Creating a spectacle at Proctor’s Ledge
A follow-up to the post Richard Francis: From Sewall biographer to Salem witch trials storyteller.
In Olde England as well as New, hangings were a public spectacle. Despite the grim proceedings, executions drew large crowds. In Massachusetts Bay Colony, hangings may not have had a carnival-like atmosphere, with vendors offering meat pasties and barkers selling broadsides of the convicted’s confessions. Still, farmers, clergy, merchants, gentlemen, sailors, servants, housewives, and children attended the Salem witch trials and executions.
Two miles from the prison, Proctor’s Ledge was chosen as a place where crowds could gather and still see the victims swinging from the rope. And if the convicted witches had strong voices, like Rev. George Burroughs, those gathered could clearly hear his perfect rendition of “The Lord’s Prayer.”
Silent protest
Giles Corey was never convicted of witchcraft. He pleaded “not guilty” in the Salem court but would not agree to stand trial. In consequence, the judges chose to inflict peine forte et dure (French for “strong and hard punishment,” or pressing to death with heavy weights). Perhaps after a night or two in the already crowded Salem prison, the judges expected Corey to change his mind. For two days, Samuel Sewall wrote, the Court, Captain Gardner of Nantucket, and other friends begged Corey to agree to be tried by the judges and a jury of his peers. He remained mute.
In Crane Pond: A Novel of Salem, Richard Francis said Corey’s pressing death occurred at Proctor’s Ledge—the site of the witch hangings. Given that at any moment Corey could put a stop to his punishment and agree to be tried, it’s highly unlikely that he was carted all the way to Proctor’s Ledge. Besides, the crowds would not see much of a spectacle from their vantage point, and watching an old man being crushed to death was agonizingly slow. (It was not as slow as two days,* but stubborn and silent Giles Corey may have survived two or three hours as the rocks piled up, his ribs cracked, his lungs collapsed, and his last breath escaped.)
Where did Giles Corey die?
In 1867, Charles W. Upham asserted Corey’s torture occurred “in an open field somewhere between Howard Street Burial Ground and Brown Street.” Other authors—and tour guides—mistakenly claimed Corey was pressed to death at Howard Street Cemetery near the prison. In 1692, however, the land was privately owned and only became a burial ground in 1801. More recently, Marilynne K. Roach suggested Lieutenant Thomas Putnam’s lot bordering the prison yard would be a likely spot, especially agreeable to Thomas since his daughter Ann Jr. was one of the major witchcraft accusers.
Sidney Perley believed rocks were carried inside the prison to be placed on top of Corey’s prone body. I believe the answer is much simpler: In the prison yard. While no contemporaneous writers described the location, the prison yard had enough space—and rocks—to carry out the deed without drawing large crowds. After all, the laws of the colony did not permit such “inhumane, barbarous, or cruel” torture as inflicted on Giles Corey—at least not publicly. While people did witness his punishment, they were not able to stop it. And if they tried, he’d probably die of his internal injuries anyway.
* Thanks to Professor Tony Fels for correcting me in his comment to my previous post, Richard Francis: From Sewall biographer to Salem witch trials storyteller. Tony is the author of Switching Sides: How a Generation of Historians Lost Sympathy for the Victims of the Salem Witch Hunt, which I wrote about here.
“Where Was Giles Corey Pressed to Death?” by Marilynne K. Roach (American Ancestors Magazine, 15.4:36-39)