him being put on the list. For the next two years McCarthy's committee investigated various government departments and questioned a large number of people about their political past. Some lost their jobs after they admitted they had been members of the Communist Party. McCarthy made it clear to the witnesses that the only way of showing that they had abandoned their left-wing views was by naming other members of the party. This witch-hunt and anti-communist hysteria became known as McCarthyism. In fear of their jobs and lives, many politicians became unwilling to criticize him in the Senate.
"Attacking him in this state is regarded as a certain method of committing suicide." – The Boston Post, 1950.
During the witch-hunt that took place in Salem in 1692, people were first given the ultimatum of telling the court that they had made contact with the devil or being hung (they were almost definitely innocent, but the courts believed that they did not want to turn back to god which and were denying any contact with the devil so that he wasn’t discovered). After confessing (probably falsely), they were forced to stand in front of courts holding every member of the town and name the names of people who they had seen with the Devil, including family and friends.
In Arthur Miller’s ‘The Crucible’, many people are put in this position, with the result that many people are falsely accused due to others trying to save their own lives. The girls of the village start the whole thing rolling however by pretending that they have seen the devil, in order that their ‘leader’, Abigail Williams can be married to John Proctor (he is already married but has had an affair with Abigail. His wife knows about it and John has sworn to never see her again. Her feelings for him however are still very violent). John Proctor ends up in a position very similar to that which Arthur Miller himself was put in, in the 1950’s, suffering under McCarthyism. Whilst the court tries to persuade John Proctor to betray his friends, Miller was asked to name the people he had seen at a communist party meeting. They were both very nearly persuaded to do this, by the temptation of being able to live, and being able to live a calm and unworried life. Unlike so many others however, they both refused to sink to such a low level in order that their lives would be saved.
‘…I would not violate what on the spur of the moment I said was my sense of myself.’ – Arthur Miller.
