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Cotton Mather

Cotton Mather. And the Salem Witch Trials. Born in 1663 in Boston. Attended Harvard at the age of 12 and received his MA at the age of 18. (His father, Increase Mather, was president of the college at this time.)

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Cotton Mather

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  1. Cotton Mather And the Salem Witch Trials

  2. Born in 1663 in Boston. • Attended Harvard at the age of 12 and received his MA at the age of 18. (His father, Increase Mather, was president of the college at this time.) • After college he joined the ministry and devoted his life to “praying, preaching, writing, and publishing”.

  3. Published Works • Essays to Do Good • What Must I Do to be Saved? • The Duties of Children to Their Parents • The Wonders of the Invisible World (1693)

  4. First Encounter with Witchcraft • In 1688, Mather investigated the strange behavior of 4 children in Boston. • The children were complaining of sudden pains and crying out in chorus. • Mather concluded that these acts were the result of witchcraft, specifically those practiced by an Irish washerwoman, Mary Glover. • After, Mather vowed to “never use but one grain of patience with any man that shall go to impose upon me a Denial of Devils, or of Witches”.

  5. The Salem Witch Trials • 3 of the 5 judges appointed to hear the trials were friends of Mather and members of his church. • Mather wrote a letter to one of the judges encouraging him to give ‘spectral evidence’ as much weight as it will bear, but to consider the confessions of witches the ‘best evidence of all’. • As the trials progressed, Mather was convinced that “an Army of Devils is horribly broke in upon the place which is our center”.

  6. Why is the presence of Devils/Witches such a big deal? • “an Army of Devils is horribly broke in upon the place which is our center”.

  7. Works Cited • “Cotton Mather”. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online.Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 29 Sep. 2013. • Linder, Douglas. “An Account of Events in Salem”. Famous American Trials. 2009. Web. 29 Sep. 2013.

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