Cotton Mather

 Cotton Mather: a Racist History

Cotton Mather: a Racist History

The 1600s in what is now the United States were full of contradictions. Moving to the Colonies because of religion, those same people proceeded to then religiously persecute others. During the late 1600s, the leader of this charge was born. Born February 12, 1663, in Massachusetts Bay Colony, Cotton Mather was a congregational minister, author, and philosopher. He was born as the Governor’s son. His father also served as a congressional minister and the President of Harvard. Mather was extremely well educated and got admitted to Harvard at the age of 12; although, with his father being the President of this university, it is hard to confidently say that he solely attended this prestigious school due to his intelligence. He then went on to write over 400 published works, many of which were sermons. His most popular works include Bonifacius (Essays to Do Good) and Curiosa Americana (Curious American). However, even through his intelligence, it was extremely clear Mather was very problematic. Mather had a number of controversial beliefs, the main three including his views on Native Americans, slavery, and smallpox. 

Mather believed that the Native Americans were cursed by the devil. He was one of the main settlers who encouraged the religious conversion and overall destruction of the Native American tribes. As stated by Kurt Andersen in Fantasyland, Marther believed that they were “droves of devils in our way” and “demons in the shape of armed Indians.” Andersen also noted Mathers additional belief that the two Native American chiefs during his life were “Princes of Darkness.” Overall, however, Mather believed that “destructive ignorance” should be “chased out of the world,” which is extremely ironic as he was extremely ignorant towards the Native Americans. Almost as ironic, while serving as a minister, Mather constantly battled with the idea that he would not be let into heaven, which is a very interesting consideration as he believed that his views and actions against the Native Americans were morally right whilst actively persecuting them. This raises the question of what Mather actually believed he did wrong in his life. It can easily be argued that because of the mass destruction of Native Americans, Mather sinned greatly, and while we cannot be the ones to judge who gets into heaven, it is blatantly odd that he did not even consider his doing towards the Native Americans as wrong in the eyes of God. 

Mather, in addition to believing he was better than Native Americans, also believed he was better than African Americansde. In addition to holding slaves and believed that the souls of slaves would be “whitewashed” by the baptism of the lord, and even though they were still slaves, he then believed that they would become “free men of the Lord.” Mather was one of the leading priests who believed that the Bible justified slavery, specifically using verses that had no relevance to slavery and applying them to the situation. However, while some priests believed that slavery allowed for God’s “trials” towards African Americans that would overall lead them to attain eternal freedom, Mather believed that slaves would forever be slaves and their only real freedom was strictly spiritual. Contradictory to that, however, he also believed that he and his slaves shared “one blood,” allowing them to be brothers in Christ but somehow also not equal. Similarly to his treatment towards Native Americans, Mather’s views also raise the question about his Puritan nature, and if God would truly see him as a holy minister when he justified slavery through God. Additionally, the Bible says people shall not be or worship idols, but slavery is specifically making Mather above his slaves, which should also be sinful in the eyes of God. 

Oddly enough, his racist views towards Native Americans and African Americans were not the end of his controversial beliefs. He also believed that smallpox caused witchcraft and that those who lived after smallpox were at risk of witchcraft. He did not believe everyone who had smallpox was subject to witchcraft though. Mather saw this as something like chickenpox and shingles, just because you have had chickenpox, it does not necessarily guarantee shingles. According to Andersen, Mather even participated in the Salem Witch Trials as a “golden-boy witch expert” and openly advocated for inoculation of smallpox; therefore, there would not be any risk of witchcraft as the inoculation was done by humans. Mather was said to be the one to introduce the idea of inoculation to the colonies, which he claimed to have gotten the idea from one of his slaves known as Onesimus. Onesimus said that he was inoculated in West Africa, where inoculation was very popular. Mather then openly advocated for inoculation and inoculated his son, which almost killed him. However, after this inoculation, Mather’s community seemed to think he was cursed for using inoculation instead of believing that God would save those he wanted and deemed worthy to save. During Mather’s so-called “curse,” many of his family members then died of smallpox, and after recovering from his inoculation, his son also was incarcerated for being a “scandalous libel.” Finally, a bomb was thrown through the window of Mather’s chamber as his community started to resent him. Attached to the bomb was a note saying “Cotton Mather, you dog dam you! I’ll inoculate you with this; with a pox to you.” However, even though Mather was wrong in the idea that smallpox caused witchcraft, he did have a point in his theory of inoculation. He began conducting experiments and found that only 2% of people died through inoculation while 14.8% would die from getting the disease some other way. With his advocacy for this, Mather was known to create one of the earliest clinical trials on record, showing Mather was capable of advocating for something other than racial persecution that was wrongly justified through religion.  

Overall, Cotton Mather impacted his Puritan community greatly. His advocacy throughout his life (for both good and bad things) drastically impacted the Puritans and led them down paths toward both racism and scientific excellence. His death came just a day after his 65th birthday on February 13, 1728. Unfortunately, however, Mather was not around to see the lives he saved through his advocacy of inoculation as the smallpox vaccine was not invented until over 50 years after his death, so colonies relied on inoculation to save lives. Overall, Mather truly shows the duality of man through his belief system in his life.

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