Jump to content

Samuel Sewall: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous edit
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
Monkbot (talk | contribs)
Bots
3,695,952 edits
m Task 18 (cosmetic): eval 7 templates: del empty params (8×);
No edit summary
Tags: Mobile edit Mobile web edit Advanced mobile edit
 
(47 intermediate revisions by 33 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{for|the jurist and US Congressman|Samuel Sewall (congressman)}}
{{about||the jurist and US congressman|Samuel Sewall (congressman)|the American lawyer, abolitionist, and suffragist|Samuel Edmund Sewall}}
{{more citations needed|date=September 2015}}
{{Infobox person
{{Infobox person
| name = Samuel Sewall
| name = Samuel Sewall
| image = SamuelSewall.jpg
| image = SamuelSewall.jpg
| caption = 1729, by [[John Smibert]]
| caption = 1729, by [[John Smibert]]
| birth_date = {{birth-date|March 28, 1652}}
| birth_date = {{birth-date|March 28, 1652}}
| birth_place = [[Bishopstoke]], [[Hampshire]], [[England]]
| birth_place = [[Bishopstoke]], [[Hampshire]], [[England]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1730|01|01|1652|03|28}}
| death_date = {{death date and age|1730|01|01|1652|03|28}}
| death_place = [[Boston]], [[Province of Massachusetts Bay]]
| death_place = [[Boston]], [[Province of Massachusetts Bay]]
| spouse = Hannah Hull<br>Abigail (Melyen) Woodmansey Tilley<br>Mary (Shrimpton) Gibbs
| spouse = Hannah Hull<br>Abigail (Melyen) Woodmansey Tilley<br>Mary (Shrimpton) Gibbs
| known_for = [[Salem witch trials]]
| known_for = [[Salem witch trials]]
| education = [[Harvard College]]
| occupation = Judge
| occupation = Judge
| signature = Samuel Sewall signature.svg
| signature = Samuel Sewall signature.svg
}}
}}
{{Short description|Judge in Colonial America (1652 – 1730)}}

'''Samuel Sewall''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|uː|əl}}; March 28, 1652 – January 1, 1730) was a judge, businessman, and printer in the [[Province of Massachusetts Bay]], best known for his involvement in the [[Salem witch trials]],<ref>Starkey, Marion L. ''The Devil in Massachusetts'' 1949 Doubleday Edition pp.261-2</ref> for which he later apologized, and his essay ''The Selling of Joseph'' (1700), which criticized slavery.<ref name="diaryandlife">{{cite book | title=The diary and life of Samuel Sewall | url=https://archive.org/details/diarylifeofsamue00mely | url-access=registration | publisher=Bedford Books | author=Samuel Sewall; Melvin Yazawa | year=1998 | location=Boston | pages=[https://archive.org/details/diarylifeofsamue00mely/page/1 1] | isbn=978-0-312-13394-8}}</ref> He served for many years as the chief justice of the [[Massachusetts Superior Court of Judicature]], the province's high court.
'''Samuel Sewall''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|sj|uː|əl}}; March 28, 1652 – January 1, 1730) was a judge, businessman, and printer in the [[Province of Massachusetts Bay]], best known for his involvement in the [[Salem witch trials]],<ref>Starkey, Marion L. ''The Devil in Massachusetts'' 1949 Doubleday Edition pp.261-2</ref> for which he later apologized, and his essay "The Selling of Joseph" (1700), which criticized slavery.<ref name="diaryandlife">{{cite book | title=The diary and life of Samuel Sewall | url=https://archive.org/details/diarylifeofsamue00mely | url-access=registration | publisher=Bedford Books | author=Samuel Sewall; Melvin Yazawa | year=1998 | location=Boston | pages=[https://archive.org/details/diarylifeofsamue00mely/page/1 1] | isbn=978-0-312-13394-8}}</ref> He served for many years as the chief justice of the [[Massachusetts Superior Court of Judicature]], the province's high court.


==Biography==
==Biography==
{{more citations needed section|date=September 2015}}
{{more citations needed section|date=September 2015}}
Sewall was born in [[Bishopstoke]], [[Hampshire]], [[England]], on March 28, 1652, the son of [[Henry Sewall|Henry]] and Jane ([[Template:Dummer family|Dummer]]) Sewall.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Family of Dummer |last= Dummer|first=Michael |year= June 2005|edition= 7th|chapter=7: Stephen of Horton Heath - the Last Yeoman, and the Last Estate|page=38}}</ref> His father, son of the mayor of [[Coventry]], had come to the English North American [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] in 1635, where he married Sewall's mother, and returned to England in the 1640s.<ref name="Francis">{{cite book | title=Judge Sewall's Apology: The Salem Witch Trials and the Forming of a Conscience | publisher=Harper Perennial | author=Francis, Richard | year=2006 | location=London/New York | isbn=1-84115-677-9 | pages=3–5}}</ref>
Sewall was born in [[Bishopstoke]], [[Hampshire]], England, on March 28, 1652, the son of [[Henry Sewall|Henry]] and Jane ([[Template:Dummer family|Dummer]]) Sewall.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Family of Dummer |last= Dummer|first=Michael |date= June 2005|edition= 7th|chapter=7: Stephen of Horton Heath - the Last Yeoman, and the Last Estate|page=38}}</ref> His father, son of the mayor of [[Coventry]], had come to the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] in 1635, where he married Sewall's mother and returned to England in the 1640s.<ref name="Francis">{{cite book | title=Judge Sewall's Apology: The Salem Witch Trials and the Forming of a Conscience | publisher=Harper Perennial | author=Francis, Richard | year=2006 | location=London/New York | isbn=1-84115-677-9 | pages=3–5}}</ref>

Following the [[English Restoration|restoration]] of [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] to the English throne, the Sewalls again crossed the [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic]] in 1661, settling in [[Newbury, Massachusetts]].<ref>Francis, pp. 6-7</ref> It is there the young Samuel "Sam" grew up along the Parker River and Plum Island Sound.


[[File:Nehemiah Hobart poem 1712.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Poem by Nehemiah Hobart in Latin, printed by Samuel Sewall, Boston, 1712]]
[[File:Nehemiah Hobart poem 1712.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Poem by Nehemiah Hobart in Latin, printed by Samuel Sewall, Boston, 1712]]


Like other local boys he attended school at [[James Noyes House|the home]] of [[James Noyes]], whose cousin, Reverend [[Thomas Parker (minister)|Thomas Parker]], was the principal instructor. From Parker, Sewall acquired a lifelong love of [[poetry|verse]], which he wrote in both [[English language|English]] and [[Latin]].<ref>Francis, p. 9</ref> In 1667 Sewall entered [[Harvard College]], where his classmates included [[Edward Taylor]] and [[Daniel Gookin]], with whom he formed enduring friendships. Sewall received his first degree, a BA, in 1671, and his MA in 1674.<ref>Francis, pp. 10-13</ref> In 1674 he served as librarian of Harvard for nine months, the second person to hold that post.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/librariansofharv00pottrich|title=The librarians of Harvard College 1667-1877|last=Potter|first=Alfred Claghorn|last2=Bolton|first2=Charles Knowles|date=1897|publisher=Cambridge, Mass., Library of Harvard University|others=University of California Libraries}}</ref> That year he began keeping a journal, which he maintained for most of his life; it is one of the major historical documents of the time. In 1679 he became a member of the [[Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts|Military Company of Massachusetts]].
Following the [[Stuart Restoration|Restoration]] of [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] to the English throne, the Sewalls again crossed the Atlantic in 1661, settling in [[Newbury, Massachusetts]].<ref>Francis, pp. 6-7</ref> Like other local boys, he attended school at [[James Noyes House|the home]] of [[James Noyes]], whose cousin, Reverend [[Thomas Parker (minister)|Thomas Parker]], was the principal instructor. From Parker, Sewall acquired a lifelong love of [[poetry|verse]], which he wrote in both English and Latin.<ref>Francis, p. 9</ref> In 1667 Sewall entered [[Harvard College]], where his classmates included [[Edward Taylor]] and [[Daniel Gookin]], with whom he formed enduring friendships. Sewall received his B.A. in 1671 and his M.A. in 1674.<ref>Francis, pp. 10-13</ref> In 1674 he served as librarian of Harvard for nine months, the second person to hold that post.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/librariansofharv00pottrich|title=The librarians of Harvard College 1667-1877|last1=Potter|first1=Alfred Claghorn|last2=Bolton|first2=Charles Knowles|date=1897|publisher=Cambridge, Mass., Library of Harvard University|others=University of California Libraries}}</ref> That year he began keeping a journal, which he maintained for most of his life; it is one of the major historical documents of the time. In 1679 he became a member of the [[Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts|Military Company of Massachusetts]].


⚫
Sewall's oral examination for the MA was a public affair and was witnessed by Hannah Hull, daughter of colonial merchant and [[Massachusetts pound|mintmaster]], [[John Hull (merchant)|John Hull]]. She was apparently taken by the young man's charms and pursued him. They were married in February 1676. Her father, whose work as mintmaster had made him quite wealthy, gave the couple £500 in colonial currency as a wedding gift. Biographer Richard Francis notes that the weight of this amount of [[coin|specie]], {{convert|125|lb|kg}}, may have approximated the bride's weight, giving rise to [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]]'s legend that the gift was her weight in coins.<ref>Francis, p. 23</ref> Sewall moved into his in-laws' mansion in Boston and was soon involved in that family's business and political affairs. He and Hannah had fourteen children before her death in 1717, although only a few survived to adulthood.
⚫
Sewall's involvement in the political affairs of the colony began when he became a [[freeman (Colonial)|freeman]] of the colony, giving him the right to vote. In 1681 he was appointed the official printer of the colony; one of the first works he published was [[John Bunyan]]'s ''[[The Pilgrim's Progress]]''. After [[John Hull (merchant)|John Hull]] died in 1683, Sewall was elected to replace him on the colony's council of assistants, a body that functioned both as the upper house of the legislature and as a court of appeals. He also became a member of Harvard's Board of Overseers.


⚫
Sewall's involvement in the political affairs of the colony began when he became a [[freeman (Colonial)|freeman]] of the colony, giving him the right to vote. In 1681 he was appointed the official printer of the colony. One of the first works he published was [[John Bunyan]]'s ''[[The Pilgrim's Progress]]''. After Hull died in 1683, Sewall was elected to replace him on the colony's council of assistants, a body that functioned both as the upper house of the legislature and as a court of appeals. He also became a member of Harvard's Board of Overseers.
⚫
Sewall's oral examination for the MA was a public affair and was witnessed by Hannah Hull, daughter of colonial merchant and [[Massachusetts pound|mintmaster]] [[John Hull (merchant)|John Hull]]. She was apparently taken by the young man's charms, and pursued him; they were married in February 1676. Her father, whose work as mintmaster had made him quite wealthy, gave the couple £500 in colonial currency as a wedding gift. (Biographer Richard Francis notes that the weight of this amount of [[coin|specie]], {{convert|125|lb|kg}}, may have approximated the bride's weight, giving rise to [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]]'s legend that the gift was her weight in coins.)<ref>Francis, p. 23</ref> Sewall moved into his in-laws' mansion in Boston, and was soon involved in that family's business and political affairs. He and Hannah would have fourteen children before her death in 1717, although only a few survived to adulthood.


He also entered local politics, and was elevated to the position of assistant magistrate in the judiciary. In 1692 he was one of the nine judges appointed to the court of Oyer and Terminer in [[Salem, Massachusetts|Salem]], charged with trying those from Salem Town and elsewhere who were accused of [[witchcraft]]. His diary recounts many of the more famous episodes of the trials, such as the agonizing death under torture of [[Giles Corey]], and reflects the growing public unease about the guilt of many of the accused. Sewall's brother Stephen had meanwhile opened up his home to one of the initially afflicted children, [[Betty Parris]], daughter of Salem Village's minister, [[Samuel Parris]], and shortly afterward Betty's "afflictions" appear to have subsided.
Sewall entered local politics and was elevated to the position of assistant magistrate in the judiciary. In 1692 he was one of the nine judges appointed to the court of [[Oyer and terminer|Oyer and Terminer]] in [[Salem, Massachusetts|Salem]], charged with [[Salem witch trials|trying those from Salem Town]] and elsewhere who were accused of [[witchcraft]]. His diary recounts many of the more famous episodes of the trials, such as the agonizing death under torture of [[Giles Corey]], and reflects the growing public unease about the guilt of many of the accused. Sewall's brother Stephen had meanwhile opened up his home to one of the initially afflicted children, [[Betty Parris]], daughter of Salem Village's minister [[Samuel Parris]], and shortly afterward Betty's "afflictions" appear to have subsided.


Sewall was perhaps most remarkable among the justices involved in the trials in that he later regretted his role, going so far as to call for a public day of prayer, fasting, and reparations. Following the dissolution of the court, the Sewall family was blighted by what Sewall thought to be punishments from God. In the five years after the Trials, two of Sewall's daughters and Hannah's mother died and Hannah gave birth to a stillborn child. What convinced Sewall of his need for public repentance was a recitation of Matthew 12:7, "If ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless".<ref>Heather E. Jones, "Salem Witch Trials in History and Literature," Salem Witch Trials: Documentary Archive and Transcription Project, last modified 2001, accessed October 24, 2016, http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/people/sewall.html.</ref> Not only had Sewall's home life been shaken, but in the years after the Trials, the people of Massachusetts experienced setbacks and violence, notably the Navigation Acts, the declaration of the New England Dominion, and King Philip's War.<ref>Lovejoy, David S. "Between Hell and Plum Island: Samuel Sewall and the Legacy of the Witches, 1692-97." The New England Quarterly 70, no. 3 (1997): 355-67.</ref> He saw this as a sign not that witchcraft did not exist, but that he had ruled on insubstantial evidence. He records in his diary that on 14 January 1697 he stood up in the meeting house he attended while his minister read out his confession of guilt.<ref>Morgan, Edmund S. ''American Heroes: Profiles of Men and Women Who Shaped Early America,'' pp. 126-9, W. W. Norton & Company, New York, London, 2009. {{ISBN|978-0-393-07010-1}}.</ref>
Sewall was perhaps most remarkable among the justices involved in the trials in that he later regretted his role, going so far as to call for a public day of prayer, fasting, and reparations. Following the dissolution of the court, the Sewall family was blighted by what Sewall thought to be punishments from God. In the five years after the trials, two of Sewall's daughters and Hannah's mother died, and Hannah gave birth to a stillborn child.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lovejoy |first1=David |title=Between Hell and Plum Island: Samuel Sewall and the Legacy of the Witches |journal=The New England Quarterly |date=September 1997 |volume=70 |issue=3 |pages=358–359 |doi=10.2307/366758 |jstor=366758 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/366758 |access-date=September 26, 2023}}</ref> What convinced Sewall of his need for public repentance was a recitation of [[Matthew 12:7]], "If ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless".<ref>Heather E. Jones, "Salem Witch Trials in History and Literature," Salem Witch Trials: Documentary Archive and Transcription Project, last modified 2001, accessed October 24, 2016, http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/people/sewall.html.</ref> Not only had Sewall's home life been shaken, but in the years after the trials, the people of Massachusetts came to see them as the culmination of a generation-long series of setbacks and ordeals, notably the [[Navigation Acts]], the declaration of the [[Dominion of New England|New England Dominion]], and [[King Philip's War]].<ref>Lovejoy, David S. “Between Hell and Plum Island: Samuel Sewall and the Legacy of the Witches, 1692-97.” ''The New England Quarterly'', vol. 70, no. 3, 1997, pp. 355–367. ''JSTOR'', [www.jstor.org/stable/366758]. Accessed 20 June 2021.</ref> He saw this as a sign not that witchcraft did not exist, but that he had ruled on insubstantial evidence. He records in his diary that on 14 January 1697, he stood up in the meeting house he attended while his minister read out his confession of guilt.<ref>Morgan, Edmund S. ''American Heroes: Profiles of Men and Women Who Shaped Early America,'' pp. 126-9, W. W. Norton & Company, New York, London, 2009. {{ISBN|978-0-393-07010-1}}.</ref>


In 1693 Sewall was appointed an associate justice of the [[Massachusetts Superior Court of Judicature|Superior Court of Judicature]], the province's high court, by Governor Sir [[William Phips]]. In 1717, he was appointed its chief justice by Governor [[Samuel Shute]].
In 1693 Sewall was appointed an associate justice of the [[Massachusetts Superior Court of Judicature|Superior Court of Judicature]], the province's high court, by Governor Sir [[William Phips]]. In 1717, he was appointed its chief justice by Governor [[Samuel Shute]].


⚫
Sewall died in Boston on January 1, 1730, aged 77, and was interred in the family tomb at Boston's [[Granary Burying Ground]]. Sewall married three times. Hannah Hull, his first wife, died in 1717; two years later, in 1719, Sewall married Abigail (Melyen) Woodmansey Tilley, who died seven months later. In 1722, he married Mary (Shrimpton) Gibbs, who survived him.<ref>LaPlante, pp. 285–87</ref><ref>{{cite book|last= Graves|first= Eben W.|title= The Descendants of Henry Sewall (1576-1656) of Manchester and Coventry, England, and Newbury and Rowley, Massachusetts|edition= 1st|year= 2007|publisher= Newbury Street Press|location= Boston, Massachusetts|isbn= 978-0-88082-198-8|pages= [https://archive.org/details/descendantsofhen00grav/page/89 89–90]|url= https://archive.org/details/descendantsofhen00grav/page/89}}</ref> His nephew, [[Stephen Sewall|Stephen]], served as a Massachusetts chief justice, as did his great-grandson [[Samuel Sewall (congressman)|Samuel]].
Sewall died in [[Boston, Massachusetts]], on January 1, 1730, aged 77, and was interred in the family tomb at Boston's [[Granary Burying Ground]].

⚫
Sewall married three times. Hannah Hull, his first wife, died in 1717; two years later, in 1719, Sewall married Abigail (Melyen) Woodmansey Tilley, who died seven months later. In 1722, he married Mary (Shrimpton) Gibbs, who survived him.<ref>LaPlante, pp. 285–87</ref><ref>{{cite book|last= Graves|first= Eben W.|title= The Descendants of Henry Sewall (1576-1656) of Manchester and Coventry, England, and Newbury and Rowley, Massachusetts|edition= 1st|year= 2007|publisher= Newbury Street Press|location= Boston, Massachusetts|isbn= 978-0-88082-198-8|pages= [https://archive.org/details/descendantsofhen00grav/page/89 89–90]|url= https://archive.org/details/descendantsofhen00grav/page/89}}</ref> His nephew [[Stephen Sewall|Stephen]] also served as a Massachusetts chief justice, as did his great grandson [[Samuel Sewall (congressman)|Samuel]]. His sister Anne Sewall Longfellow (1662&ndash;1706) was the great-great-great-grandmother of the poet [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]].<ref>[http://www.hwlongfellow.org/pdf/hwl_ancestrychart.pdf Direct Ancestors of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]</ref>


==Views and writings==
==Views and writings==
[[File:Coat of Arms of Henry Sewall.svg|175px|thumb|Coat of Arms of Samuel Sewall]]
Apart from his involvement in the Salem witch trials, Sewall was somewhat liberal in his views for the time. In ''The Selling of Joseph'' (1700), for instance, he came out strongly against [[slavery]], making him one of the earliest colonial [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionists]]. ''The Selling of Joseph'' was the earliest-recorded anti-slavery tract published in the future United States. In it, Sewell argued, "Liberty is in real value next unto Life: None ought to part with it themselves, or deprive others of it, but upon the most mature Consideration." He regarded "man-stealing as an atrocious crime which would introduce among the English settlers people who would remain forever restive and alien", but also believed that "There is such a disparity in their Conditions, Colour, Hair, that they can never embody with us, and grow up into orderly Families, to the Peopling of the Land." Although holding such [[Racial segregation|segregationist]] views, he maintained that "These [[Ethiopia]]ns, as black as they are; seeing they are the Sons and Daughters of the First [[Adam (Bible)|Adam]], the Brethren and Sisters of the Last ADAM [meaning [[Jesus Christ]]], and the Offspring of God; They ought to be treated with a Respect agreeable."{{citation needed|date=September 2015}}
===Abolitionism===
Apart from his involvement in the Salem witch trials, Sewall was liberal in his views for the time.{{citation needed|date=February 2021}} In 1700, he wrote and published "The Selling of Joseph: A Memorial," a tract that made a [[The Bible and slavery|biblically based case]] that slavery was unjustified and sinful. It was the [[Abolitionism in the United States|first anti-slavery document]] ever published in North America.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Edmonston |first=Rachel |title=A New Englander Speaks: Samuel Sewall – ''The Selling of Joseph'' (1700) |url=https://slaverylawpower.org/samuel-sewall-selling-joseph-1705/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221022203345/https://slaverylawpower.org/samuel-sewall-selling-joseph-1705/ |archive-date=October 22, 2022 |access-date=November 7, 2022 |website=Slavery, Law, and Power|date=May 2020 }}</ref> Written like a sermon, "Selling" argues that "Liberty is in real value next unto Life: None ought to part with it themselves, or deprive others of it, but upon the most mature Consideration." Enslaving people of Black African descent was contrary to God's design for the world because according to scripture, all humankind were "the sons of Adam" and "of One Blood" and had the same right to freedom. Freedom, including for Black Americans, Sewall writes, should be valued more than profit.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Byrd |first=Brandon R. |title=Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619–2019 |title-link=Four Hundred Souls |publisher=One World |year=2021 |isbn=978-0-593-13404-7 |editor-last=Kendi |editor-first=Ibram X. |editor-link=Ibram X. Kendi |location=New York |pages=73–76 |chapter=''The Selling of Joseph'' |editor-last2=Blain |editor-first2=Keisha N. |editor-link2=Keisha N. Blain}}</ref> Sewall further argued that it was inopportune to lament the “barbarous” enslavement in Africa of many of his fellow New Englanders, while keeping Africans in Massachusetts.<ref name=WW>{{cite book |author1=[[Wendy Warren]] |date=2016 |edition=1.ª |language=en |page=8 |publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]] |quote=Sewall’s essay, The Selling of Joseph […] Sewall found hipocrisy in colonists’ lamenting the treatment of their friends and family in North Africa |title=New England Bound}}<!-- auto-translated from Spanish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref><ref>{{cite journal |access-date=1 April 2024 |last1=Sewall |first1=Samuel |language=en |periodical=Slavery, Law & Power in the British Empire and Early America |publisher=[[University of Maryland]] |quote=when we are bemoaning the barbarous Usage of our Friends and Kinsfolk in Africa: it might not be unseasonable to enquire whether we are not culpable in forcing the Africans to become Slaves amongst our selves |title=Samuel Sewall – The Selling of Joseph (1700) |url=https://blog.umd.edu/slaverylawandpower/samuel-sewall-the-selling-of-joseph-1705/}}<!-- auto-translated from Spanish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> His title refers to the biblical story of [[Joseph (Genesis)|Joseph, son of Israel]], whose brothers unjustly sold him into slavery, comparing the enslavement of Black Americans to Joseph's own unjustified bondage.<ref name=":0" /> "Selling" propagates a [[Racial segregation|segregationist]] perspective, and Sewall claims that Black Africans could not peacefully live among white New Englanders. Nevertheless, his argument against slavery is, at least according to one historian, a "courageous… public stand".{{Sfn|Kendi|2016|p=66}}


Sewall had published "Selling''"'' in response to learning that Boston judge [[John Saffin]] had refused to release a Black indentured servant named Adam and intended to perpetually enslave Adam.{{Sfn|Kendi|2016|p=66}} After "Selling" was released, Saffin issued a rebuttal arguing that social hierarchies were necessary and that enslaving Black Americans was divinely ordained.<ref name=":1" /> Adam was set free after a lengthy trial, but Saffin's rebuttal held greater sway among Bostonians, and chattel slavery persisted in Massachusetts.{{Sfn|Kendi|2016|p=67}} "Selling" was only reprinted twice (one in the 1700s and again in 1863), and it became an obscure document.<ref name=":0" /> Sewall's own nephew, also named Samuel Sewall, rejected his uncle's arguments against chattel slavery and continued participating in it as a business.<ref name=":1" />
⚫
His essay ''Talitha Cumi'', first published in 1725, refers to the "right of women."<ref>{{cite book|last=LaPlante|first=Eve|title=Salem Witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewall|edition=1st|year=2007|publisher=HarperOne|location=New York|isbn=978-0-06-078661-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/salemwitchjudgel00lapl/page/304 304–11]|url=https://archive.org/details/salemwitchjudgel00lapl/page/304}}</ref> When the [[periwig]] became fashionable in New England, Sewall condemned the fashion vehemently, in contrast to [[Cotton Mather]], who saw no reason why a Puritan should not wear a wig. Sewall's ''Journal'', kept from 1673 to 1729, describes his life as a Puritan against the changing tide of colonial life, as the devoutly religious community of Massachusetts gradually adopted more secular attitudes and emerged as a liberal, cosmopolitan-minded community.{{citation needed|date=September 2015}}

===Women's rights and other views===
⚫
His essay "Talitha Cumi," first published in 1725, refers to the "right of women."<ref>{{cite book|last=LaPlante|first=Eve|title=Salem Witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewall|edition=1st|year=2007|publisher=HarperOne|location=New York|isbn=978-0-06-078661-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/salemwitchjudgel00lapl/page/304 304–11]|url=https://archive.org/details/salemwitchjudgel00lapl/page/304}}</ref> When the [[periwig]] became fashionable in New England, Sewall condemned the fashion vehemently, in contrast to Cotton Mather, who saw no reason why a Puritan should not wear a wig. Sewall's journal, kept from 1673 to 1729, describes his life as a Puritan against the changing tide of colonial life as the devoutly religious community of Massachusetts gradually adopted more secular attitudes and emerged as a liberal, cosmopolitan-minded community.{{citation needed|date=September 2015}}


==Cultural influence==
==Cultural influence==
*[[The Crucible (1996 film)|''The Crucible'' (1996 film)]]: Judge Samuel Sewall was played by actor [[George Gaynes]]; notably, he is the first judge to begin doubting the circumstances, and by the end of the film he is asking his superior, Judge Danforth, to end the trials as he and the townspeople have tired of the deaths and executions brought on by the court.
*[[The Crucible (1996 film)|''The Crucible'' (1996 film)]]: Judge Samuel Sewall was played by actor [[George Gaynes]]. Notably, he is the first judge to begin doubting the circumstances, and by the end of the film, he is asking his superior, [[Thomas Danforth|Judge Danforth]], to end the trials as he and the townspeople have tired of the deaths and executions brought on by the court.


==Bibliography==
==Bibliography==
Line 58: Line 59:
* ''Talitha Cumi, or Damsel, Arise'', 1725. Reprinted in Eve LaPlante, ''Salem Witch Judge,' ''2007, 2008.
* ''Talitha Cumi, or Damsel, Arise'', 1725. Reprinted in Eve LaPlante, ''Salem Witch Judge,' ''2007, 2008.


==References==
==Notes==
{{reflist}}
{{reflist}}


==Sources==
==References==
* {{cite book |title= The Pilgrims of Boston and their Descendants|last=Bridgeman |first=Thomas |year= 1856|publisher=D. Appleton and Company |location=New York |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oPQWAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+pilgrims+of+boston |accessdate=29 April 2009 }}
* {{cite book |title= The Pilgrims of Boston and their Descendants|last=Bridgeman |first=Thomas |year= 1856|publisher=D. Appleton and Company |location=New York |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oPQWAAAAYAAJ&q=the+pilgrims+of+boston |access-date=29 April 2009 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Kendi |first=Ibram X. |title=Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America |title-link=Stamped from the Beginning |publisher=Nation Books |year=2016 |isbn=9781568584638 |location=New York}}
* Richard Francis, ''Judge Sewall's Apology: The Salem Witch Trials and the Forming of a Conscience'', Fourth Estate, London, 2005; HarperCollins, New York, 2005; HarperPerennial, London & New York, 2006
* Richard Francis, ''Judge Sewall's Apology: The Salem Witch Trials and the Forming of a Conscience'', Fourth Estate, London, 2005; HarperCollins, New York, 2005; HarperPerennial, London & New York, 2006
* Eve LaPlante, ''Salem Witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewall'', HarperOne, 2007, 2008.
* Eve LaPlante, ''Salem Witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewall'', HarperOne, 2007, 2008.
Line 69: Line 71:


==External links==
==External links==
{{wikisource author}}
*{{wikisource author-inline}}
*{{commons category-inline}}
* [http://www.firstparishcemetery.net 100 Parish Cemetery], York, Maine. Descendants buried here.
* [http://www.firstparishcemetery.net 100 Parish Cemetery]{{Dead link|date=November 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, York, Maine. Descendants buried here.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110725032303/http://mainehumanities.org/podcast/archives/432 Reading by Eve LaPlante] from her biography of Sewall, courtesy of the [[Maine Humanities Council]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110725032303/http://mainehumanities.org/podcast/archives/432 Reading by Eve LaPlante] from her biography of Sewall, courtesy of the [[Maine Humanities Council]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20101007211741/http://www.dummerfamily.org.uk/ The Family of Dummer of British Origin]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20101007211741/http://www.dummerfamily.org.uk/ The Family of Dummer of British Origin]
* [http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/etas/26/ The Selling of Joseph: A Memorial (1700) essay]
* [http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/etas/26/ The Selling of Joseph: A Memorial (1700) essay]
* [http://id.lib.harvard.edu/ead/bak01316/catalog Samuel Sewall journal] at Baker Library Special Collections, Harvard Business School.


{{s-start}}
{{s-start}}
Line 92: Line 96:
[[Category:1652 births]]
[[Category:1652 births]]
[[Category:1730 deaths]]
[[Category:1730 deaths]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from colonial Massachusetts]]
[[Category:American abolitionists]]
[[Category:American abolitionists]]
[[Category:Burials at Granary Burying Ground]]
[[Category:Burials at Granary Burying Ground]]
[[Category:Harvard College alumni]]
[[Category:Harvard College alumni]]
[[Category:Justices of the Massachusetts Superior Court of Judicature]]
[[Category:Justices of the Massachusetts Superior Court of Judicature]]
[[Category:Kingdom of England emigrants to Massachusetts Bay Colony]]
[[Category:English emigrants to Massachusetts Bay Colony]]
[[Category:Members of the colonial Massachusetts Governor's Council]]
[[Category:Members of the colonial Massachusetts Governor's Council]]
[[Category:New Latin-language poets]]
[[Category:Neo-Latin poets]]
[[Category:People from Bishopstoke]]
[[Category:People from Bishopstoke]]
[[Category:People from colonial Boston]]
[[Category:People from colonial Boston]]
[[Category:People of the Salem witch trials]]
[[Category:Government officials in the Salem witch trials]]
[[Category:American librarians]]
[[Category:American librarians]]
[[Category:Sewall family]]

Latest revision as of 02:22, 9 September 2024

For the jurist and US congressman, see Samuel Sewall (congressman). For the American lawyer, abolitionist, and suffragist, see Samuel Edmund Sewall.
Samuel Sewall
1729, by John Smibert
BornMarch 28, 1652 (1652-03-28)
Bishopstoke, Hampshire, England
DiedJanuary 1, 1730(1730-01-01) (aged 77)
Boston, Province of Massachusetts Bay
EducationHarvard College
OccupationJudge
Known forSalem witch trials
Spouse(s)Hannah Hull
Abigail (Melyen) Woodmansey Tilley
Mary (Shrimpton) Gibbs
Signature

Samuel Sewall (/ˈsjuːəl/; March 28, 1652 – January 1, 1730) was a judge, businessman, and printer in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, best known for his involvement in the Salem witch trials,[1] for which he later apologized, and his essay "The Selling of Joseph" (1700), which criticized slavery.[2] He served for many years as the chief justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court of Judicature, the province's high court.

Biography

[edit]

Sewall was born in Bishopstoke, Hampshire, England, on March 28, 1652, the son of Henry and Jane (Dummer) Sewall.[3] His father, son of the mayor of Coventry, had come to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635, where he married Sewall's mother and returned to England in the 1640s.[4]

Poem by Nehemiah Hobart in Latin, printed by Samuel Sewall, Boston, 1712

Following the Restoration of Charles II to the English throne, the Sewalls again crossed the Atlantic in 1661, settling in Newbury, Massachusetts.[5] Like other local boys, he attended school at the home of James Noyes, whose cousin, Reverend Thomas Parker, was the principal instructor. From Parker, Sewall acquired a lifelong love of verse, which he wrote in both English and Latin.[6] In 1667 Sewall entered Harvard College, where his classmates included Edward Taylor and Daniel Gookin, with whom he formed enduring friendships. Sewall received his B.A. in 1671 and his M.A. in 1674.[7] In 1674 he served as librarian of Harvard for nine months, the second person to hold that post.[8] That year he began keeping a journal, which he maintained for most of his life; it is one of the major historical documents of the time. In 1679 he became a member of the Military Company of Massachusetts.

Sewall's oral examination for the MA was a public affair and was witnessed by Hannah Hull, daughter of colonial merchant and mintmaster, John Hull. She was apparently taken by the young man's charms and pursued him. They were married in February 1676. Her father, whose work as mintmaster had made him quite wealthy, gave the couple £500 in colonial currency as a wedding gift. Biographer Richard Francis notes that the weight of this amount of specie, 125 pounds (57 kg), may have approximated the bride's weight, giving rise to Nathaniel Hawthorne's legend that the gift was her weight in coins.[9] Sewall moved into his in-laws' mansion in Boston and was soon involved in that family's business and political affairs. He and Hannah had fourteen children before her death in 1717, although only a few survived to adulthood.

Sewall's involvement in the political affairs of the colony began when he became a freeman of the colony, giving him the right to vote. In 1681 he was appointed the official printer of the colony. One of the first works he published was John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress. After Hull died in 1683, Sewall was elected to replace him on the colony's council of assistants, a body that functioned both as the upper house of the legislature and as a court of appeals. He also became a member of Harvard's Board of Overseers.

Sewall entered local politics and was elevated to the position of assistant magistrate in the judiciary. In 1692 he was one of the nine judges appointed to the court of Oyer and Terminer in Salem, charged with trying those from Salem Town and elsewhere who were accused of witchcraft. His diary recounts many of the more famous episodes of the trials, such as the agonizing death under torture of Giles Corey, and reflects the growing public unease about the guilt of many of the accused. Sewall's brother Stephen had meanwhile opened up his home to one of the initially afflicted children, Betty Parris, daughter of Salem Village's minister Samuel Parris, and shortly afterward Betty's "afflictions" appear to have subsided.

Sewall was perhaps most remarkable among the justices involved in the trials in that he later regretted his role, going so far as to call for a public day of prayer, fasting, and reparations. Following the dissolution of the court, the Sewall family was blighted by what Sewall thought to be punishments from God. In the five years after the trials, two of Sewall's daughters and Hannah's mother died, and Hannah gave birth to a stillborn child.[10] What convinced Sewall of his need for public repentance was a recitation of Matthew 12:7, "If ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless".[11] Not only had Sewall's home life been shaken, but in the years after the trials, the people of Massachusetts came to see them as the culmination of a generation-long series of setbacks and ordeals, notably the Navigation Acts, the declaration of the New England Dominion, and King Philip's War.[12] He saw this as a sign not that witchcraft did not exist, but that he had ruled on insubstantial evidence. He records in his diary that on 14 January 1697, he stood up in the meeting house he attended while his minister read out his confession of guilt.[13]

In 1693 Sewall was appointed an associate justice of the Superior Court of Judicature, the province's high court, by Governor Sir William Phips. In 1717, he was appointed its chief justice by Governor Samuel Shute.

Sewall died in Boston on January 1, 1730, aged 77, and was interred in the family tomb at Boston's Granary Burying Ground. Sewall married three times. Hannah Hull, his first wife, died in 1717; two years later, in 1719, Sewall married Abigail (Melyen) Woodmansey Tilley, who died seven months later. In 1722, he married Mary (Shrimpton) Gibbs, who survived him.[14][15] His nephew, Stephen, served as a Massachusetts chief justice, as did his great-grandson Samuel.

Views and writings

[edit]
Coat of Arms of Samuel Sewall

Abolitionism

[edit]

Apart from his involvement in the Salem witch trials, Sewall was liberal in his views for the time.[citation needed] In 1700, he wrote and published "The Selling of Joseph: A Memorial," a tract that made a biblically based case that slavery was unjustified and sinful. It was the first anti-slavery document ever published in North America.[16] Written like a sermon, "Selling" argues that "Liberty is in real value next unto Life: None ought to part with it themselves, or deprive others of it, but upon the most mature Consideration." Enslaving people of Black African descent was contrary to God's design for the world because according to scripture, all humankind were "the sons of Adam" and "of One Blood" and had the same right to freedom. Freedom, including for Black Americans, Sewall writes, should be valued more than profit.[17] Sewall further argued that it was inopportune to lament the “barbarous” enslavement in Africa of many of his fellow New Englanders, while keeping Africans in Massachusetts.[18][19] His title refers to the biblical story of Joseph, son of Israel, whose brothers unjustly sold him into slavery, comparing the enslavement of Black Americans to Joseph's own unjustified bondage.[16] "Selling" propagates a segregationist perspective, and Sewall claims that Black Africans could not peacefully live among white New Englanders. Nevertheless, his argument against slavery is, at least according to one historian, a "courageous… public stand".[20]

Sewall had published "Selling" in response to learning that Boston judge John Saffin had refused to release a Black indentured servant named Adam and intended to perpetually enslave Adam.[20] After "Selling" was released, Saffin issued a rebuttal arguing that social hierarchies were necessary and that enslaving Black Americans was divinely ordained.[17] Adam was set free after a lengthy trial, but Saffin's rebuttal held greater sway among Bostonians, and chattel slavery persisted in Massachusetts.[21] "Selling" was only reprinted twice (one in the 1700s and again in 1863), and it became an obscure document.[16] Sewall's own nephew, also named Samuel Sewall, rejected his uncle's arguments against chattel slavery and continued participating in it as a business.[17]

Women's rights and other views

[edit]

His essay "Talitha Cumi," first published in 1725, refers to the "right of women."[22] When the periwig became fashionable in New England, Sewall condemned the fashion vehemently, in contrast to Cotton Mather, who saw no reason why a Puritan should not wear a wig. Sewall's journal, kept from 1673 to 1729, describes his life as a Puritan against the changing tide of colonial life as the devoutly religious community of Massachusetts gradually adopted more secular attitudes and emerged as a liberal, cosmopolitan-minded community.[citation needed]

Cultural influence

[edit]
  • The Crucible (1996 film): Judge Samuel Sewall was played by actor George Gaynes. Notably, he is the first judge to begin doubting the circumstances, and by the end of the film, he is asking his superior, Judge Danforth, to end the trials as he and the townspeople have tired of the deaths and executions brought on by the court.

Bibliography

[edit]

Works written by Sewall include:[23]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Starkey, Marion L. The Devil in Massachusetts 1949 Doubleday Edition pp.261-2
  2. ^ Samuel Sewall; Melvin Yazawa (1998). The diary and life of Samuel Sewall. Boston: Bedford Books. pp. 1. ISBN 978-0-312-13394-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ Dummer, Michael (June 2005). "7: Stephen of Horton Heath - the Last Yeoman, and the Last Estate". The Family of Dummer (7th ed.). p. 38.
  4. ^ Francis, Richard (2006). Judge Sewall's Apology: The Salem Witch Trials and the Forming of a Conscience. London/New York: Harper Perennial. pp. 3–5. ISBN 1-84115-677-9.
  5. ^ Francis, pp. 6-7
  6. ^ Francis, p. 9
  7. ^ Francis, pp. 10-13
  8. ^ Potter, Alfred Claghorn; Bolton, Charles Knowles (1897). The librarians of Harvard College 1667-1877. University of California Libraries. Cambridge, Mass., Library of Harvard University.
  9. ^ Francis, p. 23
  10. ^ Lovejoy, David (September 1997). "Between Hell and Plum Island: Samuel Sewall and the Legacy of the Witches". The New England Quarterly. 70 (3): 358–359. doi:10.2307/366758. JSTOR 366758. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  11. ^ Heather E. Jones, "Salem Witch Trials in History and Literature," Salem Witch Trials: Documentary Archive and Transcription Project, last modified 2001, accessed October 24, 2016, http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/people/sewall.html.
  12. ^ Lovejoy, David S. “Between Hell and Plum Island: Samuel Sewall and the Legacy of the Witches, 1692-97.” The New England Quarterly, vol. 70, no. 3, 1997, pp. 355–367. JSTOR, [www.jstor.org/stable/366758]. Accessed 20 June 2021.
  13. ^ Morgan, Edmund S. American Heroes: Profiles of Men and Women Who Shaped Early America, pp. 126-9, W. W. Norton & Company, New York, London, 2009. ISBN 978-0-393-07010-1.
  14. ^ LaPlante, pp. 285–87
  15. ^ Graves, Eben W. (2007). The Descendants of Henry Sewall (1576-1656) of Manchester and Coventry, England, and Newbury and Rowley, Massachusetts (1st ed.). Boston, Massachusetts: Newbury Street Press. pp. 89–90. ISBN 978-0-88082-198-8.
  16. ^ a b c Edmonston, Rachel (May 2020). "A New Englander Speaks: Samuel Sewall – The Selling of Joseph (1700)". Slavery, Law, and Power. Archived from the original on October 22, 2022. Retrieved November 7, 2022.
  17. ^ a b c Byrd, Brandon R. (2021). "The Selling of Joseph". In Kendi, Ibram X.; Blain, Keisha N. (eds.). Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619–2019. New York: One World. pp. 73–76. ISBN 978-0-593-13404-7.
  18. ^ Wendy Warren (2016). New England Bound (1.ª ed.). W. W. Norton & Company. p. 8. Sewall's essay, The Selling of Joseph […] Sewall found hipocrisy in colonists' lamenting the treatment of their friends and family in North Africa
  19. ^ Sewall, Samuel. "Samuel Sewall – The Selling of Joseph (1700)". Slavery, Law & Power in the British Empire and Early America. University of Maryland. Retrieved 1 April 2024. when we are bemoaning the barbarous Usage of our Friends and Kinsfolk in Africa: it might not be unseasonable to enquire whether we are not culpable in forcing the Africans to become Slaves amongst our selves
  20. ^ a b Kendi 2016, p. 66.
  21. ^ Kendi 2016, p. 67.
  22. ^ LaPlante, Eve (2007). Salem Witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewall (1st ed.). New York: HarperOne. pp. 304–11. ISBN 978-0-06-078661-8.
  23. ^ PAL: Samuel Sewall (1652-1730)

References

[edit]
  • Bridgeman, Thomas (1856). The Pilgrims of Boston and their Descendants. New York: D. Appleton and Company. Retrieved 29 April 2009.
  • Kendi, Ibram X. (2016). Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America. New York: Nation Books. ISBN 9781568584638.
  • Richard Francis, Judge Sewall's Apology: The Salem Witch Trials and the Forming of a Conscience, Fourth Estate, London, 2005; HarperCollins, New York, 2005; HarperPerennial, London & New York, 2006
  • Eve LaPlante, Salem Witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewall, HarperOne, 2007, 2008.
  • Ola Elizabeth Winslow, Samuel Sewall of Boston, Macmillan, New York, 1964.
  • Mel Yazawa, The Diary and Life of Samuel Sewall, Bedford Books, Boston and New York, 1998.
[edit]
Legal offices
New seat Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court of Judicature
1692–1718 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court of Judicature
1718–1728 		Succeeded by
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Samuel_Sewall&oldid=1244769332"