Sewall, Samuel

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Sewall, Samuel

March 28, 1652

Hampshire, England

January 1, 1730

Boston, Massachusetts

Massachusetts businessman and judge

"Tis pity there should be more caution used in buying a horse, or a little lifeless dust, than there is in purchasing men and women. . . . "

Samuel Sewall.

Samuel Sewall was a prominent businessman and judge in Boston during a time of social and political upheaval in the Massachusetts colony. He is perhaps best known for making a dramatic public apology for the role he played as a judge in the Salem witch trials, which resulted in the executions of nineteen people. Sewall is also famous for his diary, a remarkable work that spans more than fifty years and provides modern historians with a vivid picture of life in Puritan New England. (The Puritans were a Christian group who observed strict moral and spiritual codes; they controlled social and political life in Massachusetts.) Sewall also was one of the first colonists to speak out against the keeping of African slaves.

Begins long public career

Samuel Sewall was born in Hampshire, England, on March 28, 1652, the son of Henry and Jane (Dummer) Sewall. When he was nine years old, his parents emigrated (moved from one country to another) to Newbury, Massachusetts, where he was educated at a private school. In 1671 he graduated from Harvard College with a bachelor's degree and three years later earned a master's degree from the same institution. Sewall was then ordained a minister, but he left the church to go into business when he married Hannah Hull in 1675. Sewall's father-in-law, John Hull, was the master of the mint (a government agency that prints money) for the Massachusetts Bay Colony and therefore had extensive connections in the business community. At Hull's urging, Sewall moved to Boston in 1681 to take over management of the colony's printing press. By the early 1690s he was a prominent figure in Boston business and political circles. He was a banker, publisher, international trader, and member of the colonial court. Although Sewall had no formal legal training, he also served as a judge (at that time a law degree was not required).

Sewall began his long career as a government official in 1683, when he was appointed to the general court. The following year he was elected to the Massachusetts council (governing body). While visiting England on business in 1684, he became involved in unsuccessful efforts to convince British officials to maintain the Massachusetts Bay Colony charter in its present form. Massachusetts Bay was the only self-governing English colony in America (see John Winthrop entry). However, Britain revoked the charter because Massachusetts Bay officials were illegally operating a mint. They were also basing voting rights on religious affiliation instead of property ownership and discriminating against Anglicans (members of the Church of England, the official religion of the country); the majority of the Massachusetts colonists were Puritans.

The Salem witch trials

In 1691 Britain forced the Massachusetts Bay Colony to accept a charter that united it with Plymouth (see William Bradford entry) and Maine (see Ferdinando Gorges box in Thomas Morton entry) to form the Massachusetts colony. Under the new charter, church membership could no longer be a requirement for voting, although Congregationalism (a branch of Puritanism organized according to independent church congregations) remained the established (official) church. Sewall was named a councilor (advisor) in the new royal government, a position he held until 1725, when he decided not to seek reelection.

Historians note that the loss of the original charter led to widespread anxiety in Massachusetts, which may be one of the main reasons for the infamous witchcraft hysteria that followed. Puritan officials believed the colony was under an evil spell cast by witches (people, usually women, with supernatural powers), who had signed a compact with the Devil, the ultimate evil force. Witches were supposedly seeking revenge on particular members of the community. According to the Puritans, the compact empowered a witch to perform such acts as causing a child's death, making crops fail, preventing cream from being churned into butter, or producing sterility (inability to conceive offspring) in cattle. They also believed witches entered the bodies of animals and became beings called "familiars" who prowled around undetected. Yet the witches could be discovered through other forms of witchcraft. The prominent Puritan leader Increase Mather (see box in Cotton Mather entry) wrote Remarkable Providence, a handbook on how to identify a witch. He actively supported holding trials to rid the colony of witches.

"the blame and shame of it"

Samuel Sewall regretted his participation as a judge in the Salem witch trials of 1692–93. On January 14, 1697—a special day of atonement set aside by the Massachusetts legislature—Sewall stood and faced the congregation in the Old South Church at Boston. The Reverend Samuel Willard then read aloud this statement Sewall had written:

Samuel Sewall, sensible of the reiterated [repeated] strokes of God upon himself and his family; and being sensible, that as to the guilt contracted, upon the opening of the late Commission of Oyer and Terminator [the court that conducted the witchcraft trials] at Salem (to which the order for this day relates), he is, upon many accounts, more concerned than any that he knows of, desires to take the blame and shame of it, asking pardon of men, and especially desiring prayers that God, who has an unlimited authority, would pardon that sin and all his other sins; personal and relative: And according to his infinite benignity [kindness], and sovereignty [supreme power], not visit the sin of him, or of any other, upon himself or any of his, nor upon the land: But that He [God] would powerfully defend him against all temptations to sin, for the future; and vouchsafe him the efficacious [having the power to produce a desired effect], saving conduct of his word and spirit.

Reprinted in: Gunn, Giles, ed. Early American Writing. New York: Penguin Books, 1994, pp. 246–47.

In June 1692, when the Puritans decided to hold formal witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts governor William Phips appointed Sewall as a special commissioner (judge) on the court. Meeting in July and August, Sewall and the other judges interrogated suspected witches and gave them a chance to reject the validity of their compact with the Devil. A suspected witch was usually falsely accused by other members of the community, and soon widespread accusations paralyzed the area. If the suspects opened themselves to God, they would be reaccepted into the community. But many did not repent. The court ultimately sentenced nineteen people, most of whom were women, to death. The executions were carried out in September: eighteen were hanged and a man was crushed to death. Almost immediately Sewall began to regret the role he played in this tragedy, and the guilt weighed increasingly upon his conscience. In fact, he felt he had greater responsibility in the matter than any of the other judges.

Recants role in trials

By 1697 Massachusetts officials realized that witchcraft hysteria was out of control and that the trials had been a terrible mistake, so the legislature designated January 14 as a special day of atonement (expression of regret and request for forgiveness). Taking this opportunity to make a public confession of his sins, Sewall wrote an admission of error and guilt. Then he stood and faced the congregation in the Old South Church at Boston as the Reverend Samuel Willard read the statement aloud. Sewall was the only judge who publicly admitted his own guilt. Increase Mather and his son Cotton, who were a motivating force behind the witch hunts, eventually were instrumental in bringing the trials to an end. Yet the Mathers expressed their doubts only in published written works.

Opposes slavery

After Sewall made his public apology he continued to be a part of governmental affairs and held various judicial offices. He also became involved in abolitionist (antislavery) efforts. In 1700 he published The Selling of Joseph, an essay in which he argued against the keeping of African slaves. Now considered one of the earliest antislavery statements, it is frequently reprinted in American history and literature texts. (Quaker minister John Woolman (see entry) is credited with organizing the first successful abolitionist movement, in 1743.) Sewall also advocated that Native Americans be placed on reservations and taught the English language and social customs. Colonial governments had been adopting this policy since the mid-1600s. The reservation system eventually resulted in the total extinction of the Native American way of life by the early nineteenth century.

Writes famous diary

Sewall wrote numerous historical and religious works as well as unpublished poetry during his lifetime. He is best known, however, for his diary, in which he gave a vivid picture of Puritan life in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century New England. (The diary spans the period from 1674 to 1729; there were no entries from 1677 to 1685.) Sewall was married three times. Hannah Sewall, with whom he had fourteen children, died in 1717. In 1719 he wed Abigail Melyen, who died the following year. One of the most amusing passages in Sewall's diary is his account of courting (seeking to marry) Katherine Winthrop. He wrote that he gave her such gifts as sermons, gingerbread, and sugared almonds. Yet she would not be won over unless he promised to wear a wig and buy a coach. Finally unable to reach a marriage agreement with Winthrop, Sewall turned his affections elsewhere and, at age seventy, took Mary Gibbs as his third wife. He died eight years later, in 1730.

from The Selling of Joseph

Samuel Sewall had long been troubled by the practice of slavery in the American colonies, but he had never acted on his views. Then, while he was serving as a judge in the Massachusetts General Court, he had to make a decision on a petition to free an African couple who were being held in bondage. Sewall therefore resolved to issue a public statement against the holding of African slaves. The result was The Selling of Joseph (1700), which is considered one of the earliest expressions of the abolitionist cause. The Joseph in the title is one of the heroes in the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament of the Bible. The favorite son of Jacob and Rachel, Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers. They were jealous of his ambitions and the coat of many colors that Jacob had given to him.

In the opening of The Selling of Joseph Sewall argued that "originally, and naturally, there is no such thing as slavery. Joseph was rightfully no more a slave to [his brothers] than they were to him; and they had no more authority to sell him than they had to slay him. . . . 'Tis pity there should be more caution used in buying a horse, or a little lifeless dust, than there is in purchasing men and women. . . ." Sewall went on to compare Joseph's situation with that of African slaves: "It is likewise most lamentable to think how, in taking negroes out of Africa and selling of them here, that which God has joined together men do boldly rend asunder; men from their country, husbands from their wives, parents from their children. How horrible is the uncleanness, immorality, if not murder, that the [slave] ships are guilty of that bring great crowds of these miserable men and women [to America]. . . . "

Reprinted in: Gunn, Giles, ed. Early American Writing. New York: Penguin Books, 1994, pp. 254–57.