Mather, Cotton, 1663-1728

Cotton Mather (1663–1728) was an important Puritan minister and writer in colonial New England. Public information about his life is limited, and biographical details are difficult to verify, but his surviving works show a lasting concern with religion, society, and beliefs about the supernatural. The library holds three of his works, all centered on the witchcraft panic in New England and titled The Witchcraft Delusion in New England: Its Rise, Progress, and Termination, which recounts the rise, development, and end of that episode. Mather's writing reflects a distinct Puritan ethical perspective and a sense of historical documentation; his serious tone emphasizes causation and moral instruction. His accounts offer later readers an early participant's narrative of the colonial witchcraft trials and the social mentality behind them, giving him a place in the history of early American thought and religion.