Soaps.com - MESSAGE BOARDS

August 19, 1692 "Hanged"

George Burroughs

Martha Carrier
"...I am wronged. It is a shameful thing that
you should mind these folks that are out of
their wits."

George Jacobs.
"Because I am falsely accused.
I never did it."

John Proctor

John Willard
These are the Months of Salem's Rememberance of the Hysteria. From June Through the end of September. Of course our October Month.*

~Names Listed Above are those whom were executed on this day. August 19th. in 1692~

*Stories and Hauntings will be coming soon to this Post. Little treat for those who wish to see. Comment and ask questions if you wish.*

(June 10, 1692)
Bridget Bishop (The first convicted and first to be executed)
."I am no witch.
I am innocent.
I know nothing of it."

(June 19, 1692)
Sarah Wildes

Elizabeth Howe
"If it was the last moment I was to live,
God knows I am innocent..."

Susannah Martin
"I have no hand in witchcraft"

Sarah Good

Rebecca Nurse
"Oh Lord, help me! It is false. I am clear. For my life now lies in your hands..."
There were 9 more executed during these months who are not yet listed. One of the nine was pressed to death. Plus two others who died in jail before they were able to be executed.

Haunted Salem & Beyond

Introduction

Salem, Massachusetts is one of America's oldest and most mysterious seaports harboring more than its share of ghosts.
Her sheltered and fertile land attracted Roger Conant and a small group of pioneers away from rocky, stormy Cape Ann in 1692. They called the small colony Naumkeag meaning "comfort haven."
The notorious witch trials play a part in the ghostly mayhem occurring in the harbor town, but the city's rich history consists of much more than the dark times.
Salem was a leader in colonial settlement, the struggle for independence, international trade, and the birth of industrialization.
The Maritime History of Massachusetts by Samuel Eliot Morison paints a picture of the city in its heyday:
"Salem with a little under eight thousand inhabitants, was the sixth largest city in the United States in 1790. Her appearance was more antique than even that of Boston, and her reek of salt water, that almost surrounded her, yet more pronounced.
For half a mile along the harbor front, subtended by the long finger of Derby Wharf, ran Derby Street the residential and business center of the town.
On one side were the houses of the gentry, Derbys and Princes, and Crownshields, goodly grambrel or hip-roofed brick and wooden mansions dating from the middle of the century, standing well back with tidy gardens in front.
Opposite were the wharves, separated from the street by counting rooms, warehouses, ship-chandler' stores, pump-makers' shops, sailmakers' lofts; all against a background of spars, rigging, and furled or brailed-up sails.
Crowded within three hundred years of Derby street, peeping between the merchants' mansions and over their garden walls like small boys behind a police cordon, were some eighteen or nineteen hundred buildings, including dwellings of pre-witch-craft days, with overhanging upper stories, peaked gables, small-paned windows, and hand rifted clapboards black with age."
Many of the houses in the McIntire Historic District were once home to aristocrats and sea captains. The elegant architecture reflects wealth and affluence. These beloved homes still house some of their former residents, their wraiths refuse to leave - who can blame them?
But not all of Salem's spirits are earth bound. Using her phantom populace as a barometer, the expression "Old Salts never die, they simply fade away," is not totally accurate. Some seafarers do fade, but here in Salem, they haven't exactly gone away - their shades still sail the high seas on schooners and cruisers.
Pirates hold a place in the region's history. Their misdeeds are legendary - their victims' screams still audible.
Native son, Nathaniel Hawthorne penned his penchant for the paranormal in his writings, preserving the haunted history of his day. No less than four of the locations he frequented are lively with the long dead.
The specters of the slaves who passed through Salem and other North Shore stops on the Underground Railroad stay behind adding to the blend of the unique, and almost unbelievable tales that make up Haunted Salem & Beyond.

Haunted Salem & Beyond

Salem's Witch Trials

Boredom and bitterness triggered the hysteria in Salem Village in 1692. The small colony of 500 was suffering an atmosphere of political tension, personal feuds, and repressive puritanical practices. What began in harmony had deteriorated into disputes and dissent.\
One visitor from Boston described the people as "savagely vicious" in their dealings with one another and "acted more out of jealously and greed than any sense of religious purpose."
The time was ripe for young girls with wild imaginations. Stirred by tales told by Tituba, a West Indian slave, bizarre behavior, combined with vile accusations, propelled the village into a downward spiral of fear, recrimination, and disastrous loss.
Reverend Samuel Parris' daughter Elizabeth and her cousin Abigail started acting strange. They began to bark like dogs and throw themselves to the ground. For all appearances, they were having fits. One of them even tried to crawl into the fireplace!

A medical examination was arranged, and Dr. Griggs diagnosed the girls with "bewitchment," for which he had no cure.
Soon, other children began to imitate the unusual behavior. One girl even claimed the Devil was after her. The Devil in Salem? Unthinkable! The evil must be stopped! At a town meeting, the populace pledged to seek out and destroy the individuals bewitching the young people.
Children pointed the finger at certain villagers and claimed their "spirits" had cast spells upon them. The targeted unfortunates were out of favor, or considered unconventional, by the pmpous "Powers that be" in the community.
One third of the residents of Salem Village were falsely charged, publicly slandered, and locked away in a dark, damp, dirty dungeon. Yes, the Devil had anchored in Salem. For those accused, this was hell.
When Governor William Phipps' wife was maligned, he ended the madness, and liberated 168, by stating that "spectral evidence" was not allowed.
After all was said and done, one hundred and fifty-six people were indicted, nineteen were hanged, and one man was pressed to death. Even two dofs were hanged, charged with giving the children the "evil eye."

Haunted Salem & Beyond

Curse of Giles Corey

The Essex High Sheriff, George Corwin, was a ne'er do well who was fortunate to have well-connected Judge for a father. To insure his son's success, witch trial Judge Jonathan Corwin made certain his son obtained the prestigious post.
Corwin was a vicious man who secured his place in Salem's history during those awful thirteen months with the cruelest of all his misdeeds - the crushing death of octogenarian Giles Corey.

Corey refused to plead one way or another (those who pleaded guilty were set free since nobody wanted to find out what would happen if you killed a real witch!) His wife had alread been convicted of witchery and hung on Gallows Hill. He stayed silent.

The High Sheriff justified his abusive plan by using an ancient English law that allowed the crushing of suspected warlocks if they remained mute as Corey did.

Giles Corey was stripped naked and publicly taken to an open field behind the present site of the Old Jail. He was laid down in a shallow hole in the ground, a heavy board place on top of his body and one by one large boulders were placed on him. The weight of the stones was supposed to crush the truth out of Corey, but the man kept silent.

An eyewitness to the torture, Robert Calef wrote "In the crushing, Giles Corey's tongue was pressed out of his mouth, and the Sheriff, with his cane, forced it in again."


As a result of the inhumane torture the man succumbed. His dying words were : "Damn you. I curse you and Salem!"

The thieving, evil Sheriff Corwin, who confiscated the possessions and property of many of the accused as his, won, died, in 1692 of a heart attack.

Since that day, Essex County's Sheriff's stationed at the Salem Jail near the open field where Corey was crushed, seem to have suffered Giles Corey curse -every one of them either died in office of a heart attack or was forced to retire because of a heart condition or blood ailment.

One of Salem's most famous Witch Trial victims of 1692 was Giles Corey, who along with his wife Martha, died during the hysteria that swept our city over three hundred years ago.

Giles initially supported the claims against his wife (was it her cooking), offering "evidence" that his wife had been "muttering" through her chores. He soon recanted, however, when he became aware of the severity of the prosecution and what lay in store for those accused.

According to the laws of the time--which were the source of much confusion, given that salem had been operating without a charter for many months--the wealth and property of the accused could be confiscated if he were found guilty of the crime of Witchcraft. This would leave the heirs of those accused without inheritance. However, a person could not be found guilty or innocent if he refused to enter a plea, thereby protecting his possession for his family.

Such a tactic, though, came with a terrible price. In order to extract a plea, authorities would place boards across the silent "criminal," piling the boards with heavy stones until the accused made a plea of guilty or innocent.

It was this very tatic that Giles Corey used. Knowing that he would be found guilty no matter what his plea, Giles made the difficult choice to endure this Puritan form of torture that his children would inherit the fruits of his harder labor.

Sheriff George Corwin, much reviled son of With Trials magistrate Jonathan Corwin, profited greatly from the trials, confiscating property and dividing the spoils. It was he who presided over the crushing of Giles Corey, which took place at a field that is now Howard Cemetery, overlooked by the old Salem Jail.

It was later said that, as stones continued to be places atop of wooden door covering Giles Corey, that all he would say is "more weight." While this is more likely the results of folklore, what is reputed by witnesses of the time to have been said is far more damning in retrospect. With his dying breath, Giles Corey addressed Sheriff Corwin "Damn you Sheriff I curse you and Salem!"

Local Salem historian and former High Sheriff or Essex County Robert Ellis Cahill discovered some years ago that the curse of Giles Corey may have come to bear. He notes that each and every Sheriff down from George Corwin to himself, each headquartered at the Salem Jail overlooking the place where Corey was killed, had died while in office of had been forced out of his post as the result of a heart or blood ailment. Corwin himself died in 1696, not long after the trials, of a heart attack. Thankfully, Cahill's heart attack and subsequent blood ailment forced him into retirement and not into an early grave, for he later went on to chronicle many strange stories of New England's past.

The Curse of Giles Corey was not just leveled at the Sheriff but at "all of Salem." It is said that each time Salem has undergone a major tragedy (Such as the great fire that nearly destroyed the town), it was not long after a claimed sighting of the ghost of Giles Corey. Coincidence? Perhaps. Still, could the words spoken by this tragic victim of hysteria have left an imprint that is still at work in Salem today?

Haunted Salem & Beyond
Howard Street Burying Ground

Howard Street is known as "the most haunted street in Salem." (Of course it helps that the street runs right next to the cemetery.) The Burying Ground is located behind the remnants of the nightmarish Old Jail built during the War of 1812. Supposedly, the phantoms of those once imprisoned there continue doring time in the afterlife.
Legend say sthe sighting of the disembodied spirit of Giles Corey near the stronghold signals adversity for the small community. To put it in Nathanial Hawthorne's words: "The ghost of the wizard appears as a precursor of some calamity impending over the community."
Such was the case when Corey made an appearance shortly before the great fire that swept through Salem in 1914. Ironically, the inferno began at Gallows Hill, destroyed one third of the city, but miraculously left the treasured dwellings of the McIntire Historic Distric intact.
Sensitives feel a palpable sadness in the area and some claim to have felt icy fingers touch their neck while visiting this distressing spot.