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Cotton Mather's Wonders Of The Invisible World

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Cotton Mather had minimal involvement in the actual proceedings of the Salem Witch Trials, however, he did prove to be a very influential figure from the very beginning. In 1684, he published the essay Illustrious Provinces, in attempt to prove the reality of the spiritual world. In 1689, he published Memorable Providences Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions, in which he describes the story of John Goodwin’s children and their speculated “possession”. It is often believed that Mather’s works fueled the flames for the hysteria leading to the Salem Witch Trials.
In 1692, his book Wonders of the Invisible World, further proved him to be an adamant defender of the trials. In reference to Martha Carrier he had wrote “This Rampant Hag, Martha
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Cotton Mather’s letter is addressed to John Foster where he voices his worries about insufficient evidence to convict someone against witchcraft. His main point is that the devil himself is the source of the illness. The devil generally causes mayhem against those who are innocent. Due to the fact, that the devil is the source of the illness, those accused of witchcraft aren’t liable as they are being possessed by him. He believes that God is leaning more into the colony’s favor by having judges that understand that the devil is the source of the suffering.

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Richard Godbeer presented an excellent picture on how puritan life was structured, how it functioned, and how they perceived the super natural in this novel. Reading "Escaping Salem," I was thrown several different scenarios displaying how witchcraft was addressed in early puritan society and how they reacted towards it. The supposedly bewitching of Katherine Branch showed the reader how the people of Stamford and the court system handled the act of witchcraft. After reading this novel, I can say that I do believe the accused in the Stamford witchcraft trial received a fair trial.

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The Salem witch trial hysteria of 1692 may have been instigated by religious, social, geographic and even biological factors. During these trials, 134 people were condemned as witches and 19 were hanged. These statistics also include 5 more deaths that occurred prior to their execution date. It is interesting to look into the causes of this stain on American History, when as shown in document B, eight citizens were hanged in only one day.

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The Salem Witch Trials; Madness or Logic In Stacey Schiff’s, List of 5 Possible Causes of the Salem Witch Trials and Shah Faiza’s, THE WITCHES OF SALEM; Diabolical doings in a Puritan village, discuss in their articles what has been debated by so many historians for years, the causes of the Salem Witch trials. Schiff and the Faiza, purpose is to argue the possible religious, scientific, communal, and sociological reasons on why the trials occurred. All while making word by word in the writer’s testimony as if they were there through emotion and just stating simply the facts and theories. They adopt the hectic tone in order to convey to the readers the significance, tragedy, logic, loss, and possible madness behind these life changing events,

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Much of what happens in Salem still resembles some things we see in society today. The word of one man can change people’s ideas and images of another without conclusive evidence. What people fear the most can sometimes bind us together, even if it is not

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In his book, “A Modest Inquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft (1702),” clergyman John Hale comes forth to confront the recent events going on at the time. Initially, Hale alludes to the questionable actions and activities of the townspeople being accused of witchcrafts, and being imprisoned as punishment. In addition, he discloses how everyone suspicious will be accused, not even young children are safe from the hands of this fate. Hale’s purpose of publishing this book was to describe the incident of the Witch Trials, and to reveal his experience of the trials, since his own wife was accused. By employing a didactic tone, Hale relays the actions of the past that targeted the Puritans and those wrongly accused of witchcrafts, so this occurrence

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Introduction George Jacobs Sr. said, “You tax me for a wizard, you may as well tax me for a buzzard I have done no harm.” Although his words were true, many chose to either believe this hysteria or turn the other way. He died along with many other women and men. This was just the start of the many terrors of the Salem witch trials. Yet if you confessed to being a witch then you had a better chance of living, but if you denied you would automatically get hanged.

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He also defends himself as he was faced with scrutiny and backlash for his role in the Witch Trials. Many believed that he is one of the few people that “fueled the fire”. Mather’s talks about how the Devil became irate after the Puritans descended onto his territory. Satan then sent forth legions to extinguish the threat of God’s wrath. The witches of Salem, in this case, were the Devil’s instruments of destruction.

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Nearly anyone from the New England has heard of the famous Salem Witch Trials. A year of persecution, leading to the accusation of nearly 200 citizens of all ages. No one was safe; men, women, children, even pets stood trial and 20 were hung for the supposed crime of witchcraft (Blumberg). 1692 was a year of witch hunting. Most today blame the trials on hysteria, or perhaps a bad case of paranoia.

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The Salem witch trial was a time about accusing your fellow neighbor or being accused yourself, this all began in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts. During this time many people were being accused of being a witch, a majority of the time it was because either someone truly believed that you were a witch and were reeking havoc or they were trying to find someone to take the blame if they were to being accused. So this leads us to question, what began the Salem Witch Trials? There were at least three causes of the Salem witch trials hysteria. These were Betty Parris and Abigail Williams story, Ergotism, and the acknowledgment of hysteria.

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Carol Karlsen 's The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England provides a sociological and anthropological examination of the witchcraft trends in early New England. By examining the records, Karlsen has created what she suggests was the clichéd 'witch ' based on income, age, marital status, etc. She argues that women who had inherited or stood to inherit fairly large amounts of property or land were at particular risk, as they "stood in the way of the orderly transmission of property from one generation of males to the next." These women, Karlsen suggests, were targeted largely because they refused to accept "their place" in colonial society.

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Cotton Mather writes the literary work “The Wonders of the Invisible World”. The writings are in reference to the Salem Witch Trials. Mather wants the reader to understand the climate of the time, so he starts his writings by informing the reader that God fearing people have left England to settle in an Godless land and the settlers are being harassed by the devil. Mather believes the devil is at work in Massachusetts has a plan to bewitching all the settlers by using demons to take over their bodies and to trick people into doing bad things. Mather wants the reader to know some settlers have confessed to consorting with the devil and preforming witch craft, but the problem is far deeper and could put the settlement at risk of falling into

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During the hysteria of 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts, many people were accused of practicing witchcraft. Therefore, their reputation, was ruined. Other people committed many sins in order to keep their reputation clean in town. For instance, some characters had to lie, fight, and accuse other people of witchcraft which could get the individual out of trouble and keep their hands clean. when a person got accused of being a witch, the person’s reputation would get ruined and the person would go to jail or be hanged.

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911 Words | 4 Pages

Cotton Mather: Wonders of the Invisible World In this writing, Cotton Mather, a Puritan Theologian and a renowned reverend talks about his fears of the Christian religion being slowly obliterated from the country, which he believes is being taken over by the devil and his minions by the use of Witchcraft. In 1963 Cotton Mather was asked to create a literary piece, in defense of the persecutions, one year after the events of the Salem witch trials actually took place, where questionable events happened were depicted. This work was called the Invisible Wonders of the World. Throughout the writing, Mather is always depicting the devil as a real and tangible being (e.g. “invisible hands” and supernatural happenings).

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1223 Words | 5 Pages

REVIEW OF LITRATURE A.) SUMMARY SOURCE A Although the whole book had information on the Salem witch trials. The introduction, chapter 1 and 2 and the conclusion had information regarding the research needed • Introduction: states what the Salem witch trials where and who they accused.

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