Salem Witch Judge by Eve Laplante

Samuel Sewall's descendant, Eve Laplante, is the author of this biography. She relies on the many pages of journals and published text that Samuel Sewall produced during his life as well as on family oral history. She attempts to interpret the worldview of this Puritan graduate of Harvard and judge whose thought life hinged on a daily interaction with Biblical text, prayer, and the association of regular events with prophetic import. This approach leads the reader to understand how Sewall first participated as a judge during the Salem witch trials and later repented for his role. Laplante assumes that Sewall's internal compass and way of understanding the world through a Biblical lens was a historic phase of American culture. However, those of us who are privy to conservative evangelical contemporary Americans may recognize ourselves or our friends in Sewall's agonizing reflections and fearful awareness of the watchful eyes of God. What has changed about how American conservative evangelicals may be that we are not touched by death as constantly nor do we live daily with the prospect of our own mortality in center focus. Of Sewall's 14 children, only 11 outlived him. This book is an often uncomfortable description of the thinking that informed the foundations of our American realpolitik and culture.

Salem Witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewall, by Eve Laplante, (c) 2007, Harper Collins Publishers, New York