In the American Grain Chapter Summary & Analysis - Cotton Mather's Wonders of the Invisible World Summary

Cotton Mather's Wonders of the Invisible World Summary

Combining "evidence" from the witchcraft era with historical analysis, the author divides this piece into three parts, all of which are reproductions of documentation written by Cotton Mather for the Salem Witch Trials. The first part, "Enchantments Encountered," introduces the invasion of the devil, which Mather surmises has infested their town because it is a place where New Englanders, who are a "People of God," hate evil and hate the master of evil most. The second section, which includes "The Tryal of Bridget Bishop" and "The Tryal of Susanna Martin," covers the so-called minister's assessment of their performing an "evident" and provable "horrible Witchcraft." In Bridget Bishop's case, Mather offers twelve pieces of evidence, especially that of supposed eyewitness accounts, for example; and in Susanna Martin's case, he documents court testimony among the thirteen pieces of proof of her evil. The third part is composed of what Mather defines as...
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