New England Bound

Samuel Sewall moved to New England as a child in 1661. He became a wealthy merchant in Boston and served as a justice on the Massachusetts Colony Supreme Court. Sewall was one of the judges at the Salem witch trials, an experience he later regretted and even apologized for. In 1700 Sewall authored a pamphlet entitled “The Selling of Joseph” in which he called for slavery to be abolished, arguing that all humans are God’s creations and should not be enslaved. His pamphlet was the first anti-slavery writing by a New England colonist. Sewall idealized the initial generations of colonists who came from England to establish a “city on a hill” full of godliness and purpose. In his writing he expresses disappointment that successive generations of colonists lost their values, and he accuses them of being motivated by greed.

Sewall admitted in a diary entry that he had long been uncomfortable with slavery and that hearing of other anti-slavery activity, such as petitions and taxes on enslaved people, motivated him to write his manifesto. Sewall’s diary reveals that he had had many encounters with enslaved and free African and Indigenous people in his decades of working as a merchant. He was also aware of the slave rebellions that occurred in Jamaica. While Sewall never traded in enslaved people, he did trade food goods to colonist buyers in the West Indies. Warren argues that this experience made Sewall quite informed on the topic of slavery.

Sewall’s pamphlet was named after the biblical story of Joseph, who was sold into slavery in Egypt by his own brothers. Sewall’s analysis of the story emphasizes the criminal nature of Joseph's sale and questions the legitimacy of commodifying any person. He refers to scripture that condemns anyone to death who “stealeth a man and selleth him” (264). Warren argues that by basing his argument on the unchristian nature of selling and enslaving people, Sewall failed to persuade his audience, most of whom were convinced that God permitted slavery.

Contemporary New England leader Cotton Mather wrote that strict hierarchy, which included “permanent vassalage,” was a natural feature of human society (266). While Cotton Mather was not opposed to slavery, he argued in his work “Rules for the Society of Negroes” that enslaved people should be given the opportunity to convert to Christianity through weekly religious teachings. These meetings would only be available to obedient enslaved people; he encouraged them to reject anyone who rebelled against their enslaver or ran away. Sewall, on the other hand, felt that even if enslaved people benefitted religiously from their contact with the English, slavery was too sinful to make these conversions worth it. In spite of their differing opinions, Sewall and Mather were friends.

Sewall’s anti-slavery stance attracted criticism from other colonists. John Saffin, a prominent merchant and enslaver, wrote “A Brief and Candid Answer” in which he made the “common sense” argument of the time: that God designed and ruled over an inherently hierarchical world. Saffin noted that enslaving Africans was legitimate because they were foreign and that freeing enslaved people would inconvenience enslavers who had spent money on them. Furthermore, Saffin felt that even if enslavers could be compensated, freed enslaved people must be sent out of the country since he believed they could not integrate into American society. He ended his article with a derogatory poem about Black people.

Saffin loaned one enslaved man named Adam to his tenant in Bristol, who found him rebellious and difficult and took Saffin to court over the failed contract. Saffin blamed his tenant for the enslaved person’s behavior, arguing that he was too lenient with him and neglected to discipline him adequately. Warren argues that the enslaver-enslaved dynamic was dependent on the enslaver’s “willingness to resort to violence,” or else enslaved people learned that their “own resistance was not useless” (279). This is why colonies passed specific slave laws: to ensure that individual enslavers with more lenient views would not corrupt the whole system of slavery. Remarkably, as Saffin’s lawsuit with his tenant dragged on, Adam sued for his freedom and won.

Warren considers how Samuel Sewall developed such “radical” abolitionist ideas, considering his personal relationships with some enslaved people and his regret over the Salem witch trials as possible influences. New England’s colonists did not embrace Sewall’s views, however, and enslavement in the region increased over the following century. Even Sewall’s own son became involved in the trade.

Other colonists were also critical of slavery, and called for its reform if not its abolishment. Morgan Godwyn penned “The Negro’s and Indians Advocate” in which he criticized cruel enslavers and argued that Black and Indigenous people should be given the opportunity to convert to Christianity. A preacher, Godwyn preached against slave ownership; he called it a sin and accused enslavers of greed. A few years later in 1684 an Englishman named Thomas Tryon published a document called “Friendly Advice to the Gentleman Planters of the East and West Indies” in which he lamented plantation-owning enslavers’ brutal treatment of enslaved people.

Warren cites other evidence that shows that some of America’s colonist population was uncomfortable with slavery. In the late 17th century, Quaker meetings in Pennsylvania critiqued slavery, calling it unchristian and preaching that colonists should not buy enslaved people unless they wanted to free them.

The Quakers produced pamphlets that discussed the cruel treatment of enslaved people, including punishments and family separations, to try to persuade readers to oppose the now-ubiquitous system of slavery.