Thanks for the info on witches. Tis the season. First thing to remember about the American witch trials: we did not burn our witches, that's barbaric. We hung them. 'Goody' wasn't a nickname, it was a common form of address at that time for women. It was short for 'Goodwife'. Also, 'Cotton Mather', not 'Mathers'. I'm surprised that I know these witch trial details so well. The early Protestants were uptight about any Catholic paraphernalia, which they considered 'idolatry'.
Cotton Mather, despite his considerable intellectual achievements, could also be a bit of a Puritan dick. Of course he probably inherited a lot of this from his father, Increase Mather, a prominent Puritan clergyman and theologian in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Increase Mather was influential in the Salem Witch Trials and was rightly criticized in future years for refusing to denounce or at least reconsider the trials and executions... Like his father, Cotton Mather was very much a "my way or the highway" kind of guy and clashed with a number of prominent people in the Colony with whom he disagreed or who disagreed with him. Also, even though there's no way to be certain, in the case of Ann Glover he would have been an ambitious young man in his twenties and I wonder if he may have exaggerated or embellished some of the details a bit... Mather was also a slave owner, although by all accounts the enslaved people in his household were treated reasonably well. He respected them enough that he was willing to learn from one of them about a type of inoculation for smallpox practiced in Africa at the time. He went on to champion this method but faced backlash from the scientific establishment...
Thanks for the info on witches. Tis the season.
First thing to remember about the American witch trials: we did not burn our witches, that's barbaric.
We hung them.
'Goody' wasn't a nickname, it was a common form of address at that time for women. It was short for 'Goodwife'. Also, 'Cotton Mather', not 'Mathers'. I'm surprised that I know these witch trial details so well.
The early Protestants were uptight about any Catholic paraphernalia, which they considered 'idolatry'.
Wagon 😊
Cotton Mather, despite his considerable intellectual achievements, could also be a bit of a Puritan dick. Of course he probably inherited a lot of this from his father, Increase Mather, a prominent Puritan clergyman and theologian in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Increase Mather was influential in the Salem Witch Trials and was rightly criticized in future years for refusing to denounce or at least reconsider the trials and executions...
Like his father, Cotton Mather was very much a "my way or the highway" kind of guy and clashed with a number of prominent people in the Colony with whom he disagreed or who disagreed with him. Also, even though there's no way to be certain, in the case of Ann Glover he would have been an ambitious young man in his twenties and I wonder if he may have exaggerated or embellished some of the details a bit...
Mather was also a slave owner, although by all accounts the enslaved people in his household were treated reasonably well. He respected them enough that he was willing to learn from one of them about a type of inoculation for smallpox practiced in Africa at the time. He went on to champion this method but faced backlash from the scientific establishment...
💓🪶