What is The Great Fear?

Question

Ok so we have to read this reading about The Great Fear (it's a small reading in The Crucible) and basically I have no time to read it.

I know it has to do with McCarthy and the Witch Trials, but can someone briefly explain to me as to what it is? Thank-you :)

Answer 1

The "Great Fear"  occurred from July 20 to August 5, 1789 in France at the start of the French Revolution. Rural unrest had been present in France since the worsening grain shortage of the spring, and the grain supplies were now guarded by local militias as bands of vagrants roamed the countryside. Rumors spread among the peasantry that nobles had hired these vagrants to prey on villages and protect the new harvest from the peasants.

In response, fearful peasants armed themselves in self-defense against the imaginary marauders and attacked manor houses. Aristocratic property was ransacked, and documentation recording feudal obligations were destroyed. There were isolated incidents of violence against the aristocrats, but the peasants mostly wanted to destroy the records in which the feudal dues were recorded. Grain supplies were attacked and merchants suffered serious losses as peasants helped themselves to much needed supplies. The hysteria spread across the country but gradually burned itself out as militias imposed law and order.

Answer 2

Actually, the term you are using (The Great Fear) is a term that is generally associated with the period of the French Revolution when no one was safe from being sent to the guillotine for treason.  Citizens of France, both rich and poor were losing their heads left and right.  The most prominent man considered responsible for the mass executions was one called Maximilien Robspierre.  Even he was eventually guillotined as well