In 1706, Boston preacher Cotton Mather received a tremendous gift in the offering plate—a human being. When Mather opened his tithes envelope and saw the blessing, he said it was a “mighty smile of heaven upon my Family”1 and decided to name the newly arrived African “Onesimus,” after a biblical slave.** One would have to think that Onesimus found Mather to be a little dimwitted. After all, Mather wanted Onesimus to worship some white man named Jesus, who apparently hated witches and gave away slaves on his birthday. Mather disliked Onesimus because Onesimus also refused to convert from Islam
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