Title Page of Cotton Mather's The Wonders of the Invisible World Cotton Mather's defense of the Salem Witchcraft Trials portrayed those involved as caught in a battle between the forces of good and evil in the New World.
A Modest Enquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft, 1697, by John Hale. Title Page of Rev. John Hale's brief history of the Salem Witchcraft trials, A Modest Enquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft, 1697. Hale was the Pastor of the Church in Beverly, Massachusetts until 1700 and an ardent supporter of the witch hunts of 1692. His opinion changed, however, when his second wife, Sarah (Noyes), was accused. (courtesy of The Beverly Historical Society)
Title Page, Cotton Mather's Sermon, "Humiliations followed by Deliverences," published in 1697. ŠThe Huntington Library In this sermon, Mather gives the first account of Hannah Duston's captivity and escape from the Abenaki Indians. Mather interviewed Duston after her return to Haverhill, Massachusetts. A revised version later appeared in his Magnalia Christi Americana, 1702. (courtesy of The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA)
Title Page, The Whole Booke of Psalms,
Cambridge, 1640. ŠThe Huntington Library The "Bay Psalm Book," the name generally given to The Whole Booke of Psalms, was the authorized hymnal of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the first book printed in the English colonies. John Cotton wrote the Preface and Richard Mather, John Eliot, and Thomas Weld did the translation.
(courtesy of The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA)
Title Page of "The World Bewitch'd" (London, 1695)by Balthazar Bekker, D.D. and Pastor at Amsterdam (courtesy of Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA)
Charles Upham's Salem Witchcraft Title Page from Charles Upham's Salem Witchcraft (courtesy of Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA)
