20 Facts About Samuel Sewall

Samuel Sewall was a judge, businessman, and printer in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, best known for his involvement in the Salem witch trials, for which he later apologized, and his essay The Selling of Joseph, which criticized slavery.

Samuel Sewall served for many years as the chief justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court of Judicature, the province's high court.

From Parker, Samuel Sewall acquired a lifelong love of verse, which he wrote in both English and Latin.

In 1667 Samuel Sewall entered Harvard College, where his classmates included Edward Taylor and Daniel Gookin, with whom he formed enduring friendships.

Samuel Sewall received his first degree, a BA, in 1671, and his MA in 1674.

Samuel Sewall became a member of Harvard's Board of Overseers.

Samuel Sewall's oral examination for the MA was a public affair and was witnessed by Hannah Hull, daughter of colonial merchant and mintmaster, John Hull.

Samuel Sewall was apparently taken by the young man's charms and pursued him.

Samuel Sewall moved into his in-laws' mansion in Boston and was involved in that family's business and political affairs.

Samuel Sewall entered local politics and was elevated to the position of assistant magistrate in the judiciary.

Samuel Sewall was perhaps most remarkable among the justices involved in the trials in that he later regretted his role, going so far as to call for a public day of prayer, fasting, and reparations.

Samuel Sewall saw this as a sign not that witchcraft did not exist, but that he had ruled on insubstantial evidence.

In 1693 Samuel Sewall was appointed an associate justice of the Superior Court of Judicature, the province's high court, by Governor Sir William Phips.

Hannah Hull, his first wife, died in 1717; two years later, in 1719, Samuel Sewall married Abigail Woodmansey Tilley, who died seven months later.

Apart from his involvement in the Salem witch trials, Samuel Sewall was liberal in his views for the time.

Freedom, including for Black Americans, Samuel Sewall wrote, should be valued more than profit.

Samuel Sewall's title referred to the biblical story of Joseph, son of Israel, whose brothers unjustly sold him into slavery, comparing the enslavement of Black Americans to Joseph's own unjustified bondage.

Samuel Sewall had published Selling in response to learning that Boston judge John Saffin had refused to release a Black indentured servant named Adam and intended to perpetually enslave Adam.

Sewall's own nephew, named Samuel Sewall, rejected his uncle's arguments against chattel slavery and continued participating in it as a business.

Samuel Sewall's Journal, kept from 1673 to 1729, describes his life as a Puritan against the changing tide of colonial life as the devoutly religious community of Massachusetts gradually adopted more secular attitudes and emerged as a liberal, cosmopolitan-minded community.