Eve LaPlante

For readers of Salem Witch Judge:

Summary: In 1692 Judge Samuel Sewall sent 20 innocent people to their deaths on trumped-up witchcraft charges. The nefarious Salem witch hunt was a dark hour in American history, later made famous in works of Nathaniel Hawthorne (himself a descendant of one of the judges) and a play by Arthur Miller. Sewall’s involvement might have doomed him to infamy, if not for his public acceptance four years later of the "blame and shame" for the wrongful deaths.

Remarkably, the judge’s story did not 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 America’s first anti-slavery tract, "The Selling of Joseph," for which he was ridiculed. While his peers viewed Native Americans as savages, Sewall advocated for their essential humanity and rights and encouraged their education, even paying for several Indians 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. That essay, composed in 1724 at the deathbed of his adult daughter Hannah, is republished in Salem Witch Judge for the first time.

Salem Witch Judge sheds light on revolutionary ideas that have been buried for centuries. It depicts the psychological journey of a man who personified superstition and discrimination yet transformed himself into a forefather of equal rights and civil liberties.

Topics to Consider

1. Why, as a judge at the Salem witchcraft trials in 1692, did Samuel Sewall decide to condemn and hang people as witches? Had you been there, appointed by the governor to serve as a judge of the Court of Oyer and Terminer, what would you have done? How would you have justified your actions to your peers?

2. Consider this quote by the historian Frank Grinnell in 1942 at the dedication of the Sewall mural ("Milestones on the Road to Freedom: 1697, Dawn of Tolerance in Massachusetts: Public Repentance of Judge Samuel Sewall for his Action in the Witchcraft Trials") in the Chamber of the House of Representatives at the Massachusetts State House:

"[The repentance of Samuel Sewall] represents the greatest movement in modern history, not only in theory, but in its practical application… [It marks] the beginning of the recognition of the 'quality of mercy' in human affairs. No principle of Christ has been longer in obtaining whole-hearted acceptance than… the saying, 'Be ye merciful even as your Father is merciful.'"

Do you agree with Grinnell? What other people or movements in American history emphasize the "quality of mercy" in human affairs?

3. What sort of wife was Hannah Hull Sewall? How did her personality (what we know of it) complement Samuel’s character? Could Samuel have accomplished what he did without her?

4. Sewall's final work, which he published in 1725, concerns his sense of a natural "right of women," a revolutionary notion in English America then. That essay, Talitha Cumi, or "Damsel, Arise," was ignored then and until now existed only in draft manuscript form at the Massachusetts Historical Society, inaccessible to the public. What life events contributed to Sewall’s late views on gender equality? How do you think his long repentance for the Salem witch hunt may have contributed as well to the ideas in Talitha Cumi?

5. Samuel Sewall once described himself as a "lover of music to a fault." How did music affect and enrich him throughout his life? In particular, how did his daily singing of the Psalms inform him spiritually and emotionally?

6. Eve LaPlante compares the Reverend Samuel Willard to Nathan in the Old Testament, and Sewall to King David. Do you agree?

7. Given that the Puritans left England largely to escape Catholic influences in the Church of England, it's surprising to discover similarities between the devotional practices of seventeenth-century Puritans and Roman Catholics. Yet that is what scholars have found. Considering in particular Chapter 15 of Salem Witch Judge, "The Blame and Shame of It," analyze these links between Catholic and Puritan devotional practices. Do you see similar links today among their spiritual descendants?

8. In his remarkable essay Phaenomena quaedam Apocalyptica, Sewall determines that Plum Island, in northeast Massachusetts, is a likely place for Jesus Christ to return to earth at his Second Coming. Perry Miller and other literary scholars consider this essay the first work of American literature in the sense of being conscious of itself as American. Do you agree?

9. What was it about Sewall's character and experience that enabled him in 1700 to stand apart from his society, which was actively engaged in the slave trade, and write the first abolitionist statement in American history?

10. What aspects of the Puritan worldview do you see in modern American life? What modern figures or situations might benefit from a perspective like Sewall's? How might someone today, following his example, experience a change of heart?


For readers of American Jezebel:

Anne Hutchinson, a forty-six-year-old midwife pregnant with her sixteenth child, stood before forty male judges of the Massachusetts Court, charged with heresy and sedition. In 1637, when women could not vote, hold public office, or teach outside the home, the charismatic Hutchinson wielded remarkable political power. Her unconventional ideas attracted a following of prominent citizens eager for social reform. Hutchinson defended herself brilliantly, but the judges, faced with a perceived threat to public order, banished her for behaving in a manner "not comely for [her] sex." Her story illuminates the origins of our modern concepts of religious freedom, equal rights, and free speech, showcasing an extraordinary woman whose achievements are astonishing by the standards of any era.

Topics to Consider

1. Why was the conflict between grace and works so important to this group of early settlers in America? How does this conflict play out in our lives today?

2. American Jezebel opens in a courtroom, with Anne Hutchinson and John Winthrop as legal opponents. How are Hutchinson and Winthrop alike? How are they different? How do they compare to the Reverend John Cotton?

3. What sort of husband was William Hutchinson? How did he contribute to Anne’s work? Could she have accomplished what she did without him?

4. In 1638, explaining the source of her errors, Anne Hutchinson said, "Instead of looking to myself, I looked to men," implying that "looking to myself" is the proper stance. Discuss how this view foreshadows our modern concepts of individual liberty and freedom of religion and of conscience. You may find links between her statement and later works of American fiction such as Huckleberry Finn, Moby Dick, The Scarlet Letter, and Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

5. In one of his few recorded statements, made to the ministers of Boston after her excommunication and banishment, William Hutchinson said, "My wife is a dear saint and servant of God." Was Anne Hutchinson a saint?

6. Near the end of her civil trial, after Anne Hutchinson had cleverly parried the judges' many charges against her, she practically brought on her own conviction by preaching to the assembled men. Why did she do this?

7. Consider this quote by Amy Schrager Lang,
"The problem of Anne Hutchinson is the problem of the public woman." What is a public woman, and why is she a problem?

8. A reader commented that Anne Hutchinson was not a feminist because she was just following the path of her father, a nonconformist English minister who was jailed for several years by his church. Do you agree? How would you compare Anne Hutchinson’s rebellion to her father’s?

9. Hutchinson’s mentor, the Reverend John Cotton, used a Biblical quote – "as the lily among thorns" – to justify his practice of separating his congregation into "lilies" and "thorns" and worshipping separately with the former group. What was the appeal to Anne Hutchinson of such a theology? Does it appeal to you?

10. Consider Anne Hutchinson’s words to the ministers who excommunicated her from Boston’s First Church of Christ in March 1638, "The Lord judges not as man judges. Better to be cast out of the church than to deny Christ."

Historical footnote: The 2004 presidential contenders, George Bush and John Kerry, were direct descendants of, respectively, Hutchinson and Winthrop.