English: Book Review
“Selling of Joseph: A Memorial” is a three page essay written by Samuel Sewall and published in 1700 in Boston. In his short essay, Samuel discusses his viewpoint about the slavery in America in a very interesting manner. The paper attempts to analyze the essay with a view to highlight writer’s viewpoint on slavery and discuss any similarities or differences with the early explorer’s viewpoint on natural rights.
Samuel was a leading jurist of the Massachusetts and was involved in the Salem witch trial that brought him popularity; however, his stance changed after the trial and he apologized for his earlier standpoint on the issue. During the times of 1700, slavery was not a subject expected to be raised by a white person from the high class of America. The essay was written at the time when Sewall was fighting a case with John Saffin over the freedom of a slave Adam who has filed a case for his freedom. His essay “Selling of Joseph: A Memorial” in which he criticized slavery was unexpected and brought him both fame and criticism.
In the essay, Sewall discusses the buying and holding of slaves especially Africans from legal, practical, moral and biblical perspectives. He describes different aspects of slavery and rejects it as a practice in the light of moral and religious bindings. The essay is a strong testimony against slavery that starts with a general statement about the slavery. The general opinion is further followed by the discussion where Sewall presents strong counter arguments to the routine argument for slavery. His arguments are solid and tough duly supported by the rationality of logic and support of religion. He comes out strongly against the slavery and regarded men stealing as the crime against humanity. He feels apprehensive of the spread of the same crime among the English settlers and feared it would stay with them forever. In his words, “I do not see any disparity in the condition of slaves including hair and color. They can represent with us and grow up as normal families like other people of the land.” He objects the purchase of black people from a pagan country and using them as slaves for their entire lives in the country where Gospel is preached. He objected to the slavery and termed as equivalent to inviting the wrath of God. If the slavery as an evil is done away with, there will be good thing coming out of it that will bring extraordinary and comprehensive benefits to the Church. He talks about the argument of capturing black people during the war and declaring them as lawful captives brought by the ships to America. He resembles the wars between black people as war between the sons of Jacob and their brother Joseph. He highlights that an unlawful war cannot make lawful captives. By capturing the slaves, Americans are indulging themselves into the barbarous cruelties. He talks about the argument of Prophet Abraham who had servants bought with his money and born in his house. As per Sewall, no recorded evidence existed about the argument and charity obliges all to believe that Prophet Abraham knew it was lawful and good. Sewall talks about the Israelis who were forbidden in selling each other for slaves. God expects Christians to be more ingenuous and benign frame of spirit. It is the duty of Christian to spread it through to the world as were the Israelis assigned to carry the same from one to the other. Keeping the humans as slaves is like snatching the personal freedom that God has granted to each human.
Samuel Sewall views on slavery were clear and solid that made an impact on the prevalent thought process in the America. He rejected slavery in clear terms with references from the bible and examples from the past. He disregarded the common arguments by the while people in order to justify the captivity of the black slaves. He produced solid counter argument to each argument that favored slavery. It was well received by the people with conscious and criticized by those who favored the continuation of slavery. His use of biblical passage made more impact on the religious minded Christian people, and he became one of the earliest colonial abolitionists. His later thoughts on rights of women and about the fashion of periwig determined him as someone following the Christian basic teachings, and someone who is afraid of God. He wrote in the favor of women in his essay “Talitha Cumi” in 1725. He did not like the wearing of periwig by the Puritan of the society. Sewall earned good name by projecting the cause of slavery and is considered as the initiator of the civil rights movement in America a century later.
His thoughts on the natural rights of human are clearly identified in his essay “Selling of Joseph.” He identifies the similarities among all the human being irrespective of color and race, who can live together in a society like normal families. He termed black slaves as normal people who had the equal freedom given by God and any restriction imposed on their personal freedom was equivalent to disregarding the orders of God. The difference between Sewall thoughts on natural rights and earlier explorers do exist. Most of the earlier explorers did not support the equal human rights for people from different races. They preferred white people over the colored people. To their understanding, only white people had the right to live a free life and they had the divine right to enslave colored Native American people. They talked more about the local Native American people and not about the black people shipped from Africa. Other explorers did talk about the natural rights of Native American people, but not many voices were heard against the enslavement of these people.
The essay “Selling of Joseph: A Memorial” set the stage for anti-slavery movements of the future. It was the case of Salem witch that changed Sewall’s viewpoint about the slavery and he appeared as the forefront abolitionist.
