
eBOOK
At a Glance
eBook
RRP $29.69
$23.99
19%OFF
OR
Free with Kobo Plus Read
Start Free Trial *- Subscribe and read all you want.
- $13.99 a month after free trial. Cancel Anytime. Learn more.
Instant Digital Delivery to your Booktopia Reader App
Read on
In 1692 Puritan Samuel Sewall sent twenty people to their deaths on trumped-up witchcraft charges. The nefarious witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts represent a low point of American history, made famous in works by Longfellow, Nathaniel Hawthorne (himself a descendant of one of the judges), and Arthur Miller. The trials might have doomed Sewall to infamy except for a courageous act of contrition now commemorated in a mural that hangs beneath the golden dome of the Massachusetts State House picturing Sewall's public repentance. He was the only Salem witch judge to make amends.
But, remarkably, the judge's story didn't 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 "The Selling of Joseph," America's first antislavery tract. While his peers viewed Native Americans as savages, Sewall advocated for their essential rights and encouraged their education, even paying for several Indian youths 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. The text of that essay, composed at the deathbed of his daughter Hannah, is republished here for the first time.
In Salem Witch Judge, acclaimed biographer Eve LaPlante, Sewall's great-great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter, draws on family lore, her ancestor's personal diaries, and archival documents to open a window onto life in colonial America, painting a portrait of a man traditionally vilified, but who was in fact an innovator and forefather who came to represent the best of the American spirit.
Industry Reviews
Read on
ISBN: 9780061753473
ISBN-10: 0061753475
Published: 21st November 2023
Format: ePUB
Language: English
Number of Pages: 368
Audience: General Adult
Publisher: HarperCollins
You Can Find This eBook In
This product is categorised by
- Non-FictionBiographies & True Stories BiographiesHistorical, Political and Military Biographies
- Non-FictionIndustry & Industrial StudiesDistributive IndustriesRetail Sector
- Non-FictionHistoryRegional & National HistoryHistory of the Americas
- Non-FictionMind, Body, SpiritMysticism, Magic & Occult InterestsWitchcraft & Wicca
- Non-FictionReligion & BeliefsChristianity