Overview

"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."

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9780060859602

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Reviews

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

Insightful...a reformative, assenting spin on Salem's hellfire and brimstone history. --Kirkus Reviews 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 LaPlante s touching biography seems hauntingly timely. Beneath the sensational title is a figure more familiar than we realize.--New York Times Book Review 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

Author Information

EVE LaPLANTE, a direct descendant of Sewall’s (6th-great-granddaughter), has degrees from Princeton and Harvard. She has written for The Atlantic, New York Times, Ladies’ Home Journal, Gourmet, and Boston Magazine. Her previous books, Seized and American Jezebel (a biography of Anne Hutchinson, LaPlante’s 12th-generation ancestor), were published to critical acclaim. She lives with her husband and four children in Massachusetts on land originally owned by Sewall.

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