SOURCE: "Did the Mathers Disagree about the Salem Witchcraft Trials?," in Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, Vol. 95, 1985, pp. 19-38.

In the following essay, Levin questions whether Increase Mather and his son Cotton disagreed about the witch trials and studies the roles for which they are most remembered.

The question that I have posed may seem at first to be antiquarian in the narrowest sense. One of my colleagues suggested that I make the title more provocative by asking, Did the Mathers disagree about the Salem trials, and who cares? What could be more parochial than asking whether two embattled ministers, serving in the same congregation, disagreed toward the end of one of the most shameful episodes in early New England history? I could argue that this topic is worth thirty minutes of your time because the Salem trials have already held a disproportionately large place in American...