Giles Corey and the Salem Witch Trials

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properly punishing them.
Corey was a victim of visions, as were all the other so-called witches. Interestingly, not all of the victims could absolutely identify Corey as the specter they had witnessed. [1] Another interesting aspect of Corey's interrogation was the fact that most of it was based on "statements that Giles had made about his wife" (Norton 114). For example, many witnesses claimed that Corey "'knew enough about his Wife, that he would do her Business'" (witness account qtd. Norton 114). Furthermore, his answers were twisted in such a way that Hawthorne declared that Corey "accurately predicted his own arrest and imprisonment for witchcraft" (Norton 115). Additionally, other "tests" were conducted to determine Corey's status as a witch. Norton reports that at one point during his trial, one of his hands was set free and "'several were afflicted. He held his Head on one Side, and then the Heads of several of the Afflicted were held on one side. He drew in his ...

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who reportedly became ill one night. Goodale died while Corey's wife and Jacob's brother were taking him to the doctor. The autopsy performed on Goodale states that Goodale died of "'clodders of the blood about his heart'" (Roach 296). However, a "coroner's jury" (296) determined that Goodale was murdered. In addition, Proctor testified against Corey, claiming that he beat Jacob. Another witness, Elisha Kibbe, claimed that Corey "must have struck Jacob Goodale about a hundred blows with a stout stick" (296). It is also worth noting that Endicott and Francis Nurse were members of this jury. In another account, a witness claimed that she saw Corey "serving bread and wine at a ...

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