John Saffin
John Saffin (* November 22, 1626 in Exeter, England; † July 18, 1710 in Bristol, Massachusetts ) was a New England merchant, lawyer and occasional poet.
Life and work
Saffin, born to Puritan parents in England, settled in 1634 at the age of eight years with his family in the Massachusetts Bay Colony on. In manhood he acquired considerable wealth as a businessman and served for many years in various positions on various committees of the colony. He was, in 1686, the last speaker of the House of Representatives of the Massachusetts colony under the original charter, and after their withdrawal and the transformation of Massachusetts in a crown colony in 1701 Supreme Court Justice.
In 1700 Saffin was a on a multi-year and pursued by the Boston public with great interest conflict with Samuel Sewall to the question of the legality of slavery. Saffin, who had acquired his fortune among other things, the slave trade, had promised to Adam in 1694 his slave to release him within seven years into freedom, he obediently show and worked hard. When the slave in 1700 urged the redemption of the promise, Saffin but refused him the release, and so he ran away and was looking at Sewall protection. Sewall and Saffin fought in the years to lengthy proceedings that ultimately resulted in the liberation of the slaves. After Sewall had in 1700 published his abolitionistisches treatise The Selling of Joseph in order to disseminate its views and in print can publish Saffin 1701 for his part a vindication ( A Brief and Candid Answer to a Late Printed Sheet, Entituled, The Selling of Joseph ). In it, he introduced the slavery is as a divinely ordained state; in an attached eight-line poem The Negro Character, he went on to say that the Black was inherently cowardly, lustful, vengeful, cunning and coarse.
The lyrical works Saffins remained until well after his death unknown. Only at the beginning of the 20th century bequeathed to one of his descendants Saffins commonplace book of Rhode Iceland Historical Society. Appeared in 1928 a facsimile of this comprehensive 198 page notebook containing, among other letters, personal and business notes and around 50 poems covering a period of over 40 years. Saffins poems cover a wide range of lyrical forms. Like many of his contemporaries, he tried his hand at anagrams and acrostics, elegies, satires and occasional poems, and Eulogen and epitaphs, including one for his deceased son, Thomas, as well as several poems about his late wife Martha in 1678. These are like the other love poems quite unusual for its time; the subject can be found in the Puritanerliteratur possibly still at Anne Bradstreet.
Swell
- John Saffin, His Book (1665-1708): A Collection of Various Matters of Divinity, Law, & State Affairs Epitomiz'd Both in Verse and Prose. Harbor Press, New York 1928. [ Fakismile of Saffins notebook ]