GENIAL PRESENTATION

Witch hunt

A huge history of discrimination

Chapters

History

McCarthyism

Nowadays

This period is known because witchcraft trials were rising.

03

1680-1740

02

1500-1600

First findings about witch hunting

VIIth century

01

Through the Middle Ages, witchcraft was mostly tolerated or merely scoffed at and infrequently punished. From the 14th century and mostly in the XVIth, the witch hunts were much frequent and very dangerous. In Europe the traditional witch hunt ended in the XVIIIth century.

Timeline

The end of classic whitch hunts

Although accusations of witchcraft in contemporary culture provide a means to express or resolve social tensions, these accusations had different consequences in premodern Western society where the mixture of irrational fear and a persecuting mentality led to the emergence of the witch hunts.

Mc Carthyism

Joseph McCarthy

The hollywood ten

The context

The end of McCarthyism

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Joseph McCarthy was a United States Senator from Wisconsin whose crusade against suspected communists created a political frenzy in the early 1950s. The actions of McCarthy dominated the news to such a degree that the word McCarthyism entered the language to describe the hurling of unfounded accusations.

The McCarthy era, as it became known, lasted for only a few years, as McCarthy was eventually discredited and widely denounced. But the damage done by McCarthy was real. Careers were ruined and the country's politics were changed by the senator's reckless and bullying tactics.

The U.S. government created a Hollywood blacklist that included anyone with suspected ties to the communist party. As a result, most members of the blacklist were banned from working in the big Hollywood studios.

The Hollywood Ten were mostly screenwriters, but the group also included producers and directors. Some were able to work after being blacklisted, and some ended up writing under pseudonyms during the time of their shunning from Hollywood.

McCarthyism was a movement that took place in the Joint Statement from 1953 to 1955. McCarthyism is the practice of accusing subversion and treason, especially as it relates to communism and socialism. After World War II, the communists were accused of spying for the USA. Millions of American lives have been devastated by the largest "witch hunt" in American history. The campaign was launched by Mr. McCarthy when he entered the Senate and emphasized the theme of communism. Mr.Hoover the director of the fbi helps McCarthy. In 1955, it was discovered that they had made a lot of fake evidence to condemn innocent people. It's true that popular opinion was against McCarthy, but the repression didn't stop.

Though evidence has shown that the US had indeed been severely penetrated by Soviet spies, McCarthy’s campaign of terror did not last as long as some feared.

The first was the Army-McCarthy hearings, with dealt with his conduct while investigating the spread of Communism into the army. The hearing was televised and got a huge amount of publicity, and the revelations about McCarthy’s overzealous methods contributed hugely to his fall from grace.

The second is when the senator Lester Hunt killed himself. After being bullied like this for months, Hunt cracked in despair and committed suicide. Unsurprisingly, when details of this came to light, it meant the end for McCarthy. In December 1954, the US Senate passed a vote to censure him for his actions, and he died of suspected alcoholism three years later.

The case of Akua Denteh

Witch hunts are far from being a thing of the past, even in the 21st century. In many countries, this is still a sad reality for many women today.

Akua Denteh was beaten to death in Ghana's East Gonja District after being accused of being a witch. The murder of the 90 year old has once more highlighted the deep-seated prejudices against women accused of practicing witchcraft in Ghana, many of whom are elderly.

But the case of Akua Denteh is far from an isolated instance in Ghana, or indeed the world at large. In many countries of the world, women are still accused of practicing witchcraft each year. They are persecuted and even killed in organized witch hunts, especially in Africa but also in Southeast Asia and Latin America.