Fasting and Repentance for Salem Witch Trials
Samuel Sewall (1652-1730) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) On January l5, l697, Salem and the Massachusetts Bay Colony proclaimed a day of fasting and repentance before God for the tragic error and folly of the Salem witch trials. Among the reasons for the day of fasting given by the resolution were, "so all of God's people may offer up fervent supplications unto him, that all iniquity may be put away, which hath stirred God's holy jealousy against this land; that he would show us what we know not, and help us, wherein we have done amiss, to do so no more." The witch trials, a senseless, isolated and unbiblical miscarriage of justice, left an unfair stain on the reputation of all New England's Puritans. Over 150 suspected witches were imprisoned and nineteen were hanged during a few frenzied months of 1692. Most of the accused were women and social misfits. Sad to say, only a few of Salem's townspeople opposed preacher Samuel Parris, who encouraged the proceed