Puritans could be harsh but also moralistic. Some variations developed in opinions about slavery.
“Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you also have a maker in heaven.”
- Colossians 4:1
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- Massachusetts Archives The Rainbow Incident, 1645.
The ship Rainbow partnered with two English ships on a slaving voyage to Africa. In a Sunday attack they reportedly killed 100 people with cannon fire. This document mandated return of two captives to Africa because of the circumstances of their capture, “brought most fraudulently.” This did not fit the legalistic category of captives in a just war.
Governor John Winthrop held Indians on his Ten Hills Farm in Medford. After the Pequot War he requested a Native woman who had saved the life of Englishmen. Her husband, a prominent Sachem, had been killed. Winthrop saw himself as the protector of a “high status” captive and her children.
- American Antiquarian Society
John Winthrop Assured by Biblical acceptance of slavery, John Winthrop and most Puritan leaders did not question its morality. However they were cautious. Many Puritans suspected that those at the bottom of the social hierarchy did not have God’s favor. As a practical matter they feared that a large enslaved population might be dangerous.
Cotton Mather represented the third generation in a family of ministers. Not an admirer, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote that he embodied “all the hateful features of his time.” And, yes, he did wear a wig.
- Columbia.edu
Cotton Mather Controversial for his role in the Salem Witch Trials, Puritan Minister Cotton Mather also wrote about slavery. “God is not moved by the Color of the skin, He is not more propitious to one Color than another.” While Mather recognized the intelligence and capability of Africans he concluded that religious training would make them better “servants” because they would know it is God’s will for them.
Samuel Sewall did not have twenty-first century attitudes about race. (He thought that God intended Africans to remain in Africa.) However he thought that the races had equal rights to liberty.
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Samuel Sewall was a judge in the Salem Witch Trials, the only one to admit that he had been wrong. He criticized merchant John Saffin for reneging on a promise to free an enslaved man named “Adam.” In 1700 he published The Selling of Joseph, the first antislavery tract. Sewall rejected arguments that slavery benefitted Africans because it introduced them to Christianity. “Evil most not be done so that good may come of it.”