How Did Cotton Mather Salem Witch Trials

The Salem Witch Trials brought havoc among the citizens of Salem, Massachusetts starting in 1692. Many of the people within the town continued to have strong loyalties to their new Puritan religion and their old king back home. The church of England had moved away from the Catholic religion with the help of King Henry VIII and the Puritans were a new group of people who accepted the split from Catholicism but still believed that the church of England had a lot of aspects that remained with the Catholic religion. Despite this, loyalty to the king remained strong because the Puritans were not looking to break off from the Church of England instead they wanted to reform the religion and make it their own. These loyalties stretched to such an extent that any sin committed was also considered an act of treason and thus punished. The Salem community was constantly searching for evil within their town to prove their righteousness to God which lead to high rates of fear and paranoia in their daily lives. The strict Puritan religion soon became the root cause of the monstrous imagination that started to form within the community of Salem. Many people still feared the presence of Catholic ideas within their communities and in response were willing to go to any extent to irradiate these views. Some historians also account the beginning of the trials to divisions within the two towns of Salem that lead to tensions and turmoil between the townsmen. But without the increased belief in their new religion, women around town wouldn’t have been persecuted. The strict belief in the Puritan religion and culture was the root cause of fear and paranoia that led to the mass execution of many women and townspeople during the Salem Witch Trials.

American Literature reveals that because of Cotton Mather’s writings there is knowledge of the Salem witchcraft trials in 1692. The research shows that most of the known stories and trials come from Cotton Mather. This essay will describe Cotton Mather, the Salem witchcraft Trials, and an insight on the information provided by Mather.

Moreover, in 1654 the congregation of Cambridge Church was shocked by a statement from Henry Dunster, the highly respected president of Harvard College. While a baptismal service was in progress, he arose to dispute the practice of infant baptism as un-Biblical and proceeded to take each point from the pastor's sermon and to answer it with Baptist views. He was silenced, stripped of his Harvard presidency and publicly rebuked. Those perceived as religious dissidents would be accused of witchcraft during the Salem trials. Arguably, the colony had previously been beset by religious dissidents, dealing with each episode without incurring a public outcry of a witchcraft conspiracy; however, this time there were other more alarming developments taking place within the colony.

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

During the seventeenth century, many Puritans became fed up with the Church of England and its devilish ways. They wanted to break free from it, and make changes elsewhere. They got permission to set up a colony in Massachusetts Bay, and soon after that, over twenty-thousand Puritans fled from England to America. They decided to base their colony on the word of God, and believed God would protect them if they followed his commandments. This meant that if anyone were to sin, “they didn’t want God to protect them because they already worshiped the devil,” and “anyone who worshipped the devil was a witch who used witchcraft to possess others.” Because of this theory, many people were accused of being witches and using witchcraft. The most notorious series of hearings and prosecutions for those accused of witchcraft took place in Salem Village, Massachusetts, known as the Salem Witch Trials.

The period of the Salem Witch Trials was an extremely dark time in New England because mass hysteria ran rampant, and over 200 people were accused of witchcraft (Blumburg). Trials were held for the accused “witches”, and author Cotton Mather was given the task of documenting a number of the trial proceedings. Mather was an esteemed adult in the Puritan community. Looking back at the accomplishments in his early life it is quite easy to see why he was held in such high regard. Cotton Mather was born February 12th, 1663 to a family of highly reputed New England Puritan priests (Walker). At only 12 years old, following in his father’s footsteps, Mather began his education at Harvard College. Mather faced many hardships and trying times throughout his life. As a child, Mather developed a bad stammer; because of his speech impediment, many presumed that he would never be able to enter the ministry (Franklin). Mather was also prone to nervous disorders that “drove him to ecstasy and despair” (150). Along with these hindrances, he faced numerous hardships. Mather lost his first two wives and then lost his third to insanity. As well as losing his wives, he lived to see all but two of this fifteen children pass away. Increase Mather, Cotton’s father, was President of Harvard, where both he and his son attended. Trying to live up to his father, Cotton aspired to become president of the college as well, but he was declined and never received the position. Multiple peers of Mather said

Elizabeth, I'm right there with you. I was not very well informed in how women lived in the colonial period. Most of my education was overseas so I really needed to read more and become more familiar with US History. I was under the impression that women in the colonies were mainly homemakers that spent most of their time taking care of the house.

Cotton Mathers was born in 1663, into a family that were New England Puritan ministers, as Rev. John Cotton and Rev. Richard Mather. Cotton was determined to reach fame, as he looked up to his father Rev. Increase Mather, who was a well appreciated political leader, and minister of the South Church in Boston. Cotton made outstanding grades on his Greek and Latin entrance exams at the age of twelve, and began college at Harvard. He received his M.A. at the age of eighteen, and felt that he should spend his life in a church in the clergy. He had a stutter that stalled him from entering the ministry, and his demand to preach, he becoming a doctor under consideration. Eventually some inspiration from a friend, helped him part ways

The central issue at stake for people during the Salem witch trials were a series of hearing and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft. It all started in Salem Village, in colonial Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693. A man by the name of Richard Godbeer, the author of “The Salem Witch Hunt” and several other books is a professor at the University of Miami. Godbeer’s research and teaching interests center on colonial and revolutionary America. Also, his fields of interest are in gender, sex, witchcraft and religious culture.

His major publications were Wonders of the Invisible World in 1693, Magnalia Christi Americana in 1702, Bonifacius year 1710, Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions in 1689 and several others. What type of man was Cotton Mather? What did he value? And how did his writing reflect his beliefs?

Cotton Mather was born on March 19,1633 in Boston Massachusetts. He was the oldest son of Increased and Maria Mather. $ cotton Mather knew that he was expected to do great things. during his childhood Cotton Mather was left with a bad speech problem that he had constantly talked with a stutter. He had begun to study Hebrew and showed a great interest in philology and science. @ Cotton Mather then have trained under his father he was accepted in to Harvard college. $ @ His father then presented him with his first degree at the age of sixteen. @ Cotton Mather then began to study medicine and along with that was involved with meetings about scientific experimentation. @

As an educated Harvard graduate and intelligent man Cotton Mather published hundreds of books to provide solid evidence as to what led to the Salem Witch Trials and was known as one of the most influential Puritan ministers of his time. Regardless, his involvement with the Salem witch trials and his peculiar analyses concerning the craft and actions of Satan gained him a significant number of followers around the 1690’s when the witch trials occurred. Remarkably, he received support from the judges and several of the ministers during the time of the trials occurrence due to his establishment as a well-known preacher but also his book Memorable Providences Mather wrote on his account with the Goodwin children. These children according to Mather’s account were disturbed by the Devil from a bewitchment. (Walker 2001)

Cotton Mather was interesting to read as I have heard of The Salem Witch Trials through television and other works I have read. Of course television has a more dramatized version of this experience, but some events were well articulated in the reading. Cotton Mather was very well accomplished, graduating Harvard at the age sixteen and becoming an ordained pastor of Old North Church. Christianity was very big during this era, so Mather’s success to pastor was more than just an accomplishment. Though his intellect was well attained, his choices were not that great and caused much confusion with the witch trials giving his unexpected support being that his is a pastor. I just wonder how can he call himself a pastor of the church

It is no secret that Mather was an important player in the Salem witchcraft trials. It is also true that Mather had vigorous support for the trial and had conducted and recorded many trials on the witches, such has having them read from the bible (Kennedy 45). However, Mather was also an important player in ending the trials by cautioning the judges against the use of spectre evidence, or by allowing claims of invisible ghosts to be used as evidence(Kennedy ix). In addition to this, Mather had a solution to the witchcraft trials before they even