One of the five central figures that Kendi bases the book around, Cotton Mather was a Puritan minister who was born in New England in 1663. Mather was a descendant of the illustrious Cotton and Mather families (his parents gave Mather his mother’s maiden name as a first name), which were both powerful in shaping the intellectual and political climate of colonial America. At 11, he became the youngest person in history to attend Harvard; after graduating, he became a preacher and encouraged slaveowners to convert their slaves to Christianity. Mather was passionately committed to the belief that, underneath their skin, Black people had “white” souls, which he took to mean that they could be redeemed and saved by God so long as they became Christians. In this sense, he had a decisive impact on the history of racism in America by embedding into the popular imagination the idea that Christianity would redeem enslaved people and make them naturally docile and submissive.
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Cotton Mather Character Timeline in Stamped from the Beginning
The timeline below shows where the character Cotton Mather appears in Stamped from the Beginning. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Prologue
...through the history of thinking about race. The first is colonial preacher and writer Cotton Mather (1663-1728), the son of two powerful New England Puritan families. Mather preached about Black inferiority...
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Chapter 4: Saving Souls, Not Bodies
...with the restoration of Charles II to the throne. Across multiple generations, the Cotton and Mather families intermarry, an interlocking sealed with the “triple-knot” of Increase Mather and Maria Cotton’s son,...
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Meanwhile, in 1676, Increase Mather prays fervently for the defeat of the Native American sachem Metacomet (known in English as...
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In 1674, the already fanatically pious Cotton Mather becomes the youngest Harvard student ever at the age of 11. After graduating, he cofounds...
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Chapter 5: Black Hunts
In 1689, 26-year-old Cotton Mather hosts a meeting in which he and fellow New Englanders plan to arrest a group...
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...as a “noble savage” elevated by his proximity to whiteness—a classic assimilationist gesture. In 1689, Mather publishes Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions, propelled by his increasingly fanatical fixation with...
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Even after the hysteria subsides, Cotton Mather clings to his role as the defender of white Puritanism against the dangers of “black”...
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Chapter 6: Great Awakening
...live properly among white people. Sewall is a powerful individual and close friend of Cotton Mather. Furious, Saffin pens a response to Sewall justifying slavery on the grounds of Black immorality...
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...allocated land, a motion that noticeably increases white affluence and power. The following year, Cotton Mather publishes The Negro Christianized, in which he argues that God decided to send Africans into...
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...and abolitionists’ efforts, the slave trade continues to thrive into the early 18th century. When Mather asks Onesimus if he’s had smallpox, Onesimus explains that he’s been inoculated against it using...
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After hearing Mather’s stories, a physician named Zabadiel Boylston inoculates his young son along with two enslaved Africans...
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...place in the 1730s. Yet during this time the abolitionist movement gains momentum, too. Cotton Mather dies in 1728, a day after his 65th birthday. His lasting impact on the history...
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