Giles Corey eulogy

[Fatal Dawn]

Good evening ladies and gentlemen. I first thank each and everyone able to make it here this evening. We are here to pay our respects and to commemorate the life of Mr. Giles Corey.



We sit here hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder without realizing that times were much different back then. We hurt our women – our mothers, our grandmothers, and our wives. That’s right; we hurt our fellow citizens and condemned our family members.

The Salem, Massachusetts Witch Trials was indeed a haunting scar imprinted upon the history of humankind. Horrifying depths of human nature were uncovered as ordinary citizens began to crucify their very friends, relatives, and neighbors.



In all that we know about the hysteria and wickedness we cannot let that overshadow the amazing displays of courage and nobility. Many upright men and women were written from history. Giles was certainly one of them. And we pay respect to his sacrifice.



Giles Corey was a farmer until his final breath. He was a pious farmer who believed in working hard and reaping the fruits of his labor. During that awful era, Giles faced accusations of protecting a witch. Refusing to plead either guilty or not guilty to the hysteria surrounding him, the witch mob publicly humiliated him and one-by-one they laid large boulders upon Corey’s chest and body hoping to extract a plea from him.

During his final hours of insufferable pain, the only words heard from Corey were: “More weight!” until the stones completely crushed him.



Emotions such as sadness and anger rush to mind when we think about how this man died. However, I believe Corey’s spirit encourages us to look past these emotions which led to these very same atrocious witch hunts.

Instead I believe Giles would have hoped that his sacrifice would encourage all of us to cherish two things in life:

All that we have

And all that we are.

Giles Corey died for those very things and wouldn’t have wished for anything more.



Giles was truly a rich man considering what he had: love and fidelity for his family above all else. There aren’t enough words to describe the love Giles had for his wife Martha. He loved her, so much so that he fiercely defended her when she was accused of practicing witchcraft. Giles was willing to bear the grave consequences of defending a suspected witch to protect his wife’s innocence. This one – just simply courageous act sealed Giles’s fate.

Refusing to plead during his torture, Corey remained in full possession of his estate, which would otherwise have been forfeited to the government. The physical legacy of his estate was passed on to his two sons-in-law, in accordance to his will.





It is important to know and to cherish all that we are. Before you find peace in the world, you must find it in yourself first. Giles understood that. And for those in the audience who are trying to comprehend what kind of man Giles was, you have to understand who he was and what he stood for.

Giles was a man who was ahead of his time.

He was a man of integrity in an age of darkness. In a time of accusation, he was a person of courageousness. In an era of foggy confusion, he possessed clarity. But most of all he was a person of sacrifice. I cannot think of any grander – any nobler act than for a man to stand up and lay down his life for his family, for his country, and for his core values.



The great inspirational poet Nietzsche famously said that “To live is to suffer. But to survive is to find meaning in the struggle.” Self-sacrifice is the most profound extension of love. We cannot truly comprehend the pain and beauty of sacrifice until we comprehend what it really means to love something with your whole heart. And until we truly appreciate and love “something” in life, we all will suffer without meaning.

Giles Corey was, by all means, just like every single one of us. He struggled.

But in the midst of the struggle he serves as the very example of how each of us aspires to live. We are bigger men and women than the times that we live in and as such we should always aspire to spread our wings far beyond the darkness. We should aspire to live like Giles: ahead of the times.

We should all aspire to live a life of meaning, not waste our time caught up in the hysteria and confusion. We should aspire to find and appreciate what it truly is that we are sacrificing for. We should aspire to find meaning in the struggle just like Giles did.



There exists dark times then and now. Let us not look at the Salem Witch trials with distance but with proximity. Let us not continue to bury the events of that era lest it come back to haunt us. And my friends – men and women, boys and girls – it’s still here. It never left us.

Do not get complacent as we will always be fighting an endless battle against accusation, fear, terror, but mostly ourselves. We all suffer from paranoia, whether it be a vocal distrust of our neighbors or the coldness we show to our family. There are so many things in our lives worthy our appreciation and our love, yet some of us still struggle to piece a meaning to our lives. In all the darkness we lose sight of all that we are. When, in the end, we realize that the darkness never surrounded us, we just had our eyes closed.

We need appreciate the present to enjoy a future. We need to learn from the past to thrive today. The hangings and the false accusations of that year in 1692 is not a distant memory. Giles’s sacrifice is not a distant memory.



As he struggled for his last breaths and felt the slowed beating of his heart Giles must have assured himself of something very important. What history should remember is not the fear and the hatred of that era but the story of a man who overcame pain and fire with what can only be described as sheer poise. After all, it is because of this story – his story that we are here today looking upon the haunting events of that era with a renewed faith in human nature.

He lived for his family. He lived by his integrity. And ultimately he died … for the sake of his community … and ours.

Now, he can rest in peace today – away from the troubles of the world; knowing he did not die in vain.



Lao Tzu, the revered Chinese philosopher, believed the three greatest goals in life were compassion, moderation, and humility. He explained the basis for finding our natural balance stems from inner perseverance. He once said that knowing we are deeply loved by others gives us strength. Loving others deeply gives us courage.



Thank you all very much and I ask that you keep Giles in your thoughts.



written by Fatal Dawn

 

[Evil Eye]

From mob hysteria to hope? Through martyrdom? Interesting.

It's a nice message, though.

 

[Fatal Dawn]

Thanks EE. When I read about this amazing man and how he died I wanted to write a formal eulogy/commemoration for him. And as you said the message spreads far beyond this one man.