# data[].attributes.body
The Crucible, an allegorical play in which Miller likened the situation with the House Un-American Activities Committee to the witch hunt in Salem, opened at the Beck Theatre

on Broadway on January 22, 1953. The main purpose of The Crucible is to draw parallels between the events of the Salem witch craze and what was happening in America at the time of the play's writing. Though widely considered unsuccessful at the time of its initial release, today The Crucible is one of Miller's most frequently produced works. Arthur Miller, an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater, was inspired to write a drama reflecting the mass cultural and political hysteria produced when the U.S. government sought to suppress Communism and radical leftist activity in America.

# data[].attributes.headline
Hysteria Strikes during the Witch Trials

# data[].attributes.subject
Hysteria Strikes during the Witch Trials

# data[].attributes.body
In January 1692 mass hysteria erupted in Salem Village, Massachusetts, when the specter of witchcraft was raised after several young girls became unaccountably ill. From February to May, events escalated until 180 residents had been accused of witchcraft. Formal action was taken against 144 individuals, who were often chained and thrown in jail for months under harsh conditions. At least 55 of the accused were tortured or terrified into admitting guilt. The series of trials and executions finally ended in May 1693.

# data[].attributes.body
Puritanism was a religious reform movement in the late 16th and 17th centuries that sought to purify the Church of England of remnants of the Roman Catholic. The Puritans wanted to rid the Church of any Catholic residue and to build upon the ideas of "Calvinism." When Elizabeth died and Charles II dissolved parliament and any connection between church and state, he demanded that anyone who did not support the new Anglican Church be executed. As a result, religious persecution against the Puritans began. To escape religious persecution, the Puritans fled to the new world in 1620 and established a colony in the Massachusetts Bay.

# data[].attributes.body
The Puritans believed that God had formed a unique covenant, or agreement, with them. Puritans believed that it was necessary to be in a covenant relationship with God in order to be redeemed from one's sinful condition. One such belief is total depravity, in which the Puritans believed that anyone is deemed sinned from the day they are born on the Earth. The Puritan also believed that the community should be a theocracy, in which a government blends church and state and the church’s officials were the government’s officials. Thus, church and state were not separate.

# data[].attributes.body
The Salem witch trials began during the spring of 1692, after a group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcraft. By September 1692, the hysteria had begun to abate, and public opinion turned against the trials. The Salem witch trials and executions came about as the result of a combination of church politics, family feuds, and hysterical children, all of which unfolded in a vacuum of political authority. More than two hundred people were accused. Thirty were found guilty, nineteen of whom were executed by hanging.