Samuel Sewall (/ˈsjuːəl/; March 28, 1652 – January 1, 1730) was a judge, businessman, and printer in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, best known for his involvement in the Salem witch trials,[1] for which he later apologized, and his essay The Selling of Joseph (1700), which criticized slavery.

[5] Like other local boys, he attended school at the home of James Noyes, whose cousin, Reverend Thomas Parker, was the principal instructor.

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

After Hull died in 1683, Sewall was elected to replace him on the colony's council of assistants, a body that functioned both as the upper house of the legislature and as a court of appeals.

His diary recounts many of the more famous episodes of the trials, such as the agonizing death under torture of Giles Corey, and reflects the growing public unease about the guilt of many of the accused.

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.

[11] Not only had Sewall's home life been shaken, but in the years after the trials, the people of Massachusetts came to see them as the culmination of a generation-long series of setbacks and ordeals, notably the Navigation Acts, the declaration of the New England Dominion, and King Philip's War.

[citation needed] In 1700, he wrote and published "The Selling of Joseph: A Memorial," a tract that made a biblically based case that slavery was unjustified and sinful.

Enslaving people of Black African descent was contrary to God's design for the world because according to scripture, all humankind were "the sons of Adam" and "of One Blood" and had the same right to freedom.

[17] Sewall further argued that it was inopportune to lament the “barbarous” enslavement in Africa of many of his fellow New Englanders, while keeping Africans in Massachusetts.

[20] After "Selling" was released, Saffin issued a rebuttal arguing that social hierarchies were necessary and that enslaving Black Americans was divinely ordained.

[17] Adam was set free after a lengthy trial, but Saffin's rebuttal held greater sway among Bostonians, and chattel slavery persisted in Massachusetts.