Looking for primary sources on Cotton Mather

[Eoghan]

I am doing a project on Cotton Mather having primarily interested my PT through his pioneering work on immunisation.

Firstly can his reputation be rehabilitated?

I have found him cropping up in Marvel comics - as a villain. I also found a reference to his conduct at the Salem trials in one of the Babylon 5 novels - positive.

I am interested in pinpointing some of his work on astronomy and plant genetics.

If this discussion goes dead PM me as I will be working on this for a few weeks yet with a view to producing something for September. (unless of course his reputation is beyond redemption)

 

[Grimmson]

Try The Christian Philosopher: A Collection of the Best Discoveries in Nature ... - Cotton Mather - Google Books for Astronomy, biology, and general science.
I also have a pdf of his diary that was published in 1911. Let me know if you want it.

 

[Wayne]

Internet Archive Search: mather, cotton

Looks like a good bit of extra stuff to sort through, but definitely some primary source material there as well.

 

[py3ak]

I enjoyed this book by Cotton Mather and found the introduction illuminating:
Amazon.com: 0252068939: Books

 

[Eoghan]

One of the questions I have is how we understand him. His role in the Salem trials in particular seems difficult to reconcile with the persecution he withstood over immunisation - flying in the face of public opinion.

I guess I need to answer this question before investing too much time in him.

I was also hoping for some pointers to relevant passages written by him. With some 450 books I don't have the time to read them all. If you have searchable pdf links let me know.

 

[Eoghan]

I have basically got the Cotton Mather Project 90% done. The idea is to have a document that pupils can copy into their folders (at school) and work through over a period of weeks. Ideally the kids would find their information through Google but having some experience of the "rabbit trails" this can generate I have tried to put hyperlinks in to help.

What I found interesting was that Wikipedia put hyperlinks in their document - which appear in the web address. So if you use their menu to go to a section of the document., you can attempt to skip the more controversial parts of Cotton Mather's life.

That is where I am now, trying to make sense of the Salem Witch Trials. I think the key aspect is the use of "spectral evidence." This removes the need for corroborating testimony and negates the alibi that the person was elsewhere in the county. There does also seem to be some sympathetic treatment of some of the individuals involved and "withholding evidence" on the part of Mather that would have implicated others.

Any help with finding sympathetic treatments would be appreciated.