Colonial Male Preachers

The chance of any of these folks showing up on your test are not good (but they might). Don't waste too much time with the Colonial American literature. Chances are that if anyone is going to show up from this time and place, it's Anne Bradstreet.

John Winthrop

John Winthrop (1587-1649) was elected governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629 and on 8 April 1630 he led a large party from England for the New World.

Winthrop was extremely religious and ascribed fervently to the Puritan belief that the Anglican Church had to be cleansed of Catholic ritual. Winthrop was convinced that God would punish England for its heresy, and believed that English Puritans needed a shelter away from England where they could remain safe during the time of God's wrath.

His only work of nots is his Journal, which is a Puritan chronicle of the Massachusetts Bay Colony

Jonathan Edwards

If there is a colonial American man worth knowing anything about, it's Edwards. His own words probably won't come up on the test, but Robert Lowell's "Mr. Edwards and the Spider," might, so it's worth knowing the biographical info.

Edwards was a colonial American Congregational preacher and theologian. He is known as one of the greatest and most profound American evangelical theologians. His work is very broad in scope, but he is often associated with his defense of Calvinist theology and the Puritan heritage.

His Personal Narrative is a Puritan autobiography that recounts his spiritual conversion.

"The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect, over the fire, abhors you and is dreadfully provoked."

Cotton Mather

a socially and politically-influential "Puritan" minister, prolific author, and pamphleteer. Author of more than 450 books and pamphlets, Cotton Mather's ubiquitous literary works made him one of the most influential religious leaders in America. Mather set the nation's "moral tone", and sounded the call for second and third generation Puritans, whose parents had left England for the New England colonies of North America to return to the theological roots of Puritanism.

Magnalia Christi Americana is a book written in 1702. Its title is in Latin, and is usually given the English title The Ecclesiastical History of New England as a translation. It consists of seven "books" collected into two volumes and details the religious development of Massachusetts, and other nearby colonies in New England from 1620 to 1698. An excerpt of the book is collected in the widely respected Norton Anthology which details the works and accomplishments of William Bradford. Other notable parts of the book are Mather's descriptions of the Salem Witch Trials, in which he criticizes some of the methods of the court; his complete "catalogus" of all the students that graduated from Harvard College, and story of the founding of Harvard College itself; and his assertions that Puritan slaveholders should do more to convert their slaves to Christianity.

John Woolman

John Woolman (1720–1772) was an itinerant Quaker preacher, traveling throughout the American colonies, advocating against conscription, taxation, and particularly slavery.

A major tale in his journal deals with a turning point in his life in which he happened upon a robin's nest with hatchlings in it. Woolman began throwing rocks at the mother robin just to see if he could hit her. He ended up killing the mother bird, but then remorse filled him as he thought of the baby birds who had no chance of surviving without her. He got the nest down from the tree and quickly killed the hatchlings, believing it to be the most merciful thing to do. This experience weighed on his heart, and inspired in him a love and protectiveness for all living things from then on.

At age 23 his employer asked him to write a bill of sale for a slave. He told his employer that he thought that slavekeeping was inconsistent with the Christian religion. Many Friends believed that slavery was bad--even a sin--but there was not a universal condemnation of it among Friends. Some Friends bought slaves from other people in order to treat them humanely and educate them. Other Friends seemed to have no conviction against slavery whatsoever.

His only work of notes is his Journal which is a Quarker spiritual autobiography.