Spider in a Tree: Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (Abstract)

My paper is an excerpt from chap­ter nine of my unpub­lished novel, Spi­der in a Tree, the story of Jonathan Edwards’s years in Northamp­ton from 1731 to 1750.  This is a fic­tional account of the famous “Sin­ners in the Hands of an Angry God” ser­mon at Enfield in 1741, which attempts both to recap­ture the emo­tional impact of the ser­mon on its lis­ten­ers and to put the moment in the con­text of Edwards’s role as a slave owner. Dur­ing Jonathan’s Edwards’s time in Northamp­ton, the church recorded admit­ting nine Africans to full mem­ber­ship, six of whom, includ­ing his slave Leah, were awak­ened dur­ing the revival in 1734–35 and became mem­bers in 1736.  That revival ended with the sui­cide of the elder Joseph Haw­ley — father to Joseph and Elisha, who appear in this chap­ter — as recounted in Edwards’s  Faith­ful Nar­ra­tive. The chap­ter is told from mul­ti­ple points of view, includ­ing that of Edwards, the younger Joseph Haw­ley, and Saul, a slave in the Edwards household.