Sewall, Samuel

Diary Entries of Samuel Sewall

Apology of Samuel Sewall

Both reprinted in Early American Writing in 1994

Edited by Giles Gunn

Samuel Sewall (1652–1730; see biography entry) was a prominent Boston businessman who served on the panel of judges for the Salemwitch trials. He is best known today for his diary, which provides an eyewitness account of the internal workings of the procedings. The trials were conducted by a group of elite Puritan leaders who were convinced that they were following the will of God. Sewall was a member of that group. Selected diary entries from April, August, and September 1692—at the height of the trials—show that judges and other Puritan officials regularly consulted about strategy, and they were determined to obtain confessions from suspected witches. Yet they were also anxious to justify their decisions. For instance, interrogators piled stones on Giles Corey for nine days until he died because he would not admit to the charges against him. Sewall apparently needed to defend this act because he noted that Corey himself had crushed someone to death eighteen years earlier. As proof against Corey he cited spectral evidence: Corey's "specter" (spirit) appeared to Ann Putnam, Jr. the night before the execution and told her he had killed the man. Sewall took comfort in Cotton Mather's view that the several convicted witches "all died by a righteous sentence." (See biography and primary source entries for both Put nam and Mather.) Sewall noted that some people thought George Burroughs (one of the executed men) was innocent, but he dismissed them as merely "unthinking persons." In the brief but dramatic description of the reprieve (the release from her death sentence) of Dorcas Hoar, Sewall indicated that the Puritans would call off an execution if a person confessed. Sewall later repented for his role in the trials.

Things to remember while reading the Diary Entries of Samuel Sewall:

• Sewall was actually an ordained minister, not a judge. However, at the time of the witch trials, people were chosen to sit on courts as judges based on their social standing and not on whether or not they had any legal training.
• Giles Corey was pressed to death because he contested the charges of witchcraft against him and refused to stand trial. Historians suggest that Corey must have known his case was hopeless, and therefore decided to defend the truth by refusing a trial.
• The witch trials were brought on by a mass hysteria that made many people actually believe that they were being haunted or possessed by evil.

From Diary Entries of Samuel Sewall

April 11, 1692. Went to Salem, where, in the meeting-house, the persons accused of witchcraft were examined; was a very great assembly; 'twas awful to see how theafflicted persons were agitated. Mr. Noyes pray'd at the beginning, and Mr. Higginson concluded.

August 19, 1692. This day George Burroughs, John Willard, John Proctor, Martha Carrier and George Jacobs wereexecuted at Salem, a very great number of spectators being present. Mr. Cotton Mather was there, Mr. Sims, Hale, Noyes, Chiever, &c. All of them said they were innocent, Carrier and all. Mr. Mather says they all died by a righteous sentence. Mr. Burroughs by his speech, prayer,protestation of his innocence, did much move unthinking persons, which occasions their speaking hardly concerning his being executed.

August 25.Fast at the old [First] Church, respecting the witchcraft, drought, &c.

Monday, September 19, 1692. About noon, at Salem, Giles Corey was press'd to death for standing mute; much pains was used with him two days, one after another, by the Court and Capt. Gardner of Nantucket who had been of his acquaintance: but all in vain.

September 20. Now I hear from Salem that about 18 years ago, he [Giles Corey] was suspected to have stampd and press'd a man to death, but was cleared. Twas not remembered till Ann Putnam [Jr.] was told of it by said Corey's spectre the sabbath-day night before execution.

afflicted: distressed, suffering

executed: to put to death in compliance with a legal sentence

protestation: a solemn declaration

fast: going without eating food

September 21. A petition is sent to town in behalf of Dorcas Hoar, who now confesses: accordingly an order is sent to the sheriff toforbear her execution, notwithstanding her being in the warrant to die tomorrow. This is the first condemned person who has confess'd.

Thursday, September 22, 1692. William Stoughton,Esqr., John Hathorne, Esqr., Mr. Cotton Mather, and Capt. John Higginson, with my Brother . . . were at our house, speaking about publishing some Trials of the Witches.

forbear: to hold back or abstain

Esqr.: esquire—used as a title of courtesy

What happened next?

As the witch-hunts continued into October 1692, the jails were continually filled with people accused of being witches and practicing witchcraft. However, by mid-October people seemed to start questioning whether the accused were witches, or whether they had just been "possessed" by the devil. Suddenly the courts were looking at the accused with more caution, as they believed a person possessed was not aware of what evil they were performing. Finally, after the publication of Increase Mather's speech "Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits Personating Men," which called into question the use of spectral evidence in the witchcraft trials, Massachusetts Governor William Phipps called an end to all witch trials.

As the Salem trials gained momentum and continued into 1693, the Puritan elite began expressing grave doubts about the witch-hunts. In addition to Increase Mather's changing his position on the use of spectral evidence, to condemn people, Increase's son Cotton also changed his mind, eventually supporting his father's view that the witch-hunts had been unjustified. Finally, in 1697, Massachusetts officials concluded that the trials had been a terrible mistake. The governor pardoned all condemned prisoners, and the legislature designated January 14 as a special day of atonement (expression of regret and request for forgiveness). By this time Samuel Sewall deeply regretted the role as judge he had played in the tragedy. Unlike the Mathers, Sewall had not been one of the main promoters of the trials; yet he had cooperated with those in power by sentencing and executing the accused witches. Sewall was so remorseful that he wrote an admission of error and guilt. Then on January 14, the day of atonement, he stood in front of the congregation in the Old South Church at Boston as the Reverend Samuel Willard read Sewall's statement aloud.

Things to remember while reading The Apology of Samuel Sewall:

• The guilt and shame of the execution of the first accused witch (Bridget Bishop ; see biography entry) led to the resignation of magistrate Nathaniel Saltonstall. Unable to be a part of the trials any longer, he left saying that the fits that a handful of Salem girls used as evidence of being "bewitched" and spectral evidence were not good sources for primary evidence. He was replaced by Johnathan Corwin.
• At the end of the trials, when the court of Oyer and Terminer was closed, Sewall was the only judge who felt enough shame for what had occurred that he apologized in front of the church congregation.

The Apology of Samuel Sewall

reiterated: repeated

Oyer and Terminer: the court that conducted the witchcraft trials

Samuel Sewall, sensible of thereiterated strokes of God upon himself and his family; and being sensible, that as to the guilt contracted, upon the opening of the late Commission ofOyer and Terminer,

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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 infinitebenignity, andsovereignty, 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; andvouchsafe him theefficacious, saving conduct of his word and spirit.

benignity: kindness

sovereignty: supreme rule or excellence or an example of it

vouchsafe: to grant as a privilege or special favor

efficacious: having the power to produce a desired effect

What happened next?

Sewall, broken and shamed for his part in the trials, worked to become more socially active in the later years of his life. He became a vocal advocate for the rights of the oppressed, including Native Americans and African slaves. He also set aside one day of fasting each year to atone for his involvement in the deaths of so many.

Did you know?

• Samuel Sewall wrote an abolitionist pamphlet called The Selling of Joseph, condemning the selling and trading of African slaves.
• Sewall was one of the first would-be Native American advocates who suggested placing tribes on reservations.

For Further Study

Discovery Online—A Village Possessed: A True Story of Witchcraft.http://www.discovery.com/stories/history/witches/witches.html (Accessed July 7, 2000).

Gunn, Giles, editor. Early American Writing. New York: Penguin Books, 1994.Hansen, Chadwick. Witchcraft at Salem. New York: George Braziller, 1969.

Hill, Frances. A Delusion of Satan: The Full Story of the Salem Witch Trials. New York: Doubleday, 1995.

Rice, Earle, Jr. The Salem Witch Trials. San Diego, California: Lucent Books, 1997.