Cotton Mather

Cotton Mather was an influential Puritan Minister who wrote many books and pamphlets. He was born February 12, 1663 and died February 13, 1728. He is also vonnected with the Salem Witch Trials, providing spectral evidence. He was also the son of the very influential minister, Increase Mather.
Named after his Grandfather, John Cotton, he went through school and managed to graduate at the age of 15. Afterwards he joined his father as an assistant, taking his place once he died. He helped the nation bring on its second and third generation of Puritans and influenced people who had come over from England to bring back the theological roots of Puritanism.
He wrote over 450 books many of them being very important literary works brought out of Puritan Beliefs. The "Magnalia Christi Americana," composed of 7 different books, would be looked at by several different American writers who would see the books as a huge cultural signifigance to people of New England following the American Revolution. He would write his works drawing from the bible to enterpret it for his audiences. He tried to compare stories from the bible and life situations to try to connect it to historical events to make their venture seem more significant.
Cotton Mather was also involved in the Salem Witch Trials, providing spectral evidence, although he also said that his evidence wasn't something you could decide a case on. Afterwards though, he wrote that he would be thankful to god for the outcome of the trial.
He also happened help out in science being one of the first people to discover hybridization. He one day observed that part of his field had different color corn. His friends Indian Corn had mixed with a good few rows of his own corn. He also tried to help with a small pox epidemic in Boston. One of his slaves explained to him that he had been inoculated as a child. It was unsuccsesful at first but when he urged one doctor to carry the procedure out on his own family, the family recovered in about a week. Many people believed that it was actually spreading the disease rather than getting rid of it and forbade him to ever do it again.
Mather's Slaves also happened to be a bit different than your average slaves. Believing it was his duty to introduce slaves to christianity, he opened up an evening school to try to teach Blacks and Indians but it was only open for about 3 years. He also did not offer instructions on how to write only wanting them to know how to read the scriptures of the bible.