Cotton Mather and The Salem Witch Trials

Cotton Mather was known to be one of the people who were considered to have had a big part of the Salem Witch Trials. He was a Boston Minister and highly believed in witchcraft. For his education, he went to the Boston Latin School. He later graduated from Harvard only at the age of 15. After he finished all his education and followed in his father’s footsteps and became a pastor at the North Church.

He wrote about 450 books and kept very busy throughout his life. Mather even took part in the Great Awakening which was a big religious movement that happened throughout all of the colonies. But, he is mostly known for how much he helped create the Salem Witch Trials.

The Salem Witch Trials is pretty well known to this day. It started from people believing in the Devil and dark magic. Many thought that the Devil was amongst them and they needed to rid their land of people who were thought of as “Witches”. Anything that would happen unpredictably like a Storm in some cases people automatically blamed it on Dark Magic. The people who accused people of witchcraft and believed in it was because of fear. Many people feared the Devil or any type of evil supernatural spirit. Many people were accused of witchcraft and were hanged because of it. If you were accused you would be brought to court and would have to admit to what you did even if it wasn’t something outrageous. After that you would be sentenced to death.

People today assume that the Witch Trials just happened in Massachusetts. But that is incorrect. The trials also occurred in Connecticut. When some people would be accused some would flee to another colony so they would be safe, others were not that lucky and had to go with the punishment that the court would give them.

So these Witch Trials brings it back to Cotton Mather who is thought to be one of the people who made this whole thing happen. He originally made it to bring back the church moral standards and not make it a witch hunt. But instead, it became the totally opposite and created a lot of violence. Because of all this accusing and violence twenty people were executed in Salem. About eleven were also executed in Connecticut also. Many of these people who died were mostly women.

The Virginia, Connecticut, and Georgia Colonies

The 13 Colonies is a very important part of history. They are what shaped New England today. They were originally British settlements. The first ever colony that was established was what is now Virginia. This came to be in 1607 when it started with Jamestown.

Virginia’s first ever export was tobacco, that was popularly traded during this time. With exports that colonies traded they made profit from it and that was part of the way each one thrived. England had a say in some of the matters when it came to this branch of the colonies.

Originally Virginia was much larger than what it is known as today. Some of the land then later got branched out to become Kentucky, West Virginia, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. In the beginning the colony wasn’t so independent because the King at the time (James I) revoked their charter. So, Virginia had loyalty to the king for a while, and that’s how they got their nickname “The Old Dominion”.

Later, four years after the colony of Maryland was developed, Connecticut was established. Although it was not originally called the Connecticut Colony, it was called the River Colony. It started with a Puritan minister creating this settlement. There was actually a war that took place in Connecticut known as the Pequot War. This was between Native Americans and Englishmen.

Connecticut was a big help towards having the colonies become independent. They helped the colonies become separate from the English Government and have their own government. An example of Connecticut’s point of view was when they refused to submit themselves to England leaders and having to be controlled by them. So for England to make Connecticut a royal colony they had to revoke the original Charter and have it in their own hands. But, a colonist from Connecticut broke in and stole the Charter and hid it in an Oak tree. Now, everybody just calls it an Oak tree but specifically it was called a White Oak Tree. That tree then became known as the Charter Oak Tree. Later on, the White Oak became the State Tree. Because the colonist hid the Charter in the White Oak tree, Connecticut became independent because England could not revoke it without having it.

The last colony that got developed was Georgia. It was established in 1732. The colony was created by a man named General James Oglethorpe and he organized it in a way so it can give people who are in debt a second chance to get them back on their feet. At first the colony had a lot of laws that Oglethorpe created including, no slavery, no alcohol, etc. But many people did not like this. So the development of Georgia started off slow because of all of the laws. Then, when Oglethorpe repealed some of the laws the colony started coming together quicker.

These colonies and many others were an important part of history and shaped some areas that are here to this day. Unlike what it was originally, England no longer controls the areas anymore and are now independent just like the colonies were trying to accomplish.

How 3 Were Influenced By The Doctrine of The Divine Right of Kings

The Doctrine of The Divine Right of Kings stated that a Monarch does not have to follow an authority, it can rule from the will of God. It was therefore a political and religious doctrine. There were a few people who agreed with it, but then some who were against it wholeheartedly. Some of the leaders and disagreed or agreed with it was Oliver Cromwell, James I, and Charles I.

James I became King of Scotland in 1567. Later on he also became King of England in 1603. He was one of the kings that agreed with the Doctrine of The Divine Right of Kings. James thought that he could do whatever he pleased without having to follow authorities like Parliament.

Even though at the time when James disagreed with Parliament there was still a rule that the leadership of England was partnered with the King and Parliament. James still thought that he could to whatever he pleased and change the rule to the way he wanted it to be. That disagreement later resulted in a Civil War with his son as King.

The next ruler was Charles I (James I’s son) and he disagreed with Parliament as well. That conflict even resulted in his execution. Later during his reign he even disbanded the Parliament because he decided to rule on his own. That made Parliament furious and led to an uprising against the King and the Parliamentarian Roundheads. A man named Oliver Cromwell led Parliament and completely disagreed with Charles. After this war Charles was tried in court but for him it didn’t end well. He was guilty of treason and was seen as an enemy to his people.

Oliver Cromwell was a man who became very versed in politics. He was first born into a noble family and later became very successful. But, even though his family was very poor, Oliver was still able to use his family as an advantage. He used his family name to get into politics. After that, he started becoming famous and well known for different things that he did from that point on. Some people, remember him negatively only because of what he ended up doing to the opposing countries against England.

Cromwell was one of the people who completely disagreed with the way the recent kings ruled with following the Doctrine of Divine Right of Kings. He agreed with Parliament and even became a member in 1628. Soon after that he decided to gather up an army to go against Charles I even though he didn’t have much military training. He gathered anyone he could, rich or poor, as long as they could fight. Even though Oliver started out not very versed in battle tactics he became a genius in the end and did amazing in battle.

The only part of his life that people viewed Cromwell negatively was when he was raiding other countries with attacks. Even though some thought that, he came back home to being a very successful man. At the time Parliament was broken up, so Oliver helped to restore the group. Since he was so successful he was later named as the Protectorate of the Commonwealth of England.

So, the Doctrine of The Divine Right of Kings influenced many rulers and even created some uprisings against it as well. Some of the kings followed it word for word while people of Parliament were extremely against it. In result, it affected history along the way.