Judge Samuel Sewall may have helped send 20 innocent people to their deaths in the late 17th century, but hey, at least he later felt bad about it, and that’s gotta count for something, right? Right?
Eve LaPlante — a descendant of Sewall — investigates his brave about-face in SALEM WITCH JUDGE: THE LIFE AND REPENTANCE OF SAMUEL SEWELL, a well-researched biography of the man who famous reversed his opinion of sentenced suspected witches to death. Instead of judging others, she writes, he started judging himself.
By all accounts, the witch hunt by the God-fearing powers that be at the time was out of control; LaPlante even offers accounts of a 4-year-old found guilty and chained to a floor! Four! Years! Old! The so-called courts vs. so-called witches chapters are unsurprisingly the best part of the book, but they’re surprisingly short.
Initially, the book is shaky, heavy with names and dates and details on Sewall’s largely uneventful life, solid marriage and dead children (he outlived 11 of his 14 kids). The witchcraft stuff doesn’t even start until page 131, and then it’s pretty short-lived, shifting focus to his change of heart.
It’s then that JUDGE gets overly concerned with apologies and faith — at least overly according to my tastes. I didn’t realize it at first, but the HarperCollins imprint under which the book is issued is geared toward inspiration and biblical titles, so the fact that the text gets preachy should come as expected. —Rod Lott
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For many, many years, I taught excerpts from Sewall’s diary to somnolent sophomores. I expect the diary excerpts concerning his role in the trials and his later repentance, told in Sewall’s plain style, are as powerful as anything in the new book.