Main Blog Post (October 16th)
Isaac Sarmiento
Dr. Lee
Engl&244
October 16, 2015
Blog Assignment: "Samuel Sewall & Cotton Mather's"
In this reading it talks about Samuel Sewall who went to Salem, and in the meetinghouse the people who were accused of witchcraft had to get examined. And in the time Mrs. Cary who was accused of witchcraft, made her escape out of the Cambridge prison. Meanwhile in Salem Giles Corey was pressed to death just for standing in silence. Cotton Mather's who was the oldest son of Increase Mather's and also the grandson of Richard Mather's and John Cotton. He was the heir apparent of the congregational hierarchy which had dominated the churches of England for many years. Cotton Mather's had attended Harvard college which was a really good college at the time. And he was only twelve years old when he attended the college. Cotton Mather's was expected to excel, not disappointing anyone. But he had to pay a price for how he got there, he stumbled badly when he was young and so much. He also had nervous disorders that had driven him alternately to ecstasy and dark paths. His enemies were saying that he was really aggressive.
Also in this passage of reading of Cotton Mather's found great satisfaction for doing good deeds for others. He as well organized societies to build churches, supported schools, and established funds for indigent clergy. In the passage " From The Wonders of The Invisible World" it talks about Englanders who are a people of good but once they were the devils territory. And the devil was irritated and he had tried many methods to overturn the poor plantation and a lot of the church. Also in this reading they proclaim that the devil made a knot of the witches in the country. In the passage of "A Notable Exploit" it talks about how the savages traveled to the skirts of Haverhill and they had murdered about 39 people there. There was a party of Indians that had shot at him and he had shot back trying to get away unto safety with the children and he had reached a spot of safety about 2 miles away from the house. It was brutal because the Indians had got ahold of the infant and bashed his brains up on a tree as well with several other people that were caught. Some 2 women were caught and token back to the Indians tribe where they would be stripped and killed in the gauntlet in front of all the Indians, but before the break of day the women had killed many Indians while they were sleeping and one of the women had gotten away while the other was killed. Many of her personal friends congratulated her but Colonel Nicholson sent them a very generous token of one of his favors.
What this whole passage offers is a more deep understanding of Samuel Sewall and how he was at Salem during the witch trials and he wrote in his diary each day of what had happened. And how hard it was for some of the people in the witch trials who were accused of being witches but were innocent. Also it gives a better understanding of Cotton Mather's and how he came up to be who he was by going to college at the age of twelve and persevering most people of that age. But the only way to get where he was he had to suffer and go through many hardships as a child stumbling upon many things. He had satisfaction for what he done for people doing many great deeds. He describes in these two passages in the reading about how the Indians had gone for them but getting away safely with the children unlike two women who were caught and only one making out of the hands of the Indians. This passages as well as the descriptions of Cotton Mather's show clear imagery of what was going on at the time and how Mather's was able to be what he was at such an age.
Baym, Nina. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 8th Ed., New York: W.W Norton, 2012. Print.
Your analysis of this reading was really informative and interesting. However, I'm not sure if Harvard was a prestigious university during that time. If I remember correctly, in class we discussed how Harvard was just one of the few universities in America. Also, Cotton Mather was smart but were enrolled at a younger age back then.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you in your last passage about the witch trials and how scary they must have been. Especially since anyone could have been accused for whatever reason and how no was safe from the accusations.
Also, Cotton Mather was smart "but people were" enrolled at a younger age back then. I made a grammar mistake.
DeleteI also agree with your statement that Cotton Mather's had to go through several hardships. I read that he had three wives, the first two died before he did and the last wife went insane. He also had 15 kids only six made it to adulthood and out of those six only three lived longer than Cotton Mather's. Also on top of all of this he suffered from anxiety and depression which did not his struggles in life.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Sewall’s and Mather’s writings provided a deeper understanding of the witch trials and how difficult they must have been; however the main focus of Cotton Mather’s writings specifically, weren’t about himself or college. I feel as if for this particular main blog post the witch trials could have been talked about more so just because that was the main focus of Mather’s writings. His ideas and claims are aimed towards that of the witch trials and the idea that witchcraft was of the devil. He furthermore makes it a point and makes it known, that these sort of acts or “witchcraft” were all or nothing attacks or efforts put forth to undermine the Puritan ideals. Such ideas and beliefs are made clear in instances where Mather writes “We have been advised by some credible Christians yet alive, that a malefactor, accused of witchcraft as well as murder, and executed in this place more than forty years ago, did then give notice of an horrible plot against the country by witchcraft, and a foundation of witchcraft then laid, which if it were not seasonably discovered would probably blow up, and pull down all the churches in the country. And we have now with horror seen the discovery of such a witchcraft” (329)! When Mather writes this, he, in other words is saying that they have already been warned of the comings of witchcraft and that if these acts had not been discovered, at least in his eyes, they wouldn’t have any more churches or with regards to what matters to him; no Puritan churches.
ReplyDeleteTo that end to answer the question of how might we benefit from connecting the text of the main blog to other readings or other aspects of context, we benefit by connecting this text of the main blog to other readings. By doing so one will be able to more fully understand what may be taking place and what’s going on. This particular text; however reminds me of Anne Bradstreet and what she endured and went through. Although, she and the so-called “witches” suffered differently, they suffered. She escaped death 8 times and as along the same lines “witches” were sent to prison or even “killed" as well.