Salem Witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewall [Paperback]

Eve LaPlante (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 4, 2008

In 1692 Puritan Samuel Sewall sent twenty people to their deaths on trumped-up witchcraft charges. The nefarious witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts represent a low point of American history, made famous in works by Longfellow, Nathaniel Hawthorne (himself a descendant of one of the judges), and Arthur Miller. The trials might have doomed Sewall to infamy except for a courageous act of contrition now commemorated in a mural that hangs beneath the golden dome of the Massachusetts State House picturing Sewall's public repentance. He was the only Salem witch judge to make amends.

But, remarkably, the judge's story didn't end there. Once he realized his error, Sewall turned his attention to other pressing social issues. Struck by the injustice of the New England slave trade, a commerce in which his own relatives and neighbors were engaged, he authored "The Selling of Joseph," America's first antislavery tract. While his peers viewed Native Americans as savages, Sewall advocated for their essential rights and encouraged their education, even paying for several Indian youths to attend Harvard College. Finally, at a time when women were universally considered inferior to men, Sewall published an essay affirming the fundamental equality of the sexes. The text of that essay, composed at the deathbed of his daughter Hannah, is republished here for the first time.

In Salem Witch Judge, acclaimed biographer Eve LaPlante, Sewall's great-great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter, draws on family lore, her ancestor's personal diaries, and archival documents to open a window onto life in colonial America, painting a portrait of a man traditionally vilified, but who was in fact an innovator and forefather who came to represent the best of the American spirit.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In 1692, Salem magistrate Samuel Sewall (1652–1730), along with several others, presided over the conviction and execution of 20 people accused of witchcraft. Five years and much soul-searching later, Sewall publicly repented of his part in the witch trials. Much as she did in American Jezebel, the marvelous biography of her 12th-generation ancestor Anne Hutchinson, LaPlante, who counts Sewall as her sixth-great-grandfather, richly narrates his life in its cultural and religious setting. Drawing on Sewall's diaries and stories told by her Aunt Charlotte, LaPlante sketches a compelling portrait of a committed family man, a dedicated magistrate and a deeply religious Puritan confronting his own shortcomings and questioning the doctrines of his religion. After his public repentance, Sewall reconsidered many Puritan teachings and wrote controversial treatises arguing for the equality of Native Americans, women and slaves. LaPlante's splendid biography brings a personal touch to Sewall's story (also recently recounted by historian Richard Francis in Judge Sewall's Apology, 2005) and his efforts to take the difficult but righteous path. (Oct. 1)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Sewall (1652–1730) was an English-born American jurist who presided over the 1692 witchcraft trials in Salem, Massachusetts. Nineteen innocent men and women were hanged, and one man was pressed to death with large stones, the result of trumped-up charges of witchcraft. Some suspects were strangers to Sewall, but others were his friends. For several years, he struggled with a growing sense of shame and remorse and later assumed in public the blame for the executions. He spent much of the remainder of his life trying to restore himself in the eyes of God. Sewall wrote prodigiously and left behind extensive diaries, poems, essays, books, annotated almanacs, ledgers, and letters. His diary, covering the years from 1672 to 1729, was first published in the nineteenth century and is still in print. LaPlante also chronicles the man's later life—Sewall became the author of America's first antislavery tract and published an essay affirming the equality of the sexes. A fascinating account of the man and of daily life in colonial America. Cohen, George --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne; Reprint edition (November 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060859601
• ISBN-13: 978-0060859602
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,054,796 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Eve LaPlante, a New Englander with degrees from Princeton and Harvard, has published articles, essays, and three nonfiction books.

SEIZED is a narrative portrait of a common brain disorder that can alter personality, illuminating the mind-body problem and the limits of free will. AMERICAN JEZEBEL tells the true story of Eve's ancestor the colonial heretic and founding mother Anne Hutchinson.

Eve's second ancestor biography, SALEM WITCH JUDGE, about the 1692 judge who became a feminist and an abolitionist, won the 2008 Massachusetts Book Award for Nonfiction.

She is working on a biography of Louisa May Alcott and her mother, Abigail, for Free Press.

Shaun O'Connell, in his new anthology, BOSTON: VOICES & VISIONS, which includes the preface to AMERICAN JEZEBEL, observes, "Just as Nathaniel Hawthorne dug into the dark history of his ancestry, which reached back both to the original Boston settlement of the 1630s and the Salem Witch Trials of the 1690s, so too did LaPlante trace family members who were rooted in the same eras.... Hawthorne took shame upon himself for the misdeeds of his Puritan ancestors, and LaPlante offers praise for her forebears who testified against Puritan repression. As her prefaces to these biographies, a kind of spiritual autobiography, show, Anne Hutchinson and Samuel Sewall were not the dark Puritans many imagined them to be. They remain living presences, even models of rectitude, into the twenty-first century."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and Fair, November 4, 2007

By 

James W. Crawford (Brookline, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Salem Witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewall (Hardcover)

The note I wrote on the inside page of this book reads as follows:"Absolutely fascinating!" How come? Because Ms. LaPlante presents us with a character who lived as a giant in his own time. But more, she offers a clear picture of the potent religious world view and powerful lens of faith through which citizens of Puritan New England perceived the world and their place in it. The reader will find this approach not only interesting but, as the author describes Sewall's engagement with life and with his God, both existentially and theologcally terrifying. The witch trials arise from the nexus of life's uncertainty in 17th century Massachusetts and a fierce and unpredictable God through whom the likes of Samuel Sewall try to discern the "realities" of good and evil. He,his neighbors and colleagues can discern wrongly . . . as Sewall himself confessed some five years after the trials he oversaw as judge.

But enough of this. Ms LaPlante mines Sewall's diaries and public writings for - yes - romance! In addition, she finds him a humane and civil defender of Native Americans amid local, social contempt.Sewall wrote the first Anti-slavery tract in North America, a touching and compassionate piece. He testified from a vivid Biblical perspective in behalf of gender equality when such thinking brought widespread disdain. His personal and public presence as described by the author represent a monumental figure in early American history. You will find the book clearly written and every effort made to explain to ignorant moderns 17th century language and cultural nuances. The title tags Sewall as "Witch Judge." OK. But really, so much more. Indeed, absolutely fascinating!

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars History from a new perspective, October 9, 2007

By 

Breeni Books "www.breenibooks.com" (Rockwell, NC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Salem Witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewall (Hardcover)

The author of American Jezebel, a biography of the life of Puritan heretic Anne Hutchinson, has now meticulously chronicled the controversy surrounding Judge Samuel Sewall's involvement in the Salem Witch Trials. In Salem, Massachusetts during the year 1692, controversy erupted as scores of innocent townspeople, mostly women, were jailed based on witchcraft accusations from several adolescents of prominent families. Noting the power these children held over their victims, the hysterics spread to other townspeople, longing for respite from their dictated existences.

Salem Witch Judge uses Samuel Sewall's journals and letters to create a portrait of who the man was, what his motivations could have been, and the influence he wielded over rulings that continue to affect the American public today. Eve LaPlante pieces together the portrait of a Harvard intellectual plagued by constant self-doubt and regret. Indeed, Sewall was the only judge involved in the cruel mass hysteria that expressed remorse for his actions afterward.

LaPlante writes in-depth of the daily threats to survival, the uncertainty posed by the religious "freedom" sought in the New World, and the dynamics of various war actions and political movements that affected the lives of Americans. Surrounded by such constant turmoil and lacking scientific evidence of common afflictions, inevitably the people of Massachusetts turned to supernatural explanations. Haunted by the loss of six of his children to inexplicable illness, Sewall doubted his own piety and assumed God's displeasure with something he or his wife did was the cause of his own misery and suffering. Compounded with military disasters both locally and abroad, the sense of desperation among the people of Salem created a suitable environment for chaos to thrive.

Narrated by the author, a descendant of Sewall, Salem Witch Judge does well to present an alternative perspective of the historical fury motivating the executions of twenty innocents. Sewall himself began to exhibit regret and uncertainty, even in the midst of the accusations, which was in stark contrast to the actions of other judiciary members. In fact, the court that condemned the accused witches was experimental; the court of Oyer and Terminer was disbanded in October of 1692 by Governor William Phips shortly after his wife became one of the accused, despite his support of their actions previously. Mysteriously, the journals of Oyer and Terminer disappeared.

Though the focus of the book is on the individual, Samuel Sewall, LaPlante does an excellent job of showcasing the lifestyle of some of America's earliest settlers, including various Psalms and prayers utilized by the Puritans. It is from this perspective that the reader is able to more fully understand the series of events that caused such an incomprehensible upheaval within a community. A more thorough account could scarcely be found within the pages of a history textbook.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Intriguing Journey, November 2, 2007

By 

A. Reader - See all my reviews

This review is from: Salem Witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewall (Hardcover)

This fascinating account of an early American leader's

public and private life is the story of a good man who

was guilty of a terrible mistake. Seeing he did wrong,

Samuel Sewall had the courage to say so, and repent.

Eve LaPlante paints a vivid portrait of life in early

New England, especially the world of the educated

elite. Religion and the Bible were the dominant

intellectual features of a world ruled by fears and

disagreements only too comprehensible to us now.

Sewall and his peers worried about foreign relations

and governmental debt, and lived in constant fear of

attacks by Indians, pirates, and the French. "Salem

Witch Judge" offers an intriguing journey into a world

as far away as colonial America, yet at the same time

as close as the human heart.