of Exploration/Beginnings Slavery in New World - later 1400s, all 1500s (15th and 16th centuries) John Smith A Description of New England Designed to entice Europeans to come and settle. Bartolome de las Casas Relation of Devastation of the Indies Witnesses the torture of natives by Europeans. Directed politically to change policy, but distance from monarch causes settlers to violate royal policy, abuse natives. All slavery is bad Christopher Columbus Letter to Luis de Santangel, Letter to Ferdinand & Isabella Regarding the 4th Voyage Early themes of American lit: lush greenery of the land, violence of European incursion, discovering new islands and rebellion of the Taino Indians Colonization 1600s William Bradford Of Plymouth Plantation First governor, writes history of the journey from England to Leyden, Holland; to New World (Plymouth). First signs of reliance on the Bible for justify actions. Sailor is cruel to them, struck dead; difficulties of colonization; killing of scores of Indians; account of Thomas Morton negatively. Pilgrims Thomas Morton New English Canaan Head of Mare-mount (Merrymount), gives guns to the Indians in exchange for furs, cavorts with Natives around May Pole, captured and sent to England many times, ends in defeat; writes of the experience with Pilgrims with classical allusions. Considered scandalous and Bradford more likely to be believed. Non Pilgrim settler (trader) John Winthrop A Model of Christian Charity We must love and care for each other; sermon form is jeremiad (long recitation of lengthy complaint). Anticipates Marxism to a certain extent, yet maintains class system. Proclaims the Colony is a "City on a Hill"--an example of an ideal society for the world to see and follow. Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony
Anne Bradstreet Prologue, The Author to Her Book, To My Dear and Loving Husband, Verses Upon the Burning of Our House intimate poetry, both European in style and scripturally based. "Upon the Burning of Our House" "The Prologue" (to her lengthy historical book of poetry) signals both resistance to anti feminine poet and deferral to male poets; "To My Dear and Loving Husband" shockingly bold statement of intimate love for husband, for a Puritan woman. Poetry: closed form, iambic meter. Cotton Mather The Wonders of the Invisible World late seventeenth-century, descendant of famous Puritan minister leaders, Richard Mather and John Cotton. Harvard educated, prodigy. Intellectual writer, respected in Europe. Writes Wonders of the Invisible World, proclaiming Satan is angry that the Puritans have taken some of his lands; he is infecting come of them with witchcraft, and they must be stopped. Mary Rowlandson Narrative of Captivity During King Philip's War (1675) (Metacomet, Wampanoag sachem), when the Indians almost wiped out the Puritans because the Indians were starving, wanted their lands back, many Puritans were captured for ransom; thus begins a new literary genre, the captivity narrative. Most striking in Rowlandson's is her graphic description of the violence in Lancaster, MA, where her family is mostly massacred and her constant allusions to the Bible to explain what is going on, and, finally, her claim that her sins caused her to be attacked. Enlightenment/Revolution 1700s Tom Paine Common Sense writes to arouse Americans to fight against the British: "Common Sense." Ben Franklin Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America Among his many writings is his "Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America," in which he satirically attacks American whites and praises Indians for their politeness, their sense of the importance of their own culture and government, a including practical education for wilderness survival. Romanticism early to mid 1800s Washington Irving Rip Van Winkle, Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Models his stories after German folktales, counterpositions older Dutch New York rural communities with the dramatic change of the American Revolution. Juxtaposes, as well, Puritan superstition with Dutch New York secularism. James Fenimoore Cooper The Last of the Mohicans also America's early and lauded novelist. Writes the historical novel, the series of Leatherstocking novels, romanticizes (glorifies) the life of an American male raised by Indians, romanticizes the Mohicans, decries the destruction of the wilderness by encroaching American civilization. William Cullen Bryant Thanatopsis, To a Waterfowl Editor and poet Exploration - later 1400s, all 1500s (15th and 16th centuries): Europe encroaches (trespasses) on New World Earliest European incursion: Vikings, ar. 1000; settlements destroyed by Native Americans Spain: West Indies, Southern North America, Middle America, South America. England (John Cabot, John Smith) and France not until 1570s English colonies: Roanoke, VA 1580; Jamestown 1607 Plymouth (Pilgrims) 1620; Massachusetts Bay Colony (Puritans) 1630 Difference between Pilgrims and Puritans: Pilgrims, Separatists; Puritans still part of Church of England, but wanted to purify it. (wages revolution against England in 1640s beheaded Charles I, ruled the country in the "Interregnum" France: Champlain, Canada 1620 Europeans writing of American land female gender it as a woman to be taken Native Americans begin to acquire writing Earliest American Literature: Native American Creation Stories Text: Iroquois Creation Myth note role of the female Sky Woman descends from the heavens (not evil as in Judeo Christian Adam-Eve story); the creatures of the deep present turtle's back for her to land on, foundation of the earth; twin sons, one good, one bad; good creates the human race, bad creates evil, including nature that is threatening. English Colonization 1600s: A. The Witch Trials Began in England centuries before the 1600s. Mostly women accused, based on testimonies of the "afflicted," or on bogus charges if someone wanted her land, disliked her, etc. Those initially charged were mostly lower class women, some men, girls. Later in the seventeenth century, upper class women were being charged. This helps to end the charges b/c ruling men did not want to lose their wives. The coming of the Enlightenment in the following century also ends the craze.
The Enlightenment/Revolution 1700s Based on the writings of British philosopher John Locke, who held that mankind is entitled to "life, liberty, and property" and that (white) mankind has the right to create a fair and just government, Americans launched a revolution against the British monarchy. Most notable about this century (1700s) is the turn to rational thought, to science and philosophy, away from theocentric superstition. It is in this time that the idea of separation of church and state is introduced to avoid the kinds of horrors of the witchcraft craze and of church controlled countries waging religious wars both within their borders and against other countries and their religions. Early Romanticism early to mid 1800s This period is characterized by the onset of the earliest American fiction, which grows out of the satirical sketches, out of the epistolary form (novels created as a series of letters written by various characters). There is a turning to nature and its halcyon (tranquil) effects, a nostalgia for older America, and a resistance to the heroism of the Revolutionary period, with protagonists, such as Irving's antiheroes.