Cotton Mather And The Salem Witch Trials

Witch-Hunt: Mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials. Marc Aronson. (New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, November 1, 2003. 272.)

The Salem Witch Trials was a very dark period in our history that occurred in the colony of Salem, Massachusetts. These trials began in February 1692 and ended in May of 1693. There were over two hundred individuals who were accused of practicing witchcraft. Of those two hundred accused, nearly twenty innocent souls were lost. This was one of the most severe cases of mass hysteria in recorded history. There was a great effort exhorted by the Massachusetts General Court to declare a guilty verdict, that the framers of the United States Constitution went to great lengths to never let this type of tragedy occur again; commonly known as the eighth amendment. Remarkably so, some may argue that there were similarities in Salem and the

Kappanadze, Margaret. "Baker, Emerson W.: A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience." Library Journal 15 Sept. 2014: 92. General OneFile. Web. 14 Sept. 2014.

Cotton Mather exemplified the essence of Puritan beliefs. He was originally from Boston, but he then moved to Salem, Massachusetts where he took the position of a clergyman. Mather authored many works on witchcraft throughout the course of the trials. Through his Puritanical belief, Mather embodied reasoning through faith. He wrote as the quintessential Puritan trying to rid humanity of its ills. These works included On Witchcraft and The Wonders of the Invisible World, as well as many letters he sent to fellow clergy on the subject of witchcraft. In his day, he was considered an authority on witchcraft due to his involvement in the well-publicized Salem Witch Trials.

Puritans had many beliefs that affected the Salem Witch Trials, these were based on how the attendance or lack of attendance of the church, how people should behave, social class, and the way the government should be handled. Puritans were English Protestants that came to America in 1630. They sought to reform the Church of England. When they first came to America they settled at Salem, Massachusetts. The main reason the Puritan’s came to Salem was for freedom of religion which they did not have in England. The Puritans also came because they believed that the Church of England was not religious or enforcing religion enough. Puritans were just like the Pilgrims. Years later the Salem Witch Trials started in 1692 and ended

Cotton Mather’s character was distinguished before the Puritans began their witch hunt. According to Brandt, Mather’s reputation has been “smeared for three hundred years by the abuse and harsh criticism” of those readers who perceive him as an instigator to the Salem Witch Trials (Brandt 232). Before the Salem Witch Trials, Cotton Mather had an interest for “all extraordinary things wherein the existence and agency of the invisible

The Salem Witch Trials began during the spring of 1692 after a group of young girls in Salem Village, MA, said they were being possessed by the devil and accused local women of witchcraft. With chaos running around the village, the special court began taking on cases. Bridget Bishop, the first convicted witch, was hung that June month. Many people of the Salem community had major consequences including death and harrassment. Belief that the devil could give certain humans, or witches, power to harm others in return for their loyalty emerged throughout europe as early as the 14th century. All of this chaos and phenomenon led to a pointing fingers game of who is guilty. Chaos also brought up the question of why it happened, malice, spite, or

In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, he writes, “We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law!” (Miller 77). This partially fictionalized tale of the Salem Witch Trials points to one of the causes of the trials, vengeance, but the over dramatized tale 's early stages were quiet. The Salem Witch Episode had humble beginnings in the town of Salem Village, Massachusetts, but evolved into one of the most widely known witch trials in American History. The gallows in Salem claimed the lives of nineteen men and woman during the spring and summer of 1692 due to the accusations of witchcraft with over a hundred people who were accused. After all the terror and the uproar of the trials occurred, everything came to a screeching halt (Linder 1). Due to the unique circumstances of this particular set of witch trials, from the rampant accusations to the discontinuation of the trials mass hysteria does not seem to be fault as with other witch trials, but a variety of factors. The Salem witch trials were not just a simple case of mass hysteria, but a combination of factors ranging from poisons to superstitions to scapegoats, resulting in the outbreak of the Salem Witch episode.

Introduction - The Salem Witch trials was a time of hysteria and confusion. People were being accused and giving false confessions of witchcraft being performed on the people of Salem, Massachusetts.

These days, dressing up like a witch for Halloween is very normal. The year was 1962 when Salem Massachusetts was forever cemented in history because of the Salem witch trials. People accused of witch craft were imprisoned or hung and in one occasion a person was pressed to death. I can only imagine what the people of Salem were going through those days. There was a fear in the entire town because you couldn’t trust anyone. It became neighbor against neighbor as the small town was torn apart and people didn’t know who to trust. One of the most important persons from these times was Cotton Mather. He was an accomplished author, researcher, and preacher who worker under his father at Boston’s North Church. In “From the Wonders of the Invisible World” Mather writes about the Salem Witch Trials and what happened when some people recanted their testimony of being witches.

In 1692, the world was plagued by the idea that witches roamed freely on Earth. The Witch trials and hunts have long been a sinful way in getting rid of the presumably evil people who lurked in the deepest parts of the Earth. The conviction of witches and witchcraft was prevalent in 1692 in New England, and one of the most fervent strong believers was Cotton Mather who was an honored Boston minister and who wrote several topics on religion. This will explore and illustrate parts of Cotton Mather’s life and how he was the heart of the destruction of people's lives in Salem.

The lawful framework in early New England changed drastically as an effect of the witch trials. As their religious convictions ran inconsistent with a reason-overwhelmed lawful framework, a contention happened which prompted social shearing in a group accepted to be tormented with suspected profound foes. There are sure conditions that started such turmoil, for example, their tenacious confidence and social qualms that could now be vocalized. This vocal impetus uprooted the common holiness of social request. This is one reason other such examples fizzled from getting to be boundless. Notwithstanding when such examples happened, a generally sensible arrangement of choosing blame or purity was created to decide the destiny of the suspected witches' lives.

The history of America and Americans hold great victories: Independance as a nation, The Battle of New Orleans, Iwo Jima, etc. It also holds great falls and moments of great weakness: Our Civil War, The Vietnamese War, Large debts owed to China, and my topic of choice, The Salem Witch Trials and the involvement of Cotton Mather, in Salem Village, Massachusetts 1692. This case in particular might just be the most popular recorded case of mass hysteria in our history although was recognized as a serious problem punishable by death and influenced by people held to a high religious standard like Cotton Mather, as opposed to what it actually was - “The airborne mental

In 1692 some teenage girls in salem, Massachusetts, accused a west Indian slave named Tituba and two white of practicing witchcraft.Puritans believed in witchcraft, and witches had been prosecuted in massachusetts several times. Around April the girls began to denounce others as witches, including a former minister.

Throughout time, historians have relied on first person encounters to accurately depict the world and the people at a certain time. Cotton Mather’s, The Wonders of the Invisible World, does exactly that by giving the reader a perspective into the Salem witch trials as well as a first person view from Mather himself. Through this work, Mather shares his opinions on the actions taken in the trials and the works of the Devil and God inside of New England. During this time period, religion played a significant part in society such that it was a driving force behind the hysteria created. This hysteria doesn’t seem to reach Mather, but rather he seems to be compelled to write due to his pre-existing concern for society against the Devil and witchcraft.