Page 108 - American Stories, A History of the United States

Read the Document Cotton mather, Memorable Providences, Relating to 3.1
Witchcrafts and Possessions (1689)

3.2

3.3

3.4

3.5

CoTTon MaTher the publication of cotton Mather’s Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions
(1689) contributed to the hysteria that resulted in the salem witchcraft trials. Mather is shown here surrounded by
some of the forms a demon assumed in the “documented” case of an english family besieged by witches.

have spoken these words, at least not with such enthusiasm. The two men were, of
course, products of different political cultures. It was not so much that the character
of Massachusetts society had changed. In fact, the Puritan families of 1700 were much
like those of the founding generation. Rather, the difference was in England’s attitude
toward the colonies. Rulers living more than 3,000 miles away now made political and
economic demands that Mather’s contemporaries could not ignore.
The creation of a new imperial system did not, however, erase sectional differ-
ences. By 1700, for example, the Chesapeake colonies were more, not less, committed
to cultivating tobacco and to slave labor. Although the separate regions were being
pulled slowly into England’s commercial orbit, they had little to do with each other.
The elements that sparked a powerful sense of nationalism among colonists dispersed
over a huge territory would not be evident for a long time. It would be a mistake, there-
fore, to anticipate the coming of the American Revolution.

for suggested readings go to Myhistorylab.
75