Salem Witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewall, Eve LaPlante, c. 2007. BSEW.
1692.
Puritan Samuel Sewall: sent 20 people to their deaths on trumped-up witchcraft charges, made famous by Longfellow, Nathaniel Hawthorne (himself a descendant of one of the judges), and Arthur Miller.
Sewall: the only judge to make a public repentance.
Then, he took up abolition, writing "The Selling of Joseph," America's first antislavery tract.
Advocated for essential rights for Native Americans; paid for several Indian youths to attend Harvard College.
One of the first to publish an essay affirming the fundamental equality of the sexes. The text of that esay, commposed at the deathbed of his dauughter Hannah, is republished for the first time in this book.
Author: the great-great -great-great-great-great-granddaughter.
First great: 1st generation.
The author, Eve: the 7th generation.
At the time of his public repentance, Judge Sewall was 44 years old.
Starts with birth of child, Henry (p. 15) Sewall, born 1685 to Samuel and Hannah Sewall, he 33 years old; she 27 years old.
Map of Boston.
Samuel Sewall house:
- Boston
- perhaps close to where Red Sox play baseball today
- south of Beacon Street, and south of The Common
- on the road to Roxbury, southwest of Boston
- corner of Cornhill Rd and Summer Street
Chapter 6: history of Harvard College at the time.
Chapter 7: King Philip's War -- had ended August, 1676.
By Chapter 9, only into 1690.
Samuel was 40 years old, so born, 1650.
French and Indians had attacked colonists north of Albany.
Puritans believed their problems were due to Satan among them.
Chapter 10: the Salem witch story begins in earnest.
It begins with a new pastor, who had failed as a merchant in the West Indies; this was his first ministerial job.
Samuel Parris, 38, his wife Elizabeth (early 40s), and 9-y/o daughter Elizabeth, called Betty; and, possibly a younger child. Also raising Parris' 11-y/o neice, Abigail Williams, who was presumably an orphan. Had a married slave couple: John Indian and Tituba Indian, as sometimes known in English culture, believed to be Carib Indians and perhaps partly African.
Tituba: a gifted storyteller.
Folk magic, a feature of his stories.
Discussion of belief in witchcraft at this time.
History of witchcraft, trials and executions in England, page 133.
Abigail had a playmate: Anne Putnam, 12 y/o.
The three: Betty, 9; Abigail, 11; and, Anne, 12 -- began to act very strange.
Dr William Griggs called to examine them.
The girls, when asked, said three women "afflicted them." These were the first three "witches" of 1692: Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba Indian.
By the end of March, 1692, scores of suspected witches were incarcerated.
Judge Sewall called up to help; thee six-month period of the witch hunt: April 1 - October 1, 1692.
Judge Sewall journey:
- ferried across the mouth of the Charles River
- horseback, headed north along the bank of the Mystic River toward Salem
- a very circuitous route; to the interior, west of Boston; north to Woburn; and, then eastward to Salem.
England: laws against witchcraft arose from a 1604 English civil statute, enacted by Parliament with King James I's support, tht defined witchcraft as a felony punishable by hanging.
Over the past half century, New England courts had tried about a hundred people for witchcraft. Four women had been convicted and hung.
Most records of the proceedings were destroyed by person(s) unknown.
Major Stephen Sewall -- brother to the judge -- probably wrote most of the records, and probably wrote the ones that survived.
Then, the list of the accused.
Chapter 11: Speedy and Vigorous Prosecutions.
Chapter 12: Reign of Terror
The w/c crisis had spread to Andover, an inland town northwest of Salem, and east to Gloucester.
Cotton Mather involved.
Chapter 13: God Save New England
The witch court adjourned on September 22, 1692, and never met again. Everyone welcomed the end of the w/c trials -- notable exceptions: Cotton Mather, William Stoughton, and John Hathorne (ancestor of Nathaniel?).
King William's War continued. King William's War: American theater of the war between France and England of the Nine Years' War. It was the first of six colonial wars before France finally conceded American land east of the Mississippi. [Jefferson, Louisiana Purchase, 1803.]
Judges tried to forget and tried to move on.
The only judge was the only judge whoever changed his mind about the trials: Judge Samuel Sewall.
Chapter 14: I Am Beyond Conception Vile
Chapter 15: The Blame and Shame Of It
Chapter 16: Wisdom and Revelation
Chapter 17: Evil Must Not Be Done
Chapter 18: Chief Justice, Paterfamilias
Chapter 19: Maiden, Arise.
Samuel Sewall, now with his third wife.
Chapter 20: Fit Me For My Change
Dies 1728.
Epilogue:
Exploring Samuel Sewall's America and England
Last appendix from the book:
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