History Memes

Explanation: During the infamous Salem Witch Trials, a number of colonial English settlers turned on each other with bizarre accusations of witchcraft. The panic was so great, and the legal system so crude and primitive, that many people were convicted without anything more than vague and contradictory eyewitness testimony.

This legal crudeness had another aspect to it - those who were found guilty of witchcraft had their property seized once they were executed, leaving their families penniless. But that same legal code forbade the conviction of someone who had not yet entered a plea!

... to prevent this loophole from being used, the very ordinary and normal process of torturing people until they pled "guilty" or "not guilty" was used, typically by piling stones on top of them, gradually increasing the weight, until the pain was so unbearable that they croaked out a plea one way or the other.

Giles Corey, a man charged with witchcraft, refused to plead guilty to a crime he did not commit, but would not leave his family impoverished. He endured THREE DAYS of being crushed by weights like this, periodically being asked to enter a plea, and periodically telling his torturers that he would do no such thing. His last words were "More weight!" after his torturers asked him to enter a plea one last time.

While he died from this horrific torture, and his wife (who opposed the witchcraft trials entirely; she pled not guilty) was afterwards hanged for witchcraft, his stepson was able to maintain control of the estate after his passing because of his determination.