Salem Witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewall - Softcover

LaPlante, Eve

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060859601 ISBN 13: 9780060859602

Publisher: Bravo Ltd, 2008

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review:

LaPlante's touching biography seems hauntingly timely. Beneath the sensational title is a figure more familiar than we realize.--New York Times Book Review

An intriguing journey into a world as far away as colonial America - and yet as close as the human heart.--Christian Science Monitor

"LaPlante's splendid biography brings a personal touch to Sewall's story and his efforts to take the difficult but righteous path."--Publishers Weekly

"Insightful...a reformative, assenting spin on Salem's hellfire and brimstone history."--Kirkus Reviews

About the Author:

Eve LaPlante, a sixth great-granddaughter of Samuel Sewall, is the author of two previous critically acclaimed books: American Jezebel, a biography of her ancestor Anne Hutchinson, and Seized, a narrative portrait of temporal lobe epilepsy. LaPlante has degrees from Princeton and Harvard and has written for The Atlantic, the New York Times, Ladies' Home Journal, and Boston magazine. She lives with her family in New England on land once owned by Judge Sewall.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bravo Ltd
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0060859601
• ISBN 13: 9780060859602
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 370