Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864), was the great-great grandson of John Hathorne, who presided at the Salem witch trials. A lingering guilt lurks within some of Nathaniel’s stories (including The Scarlet Letter, 1850, and The House of Seven Gables, 1851), which often dealt with themes like sin and morality. Nathaniel added a ‘w’ to his name to disassociate himself from his ancestor.
Eve LaPlante is the great-great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter of Samuel Sewall, another Salem witch judge. In her biography of Sewall, LePlante pictures her ancestor as a “follower of Christ” who “sought forgiveness and expiation from sin.”
The difference in the way Hathorne and Sewall were remembered by their respective posterity is not that Sewall was less guilty, but that he repented.
HARD TIMES:
In the late 1600s, it seemed easy to perceive the devil’s handiwork in colonial life. One in two children perished before age five. Colonists lived in fear of Indian raids or massacres (often instigated by the French--from 1689 to 1697, King Williams’ War ravaged the colonial community). Droughts, epidemics, fires, and other tragedies were commonplace. The Puritan ideal was to live to give glory to God until God glorified them. The average life span was 40 years.
One popular projection was that “Satan was on the loose.” Folk magic practices lurked behind the scenes. Greedy land squabbles plagued the local community. Fear loomed large in the hearts of those (in 1692) who began to accuse their neighbors of witchcraft--a fear of whatever was contaminating the community. New England was a “howling wilderness” and there was much to fear.
THE TRIALS:
In 1692, Judge Samuel Sewall (1652-1730) helped send twenty people to their deaths for witchcraft. It was a five-month ordeal.
The problem developed as a few misbehaving girls found unexpected access to public power by accusing older women of “afflicting” them with the devil. Playing the victim (of witchcraft) led to bizarre fits, spasms and outbursts, even in church. The girls were pitied instead of punished. Parental outrage led to community hysteria. Pointing fingers of blame made sympathetic victims out of spoiled brats.
Privately coerced confessions from several women (to save their own skin) lent public credibility to the accusations. Others got into the accusation act and a surge of suspects were named. A new governor came to office with the charge to drive the devil out. Local jails were full of accused witches, so he appointed a court of nine judges (five Harvard men).
Soon, outrage shifted to shame. Families began to move away. Local Puritan ministers began to preach against this court and made pleas for reason and restraint. Public opinion turned the tide. The Court was disbanded in October, 1692, a decision welcomed by nearly every local leader (but not by every judge). But no one blamed the judges.
All told, 144 women and 44 men were accused of witchcraft; 59 were tried and 31 convicted. Sadly, 20 were executed (14 women and 6 men). In the immediate aftermath, many of the documents were destroyed--evidence of shame that fell short of repentance.
Among those who went to trial, only those who maintained their innocence ended up on the gallows. Of the nine judges bent on evoking repentance from innocent defendants, only one ended up publicly repenting himself (five years later). That judge is the subject of LePlante’s biography.
REPENTANCE!
By the time of the trials, Samuel and Hannah Sewall had buried five children. Soon after, they lost their 6th child and soon, a 7th. Also, their 14-year-old daughter went into a frenzy of spiritual anxiety, which may have both reflected and influenced Samuel’s rising remorse.
One day in 1696, Samuel’s son (Sam, Jr) read a passage from Matthew (12:7) that gripped his father with guilt:
“If ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.” The preaching of Samuel Willard, Sewall’s minister, also cut into his conscience.
At age 44, Sewall made the most influential decision of his life. At church, on January 14, 1697, he passed a note to his minister, declaring his repentance. He publicly accepted the blame and shame of his actions on the court and pled for pardon from God and from men. He understood that this was just the beginning of his lifelong repentance. As LePlante wrote; “True repentance consists of more than a single act.” (p. 205).
Beyond his actions, Sewall’s mind also changed. He began to see a graceful place for the Indians in God’s scheme. He had several Indian boys stay in his home and helped them go to Harvard, paying for their education. When an Indian preacher was not allowed to stay at a local Inn , the Sewalls took him in. He also began to advocate for the rights of African slaves. He rooted his opposition to slavery in Matthew 7:12 (the Golden Rule). His pamphlet,
“The Selling of Joseph,” (around 1700) was the first anti-slavery tract ever published in America . He took some grief for it too. His remorse gave rise to activism on behalf of noble causes and needy people. He sought to,
“Produce fruits in keeping with repentance.” (Luke 3:8).
HIS LEGACY:
In the preface to
The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote (of the Salem judges); “[I] hereby take shame upon myself for their sakes and pray that any curse incurred by them… may be now and henceforth removed.”
One legacy of Samuel Sewall’s repentance was that his descendants (including the author of this book) were liberated from an oppressive legacy of shame—one that Hawthorne apparently carried. Sewall’s greatness was preserved in his repentance. He spent the last three decades of his life trying to restore himself in the eyes of God.
By age 75, Samuel had outlived two wives and 11 of his 14 children. He also outlived all the other Salem witch judges. He served New England as a judge for over 50 years. He represents the perpetrators of one of America ’s most shameful moments, and yet he rises out of the dust and ashes of repentance to demonstrate much that is great in the American spirit.
Joel Mark Solliday, B.A., M.Div., is the editor of Campus CrossWalk and the pulpit minister of the Northern Light Church of Christ in Minnesota . He earned his M.Div. at Fuller Theological Seminary and has worked at Pepperdine and ACU. His wife Katie is a junior high school teacher.
