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From Witch Hunting to Witchcraft Allegations: Who Was Giles Corey? Ofek Hagag
Looking into the Salem witch trials will send you spiraling down a rabbit hole of unbelievable cases, testimonies, and medieval practices. Most of those trials dealt with women who were accused of witchcraft, but there were a few men who have also suffered the consequences of the deadly accusation. One of those men was Giles Corey. This is his story.
A different life Corey was born and baptized in England in 1611. He was raised Christian and stayed that way even when he moved to Salem, Massachusetts, and got married. He became a wealthy farmer, was married three times, and widowed twice. For the most part, he’s lived a quiet farmer’s life. In 1676, at 65 years old, however, things took a turn for the worst. Back then, it was legal for landowners to use corporal punishment on their workers. When Corey used force to punish one of his workers for picking apples from someonee else’s property, the worker didn’t survive. He was badly injured, only sent to a doctor after 10 days, and died shortly after his arrival. Today, Corey would have faced trial for manslaughter, but back then the court gave him no more than a slap on the w wrist rist for using accessive force. Karma, however, caught up with him in the end.
