Documents the role of Samuel Sewall in the 1692 Salem witch trials in a profile that offers insight into how he was swept up in the zeal that marked the trials

"Francis draws on [Salem witch trial judge Samuel Sewall's] own diaries, which enables us to see the early colonists not as grim ideologues, but as flesh-and-bl

Biographer and novelist Francis looks at the Salem witch hunt of 1692 with fresh eyes, through the story of Samuel Sewall, New England Puritan, Salem trial judg