Either consciously or subconsciously fear drives almost everything you do. The biggest way fear drives your life is by influencing the way you perceive the world, and the way you react to certain situations. Fear also leads to people pointing fingers, and finding scapegoats. A scapegoat is a person or group of people that is easy to blame the doings of someone else on, they are a convenient excuse or explanation as to why something is happening. A scapegoat that many people do not think, or even know about, is the Jewish population during the black death. They were blamed for the deaths of millions of Europeans, all because of fear.
When life as you know it begins to fall apart, the easiest way to cope with the fear of what is happening is to blame it on someone. In the case of the black death, the easiest people to blame were the Jews. During the fourteenth century Christianity was taking over Europe, and fear of the Jewish religion was being taught in churches throughout Europe. “For centuries the Church taught that Jews were responsible for Jesus' death” and Jews who refused to convert to Christianity, were seen as anti-christ, some Christians even thought they were working with the devil. Many early churches taught that Jewish people used Christian children's blood for rituals, they were also thought to be against European civilization because they refused to convert to Christianity.
Christians even came to think that the Jews in their neighborhoods were dying at half the rate of the Christians, and this drove the fear of Jews even more. Jews started getting blamed for poisoning wells, and food sources of Christians, some even believed they were using black magic to bring sickness to families. Jews started being tortured into confessing that they either poisoned the wells or knew someone who did. Based on these false confessions the authorities in some towns started persecuting, or killing the Jewish population in that area. These massacres of Jewish people started happening across Europe, but the most notable ones were the Basel Massacre and the Strasbourg Massacre.
In Basel after one of the Jews falsely confessed, the authorities separated Jewish children from their parents, and forced them to be baptised as Christian. “The 600 remaining adults were brought to a specially-built wooden structure on an island in the Rhine river and locked inside. The building was set ablaze, burning the Jews alive”. The Strasbourg Massacre was similar to the massacre in Basel, but more deadly. The Bishop of Strasbourg wanted to save the Jews but the pressure from the townspeople became too much and he agreed to the extermination. All 2,000 Jews were rounded up and offered the chance to convert to Christianity or be killed. Some agreed to convert but most did not, causing almost all of the 2,000 to die. They were tied to a wooden platform inside of the Jewish cemetery and burned alive. Both of these towns passed laws stating that no Jews were allowed to live within city limits for the next 200 years, but both of these rulings were repealed within twenty years.
This belief that Jews were the cause of the plague created a mass panic that spread through Europe and resulted in some sort of masacre happening in “nearly every town along the Rhine in 1348 and 1349”. The Strasbourg massacre was one of the most senseless to happen because it was the most deadly and when it happened the plague had not even reached that part of Europe yet. It put a massive strain on communities and towns, because in many instances the towns elders wanted to save the Jewish population from a mass death. However the strain from the townspeople was too much for them to handle, and they would end up caving and allow these senseless killings to take place.
These events are similar to the crucible because the Salem Witch Trials were almost an exact parallel of the deadly events that happened throughout Europe. Innocent people in Salem were being accused of witchcraft and they were given the same choice to either, give up your morals and self respect, or be killed. Many confessions in salem were forced and it ended in neighbors pointing fingers at neighbors.
Fear is a fundamental part of life, it can be used for good, but in most cases it is used as an excuse. In “The Crucible” fear created mass panic and that was used to point fingers and kill of those the accused did not like. During the black death, fear created a society that used their core beliefs to persecute a group that they believed was dangerous. Neither group cared about real evidence and just took what they believed and ran with it. This resulted in senseless killings, and the unnecessary destruction of many towns.
When life as you know it begins to fall apart, the easiest way to cope with the fear of what is happening is to blame it on someone. In the case of the black death, the easiest people to blame were the Jews. During the fourteenth century Christianity was taking over Europe, and fear of the Jewish religion was being taught in churches throughout Europe. “For centuries the Church taught that Jews were responsible for Jesus' death” and Jews who refused to convert to Christianity, were seen as anti-christ, some Christians even thought they were working with the devil. Many early churches taught that Jewish people used Christian children's blood for rituals, they were also thought to be against European civilization because they refused to convert to Christianity.
Christians even came to think that the Jews in their neighborhoods were dying at half the rate of the Christians, and this drove the fear of Jews even more. Jews started getting blamed for poisoning wells, and food sources of Christians, some even believed they were using black magic to bring sickness to families. Jews started being tortured into confessing that they either poisoned the wells or knew someone who did. Based on these false confessions the authorities in some towns started persecuting, or killing the Jewish population in that area. These massacres of Jewish people started happening across Europe, but the most notable ones were the Basel Massacre and the Strasbourg Massacre.
In Basel after one of the Jews falsely confessed, the authorities separated Jewish children from their parents, and forced them to be baptised as Christian. “The 600 remaining adults were brought to a specially-built wooden structure on an island in the Rhine river and locked inside. The building was set ablaze, burning the Jews alive”. The Strasbourg Massacre was similar to the massacre in Basel, but more deadly. The Bishop of Strasbourg wanted to save the Jews but the pressure from the townspeople became too much and he agreed to the extermination. All 2,000 Jews were rounded up and offered the chance to convert to Christianity or be killed. Some agreed to convert but most did not, causing almost all of the 2,000 to die. They were tied to a wooden platform inside of the Jewish cemetery and burned alive. Both of these towns passed laws stating that no Jews were allowed to live within city limits for the next 200 years, but both of these rulings were repealed within twenty years.
This belief that Jews were the cause of the plague created a mass panic that spread through Europe and resulted in some sort of masacre happening in “nearly every town along the Rhine in 1348 and 1349”. The Strasbourg massacre was one of the most senseless to happen because it was the most deadly and when it happened the plague had not even reached that part of Europe yet. It put a massive strain on communities and towns, because in many instances the towns elders wanted to save the Jewish population from a mass death. However the strain from the townspeople was too much for them to handle, and they would end up caving and allow these senseless killings to take place.
These events are similar to the crucible because the Salem Witch Trials were almost an exact parallel of the deadly events that happened throughout Europe. Innocent people in Salem were being accused of witchcraft and they were given the same choice to either, give up your morals and self respect, or be killed. Many confessions in salem were forced and it ended in neighbors pointing fingers at neighbors.
Fear is a fundamental part of life, it can be used for good, but in most cases it is used as an excuse. In “The Crucible” fear created mass panic and that was used to point fingers and kill of those the accused did not like. During the black death, fear created a society that used their core beliefs to persecute a group that they believed was dangerous. Neither group cared about real evidence and just took what they believed and ran with it. This resulted in senseless killings, and the unnecessary destruction of many towns.
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