Judge Sewalls Apology: The Salem Witch Trials & The Forming of an American Conscience

New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 2005. 1st Stated Ed 1st Pr. Hardbound. 8vo. 6 Pgs.. Fine in VG DJ/Very Good. Judge Sewalls Apology: The Salem Witch Trials & The Forming of an American Conscience by Richard Francis. Published by HarperCollins Publishers, New York, NY, 2005. 1st Stated Edition 1st Printing. Hardbound. Paper DJ. Size 8vo (up to 9-1/2'' tall). Condition: Fine in VG DJ. 412 Pgs. ISBN 0007163622. LCCN 2004065353. The Salem witch hunt of 1692 has entered our vocabulary as the very essence of injustice. The author looks at the familiar drama with fresh eyes, grasping the true significance of this cataclysm through the personal story of Samuel Sewall, New England Puritan, Salem trial judge. Sewall's life encompassed the tensions that faced the second-generation colonists, caught between the staunch conservatism of the Puritans and the possibilities their new world offered. Everywhere there was conflict, schism, and violence; the new Americans were pitted against the Native Americans, whose pagan ways terrified them, and a hostile mother country intent on imposing her control over the colony. Out of the struggle to maintain unity emerged the forces that drove the Salem tragedy. For the first time, the author reveals the nature and scale of the threat the authorities believed they were facing. Five guilt-wracked years after pronouncing judgment at the trials, Sewall walked into his church in Boston and recanted the guilty verdicts, praying for forgiveness. This extraordinary act not only proved a turning point for Sewall, it marked the moment when modern American values and attitudes came into being -- the shift from an almost medieval and allegorical view of good and evil to a respect for the mysteries of the human heart. Description text copyright 2017 BooksForComfort. Item ID 31882.