Enslaved Christians: Black Church Members in the Era of Cotton Mather - a talk by historian Richard Boles

Name: Enslaved Christians: Black Church Members in the Era of Cotton Mather - a talk by historian Richard Boles
Start: November 30, 2023
End: 2023-09-21

Improve listing Presented by Partnership of Historic Bostons

Cotton Mather was so concerned about the conduct of enslaved people that in 1693 he wrote rules for their behaviour - including informing on people aiming to escape. For Mather, Boston's leading theologian and a slaveholder himself, people would be equal in heaven - but on earth, they were rightly unequal.

In Enslaved Christians, historian Richard Boles offers a nuanced and trenchant exploration of the role of Puritan theology in New England slavery, and the way that people in turn shaped the society around them. This is the fifth in our lecture series, Enslavement & Resistance: New England 1620-1760.