{
  "id": "la-corriveau",
  "title": "La Corriveau",
  "type": "legend",
  "summary": "A real 18th-century woman whose gibbeted execution turned her into an enduring Québécois ghost figure.",
  "body": "Marie-Josephte Corriveau was tried and hanged in 1763 for the murder of her second husband. Under the British military regime, her body was displayed in an iron gibbet cage at a crossroads near Lévis — a public, foreign punishment that seared itself into local memory.\n\nFact decayed into folklore. In the oral tradition she became a witch and a vengeful spirit, her iron cage said to swing and clatter at night, chasing travellers. The historical record and the legend diverge sharply — which is precisely what makes her a case study in how a community metabolizes trauma into story over generations.",
  "culture": "Québécois / French-Canadian",
  "region": "Lévis, Québec, Canada",
  "language": "fr",
  "transmission": "oral",
  "tags": [
    "folklore",
    "ghost",
    "history-into-legend",
    "new-france",
    "justice"
  ],
  "sources": [],
  "confidence": "corroborated",
  "contributor": "seed",
  "added": "2026-06-12",
  "updated": "2026-06-12",
  "url": "https://crowdh.com/knowledge/la-corriveau.html"
}