Cotton Mather: The Salem Witch Trials

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Cotton Mather

I Introduction

It's 1692 and many of your fellow townsmen are being brought for trial on the charge of witchcraft. Panic fills your town and you're not sure who to trust anymore. There's a knock at your door, the priest says you're under arrest on the charge of witchcraft!

The Salem witch trials, a period between 1692 and 1693 where more than 200 women were tried and twenty hung for being witches. The Salem witch trials are a fascinating subject that we wouldn't have known about had it not been so well documented by one man. That man was Cotton Mather.

II Biography

Cotton Mather lived a dramatic life. He was born on February 4, 1663 to Reverend Increase Mather. He attended Harvard college, and was invited unanimously for three years to become a colleague with his father, and he refused each offer every time (Mather). He supported the smallpox immunizations and wrote many books about the things …show more content…
He inoculated his own son despite the religious controversy and the chance he could die, and even though he almost died, as a result of the inoculation, his son survived (Tindol).

Also, Cotton Mather lived through the Salem Witch Trials. The Salem witch trials started when three young ladies began practicing voodoo. Once the girls were caught two of the girls pretended to go insane and blamed another older woman of bewitching them and causing the insanity. This sparked a dramatic turn of events of neighbor against neighbor as they all fought for their lives. By the time the witchcraft scare was over, more than twenty-one women had been tried and hanged (Mather). Cotton Mather created the best documentation of the Salem Witch Trials. He also created the best analysis of the girls who began the entire thing

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