Giles Corey is one of the most notable victims of the Salem Witch Trials. Corey was born in Northampton, England, in 1621. After marrying his first wife, Margaret, the two migrated to the Thirteen Colonies, settling in Massachusetts Bay. In 1659, Corey relocated to the Village of Salem and soon thereafter, became a successful and well-known farmer. After the death of his first wife, he remarried to a woman named Mary Brite. In 1676, he was accused and stood trial for beating and killing his farmhand. His only punishment was a fine, leading people like Thomas Putnam to believe that he bought his way out of jail. Many people believed him to be quite violent after this. In 1984, Mary Brite died. In 1690, he wed his third and final wife, Martha, who would also fall victim to the Salem Witch Trials (Text 1). By 1692, the …show more content…
It is speculated that the accusations of the two had to do with a quarrel going on between the Corey’s and Putnam’s. He was subsequently arrested & charged on April 18th. He spent 5 months in jail with his wife (Text 2). By September, dozens had come forward with so-called “damning evidence” against Giles. Aware that conviction would give the state control over his land, Corey chose to stay silent. By staying silent, he could not be found guilty nor innocent. His property would then be given to his two sons instead of the state. However, staying silent was an act punishable by death. On September 19, 1692, Giles Corey was pressed to death by stones. In the moments leading up to his death, Corey kept pleading for more weight to be added so that his death would come quicker (Text 3). In the end, it took days for him to die. It was a very long and painful killing. He is one of few who died as an act of protest, opposed to an act of pride. Giles Corey’s death led to many people questioning the Salem Witch Trials, which eventually ended in the months
Salem Witch Trials http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/salem.htm The Trial of Martha Corey In March of 1692, a young woman that had recently became a member of the congregation, was accused of witchcraft. Other women of the church accused Martha Corey of being a witch, and Corey’s sarcastic response to the accusations winded her up arrested.
The event happened around Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode island. A few of the most famous witches that were ever know were Bridget Bishop, Rebecca Nurse, Sarah Good, Elizabeth Howe, Susannah Martin, and Sarah Wildes. The Salem Witch Trials went on between February 1692 - May 1693 but by the 18th Century, though, witches were no longer considered a threat. Instead they were understood as the superstitious imaginings of
They have been charged with witchcraft. They shall be hung for not confessing to their wrongdoings. In the book the Crucible it's about tragedy it Arthur Miller wrote about how it was scary back in the 1690’s. People were charged with witchcraft for doing nothing really. Anyone could just accuse you of it and you could just be called guilty right there.
She was one of twenty people executed in Salem in 1692 on witchcraft allegations. While it is clear that this witch hysteria had a profound impact on the community of Salem, what is unclear is why this event occurred, and more specifically, why did it occur in 1692? The main cause behind the Salem Witch Trials was the Puritan Religion which led to beliefs in the supernatural, strong associations with the Devil, as well as an a strong divide between
“I have given you my soul; leave me my name!” (Miller, The Crucible 143). The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, is a story that illustrates the Salem witch trials that occurred in 1692. These witch trials consisted of people who were falsely accused of witchcraft and twenty of them were executed. Not too long ago in 1954, the McCarthy trials began and took effect on the people.
On June 15, 1692, a group of ministers including Mather wrote to at the time Governor Phips urging that special caution be taken in the use of evidence in the trials. The court next met on June 29 and heard the cases of five more accused women. When the jury tried to acquit accused witch Rebecca Nurse, William Stoughton sent the jury back to deliberate, and returned with a changed verdict from innocent to guilty. Ultimately, all five of the women were hanged on July 19, 1692; at this time the witchcraft hysteria had spread out of the Salem border to Andover. When the hysteria reached the Corey household for the second time, Martha’s husband Giles
People also said he got locked in the courthouse basement because he “stabbed” his father. The children also made up a game reenacting these events which caused more negativity toward
However, he appealed and won but he still remained on the blacklist until the late 1960s. Giles Corey, an elderly man, was condemned for not giving the names of other suspected witches, so they thought that if they tortured him then he’d give up the names. “He would not answer aye or hay to his indictment… Great stones they lay upon his chest until he plead aye or nay. They say he give them but two words. ‘More weight,’ he says.
Samuel Paris was from Danvers, Massachusetts owned the slave Tituba Indian. Researchers are unsure of where Tituba came from, but they suggest her origins are South American native. Researches think she sailed from Barbados to the United States. Tituba was the first person to be accused of witch craft in 1692 during the Salem witch trials. Not much is known about
A similar pattern throughout the crisis was seen. All those accused where not born in Salem even if they had lived there all their life or were Indians (linking them to the American Indian war in 1622-1624) or those who were previously accused of witchcraft. Also mentions the afflicted girls and fortune telling how they all got scared when a coffin appeared in one of their
‘More weight!’ (Miller 186). These are the last words to come out of Cory Giles as stones are being placed upon his chest in a bid to force him to comply to the interrogators by agreeing to the accusations and giving up his friends after they are accused of practicing witchcraft. The Crucible is a play written by Arthur Miller in 1953 depicting the life of a man that was accused of witchcraft, and all the misfortunes that followed him from that point in his life. He stands trial for his supposed crime and proceedings end up being very interesting.
He is often associated with the Salem witch trials, which was a series of trials that took place in Salem, Massachusetts where 19 people were accused and executed, and many others imprisoned for witch craft and wizardry. Cotton Mather was the son of Increase and Maria Mather,
Bridget Bishop, a resident of Salem, was the first person to be tried as a witch. Surprisingly, Bishop was accused of witch craft by the highest number of witneses. After Bishop, more than two hundred people were tried of practicing witchcraft and twenty were executed. Many of these accusations arose from jealous, lower class members of society, especially towards women who had come into a great deal of land or wealth. Three young children by the names of Elizabeth, Abigail, and Ann were the first three people to be “harmed” by the witches.
These refugees were from northern New York, Nova Scotia, and Quebec. The displaced people created a strain on Salem’s resources because they did not have their own resources and they used others. That aggravated existing rivalries between families with ties to the wealth port of Salem. (“Salem Witch Trials”, 1). The first witch case involved Reverend Parris’ daughter Elizabeth, age 9, and his niece Abigail Williams, age 11, in January 1692.
In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, many characters are falsely accused of witchcraft, but one character sticks out as resoundingly innocent. Giles Corey was accused because he would not betray a friend to the court. At the beginning of Act III, Giles, Francis Nurse, and John Proctor enter the court to plead for their wives’ innocence (1316). They carry with them a deposition signed by Mary Warren saying that she never saw any spirits (1318).