Biography of Samuel Sewall - Hardcover

Francis, Richard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0007163622 ISBN 13: 9780007163625

Publisher: Fourth Estate Ltd, 2005

Synopsis

The Salem witch hunt of 1692 has entered our vocabulary as the very essence of injustice. Biographer and novelist Richard Francis looks at the familiar drama with fresh eyes, grasping the true significance of this cataclysm through the personal story of Samuel Sewall, New England Puritan, Salem trial judge, antislavery agitator, defender of Native American rights, utopian theorist, campaigner against periwigs, family man, gallant wooer. Sewall's life encompassed the tensions that faced the second-generation colonists, caught between the staunch conservatism of the Puritans and the possibilities their new world offered. Everywhere there was conflict, schism, and violence; the new Americans were pitted against the Native Americans, whose pagan ways terrified them, and a hostile mother country intent on imposing her control over the colony. Out of the struggle to maintain unity emerged the forces that drove the Salem tragedy. For the first time, Francis reveals the nature and scale of the threat the authorities believed they were facing. Five guilt-wracked years after pronouncing judgment at the trials, Sewall walked into his church in Boston and recanted the guilty verdicts, praying for forgiveness. This extraordinary act not only proved a turning point for Sewall, it marked the moment when modern American values and attitudes came into being -- the shift from an almost medieval and allegorical view of good and evil to a respect for the mysteries of the human heart. Drawing on Sewall's copious diaries, Francis enables us to see the early colonists not as grim ideologues but as flesh and blood idealists, striving for a new society while coming to terms with the desires and imperfections of ordinary life. Through this unsung hero of conscience, we gain access to the first lost frontier of the New World.

About this title

Review:

"An engrossing biography [that] gives readers insight into the character of colonial America...the author's gifts as a writer are evident."--St. Louis Post-Dispatch "Both an account of a troubling historical episode and the portrait of a troubled, complex man."--Wall Street Journal A sensitive and scholarly rendering with far-reaching perspectives that bring Sewall off the page...fresh [and] insightfully written. --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)" An engrossing biography [that] gives readers insight into the character of colonial America the author s gifts as a writer are evident. --St. Louis Post-Dispatch" Both an account of a troubling historical episode and the portrait of a troubled, complex man. --Wall Street Journal" "A sensitive and scholarly rendering with far-reaching perspectives that bring Sewall off the page...fresh [and] insightfully written."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Synopsis:

Biographer and novelist Francis looks at the Salem witch hunt of 1692 with fresh eyes, through the story of Samuel Sewall, New England Puritan, Salem trial judge, antislavery agitator, defender of Native American rights, utopian theorist, family man. Thesecond-generation colonists were pitted against the pagan Native Americans and a hostile mother

About this edition

• Publisher: Fourth Estate Ltd
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0007163622
• ISBN 13: 9780007163625
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 412