Cotton Mather

Cotton Mather, born on February twelfth, sixteen sixty-three, was a prominent Puritan clergyman and a prolific author in colonial New England. After receiving his education at Harvard College, he joined his father, Increase Mather, as a minister at the Old North Meeting House in Boston, where he dedicated his life to preaching and writing on a variety of subjects, including theology, history, and science. Mather is often recognized as the first American Evangelical, a title that reflects his significant influence on the religious landscape of his time.

A major intellectual figure in English-speaking colonial America, Mather played a crucial role in the revolt against Sir Edmund Andros in sixteen eighty-nine. His involvement in the Salem witch trials of sixteen ninety-two to sixteen ninety-three, which he defended in his book Wonders of the Invisible World, sparked considerable controversy and has since marred his historical reputation. Mather's contributions to the history of colonial New England are encapsulated in his notable work, Magnalia Christi Americana, published in seventeen oh two.

Despite his commitment to the prevailing social and religious orders, Mather's aspirations to become president of Harvard College were unsuccessful. He later found himself in conflict with Joseph Dudley, the governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, whom he sought to oust from power. Mather also supported the establishment of Yale College as a stronghold of Puritan thought and maintained extensive correspondence with European intellectuals, earning an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from the University of Glasgow in seventeen ten.

A pioneer of experimental science in America, Mather conducted original research on plant hybridization and explored the variolation method of inoculation to combat smallpox, a technique he learned from his African-American slave, Onesimus. His advocacy for inoculation during the smallpox outbreak of seventeen twenty-one led to significant backlash in Boston. Notably, Benjamin Franklin, who initially opposed Mather's Puritan ideals, later acknowledged the impact of Mather's book Bonifacius, or Essays to Do Good, published in seventeen ten, as a major influence on his own life.