In Act Three, Giles Corey, John Proctor, and Francis Nurse, all husbands of accused witches, come to the court in an effort to speak with Deputy Governor Danforth, the chief magistrate of the witch trials. Proctor has brought his servant girl, Mary Warren, with them so that she can provide her testimony against the girls, and Corey has written an affidavit himself with his own testimony against Thomas Putnam.
Giles claims that an "honest man" overheard Thomas Putnam saying that on the day his daughter, Ruth, accused George Jacobs of witchcraft, "she'd given [Putnam] a fair gift of land." The reason Putnam might call the land a gift is that a convicted witch's property would go up for auction and anyone with the money could then purchase it. According to Corey, no one besides Putnam has the money to buy such a large piece of land at auction; therefore, he believes that Putnam "coldly prompted [his] daughter to cry witchery upon George Jacobs," as Danforth puts it. Therefore, Corey believes it is greed that is behind the trials, that Putnam is pulling the strings for his own gain.
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