2. The Colonial and Early National Period (Beginnings 1830) 2.1 - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

• 2. The Colonial and Early National Period

(Beginnings – 1830)

2.1 Early European Exploration and Writing 2.2 The Colonial Period (1620-1776) 2.3 The Early National Period (1750-1830)

2.1. Early European Exploration and Writing

Before the landing of the Mayflower in 1620, there were settlements already in the “New World”. To give you an idea:

Santa Fe (now in NM): 1610

• St. Augustine (now in FL):

1565 Albany (now in NY): 1614 New Amsterdam (later NYC): 1614 Jamestown (now in VA): 1607

And even before that, if we stretch to North America in general, there were Basque (Spain and France) whaling stations in Red Bay, Labrador as far back as 1530.

And even before that, a Norse settlement in Newfoundland (L’Anse aux Meadows) dating from 1000. The purpose of this is to show you that it didn’t all start with the Pilgrims in 1620.

There were others that were in, and wrote about, the “New World”. Some are:

• Christopher Columbus
• Álvar Nuñez Cabeza de

Vaca

• Samuel de Champlain
• Thomas Harriot

Christopher Columbus

• Journal written in 1492
• To discover a new route

to the East

• Letters to Fernando and

Isabel of Spain

• Description of first

contact with the land and with the indigenous people (“Indians”).

Álvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca

• Wrote Naufragios

(Shipwrecks) in 1542

• Spanish conquistador

that was shipwrecked and lost his crew

• Amazing six-year journey

across the south living with natives, eventually ending in today’s Mexico.

• His writings sympathize

with indigenous groups and speak out against the Spanish occupation.

Samuel de Champlain

• Pioneer for the “New

France” (Canada) but recognized in northern New England and upstate New York (Lake Champlain, etc.)

• He wrote Des Sauvages:
• u voyage de Samuel

Champlain… in 1604 (English publication 1625), amongst other writings, about his exploits in the north.

Thomas Harriot

• A British astronomer

and mathematician

• He learned the Carolina

Algonquian language, which was instrumental for communication his expeditions

• He visited the Roanoke

Island settlement (that mysteriously disappeared afterward)

• He wrote A Briefe and

True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia (published in 1588)

2.2 The Colonial Period (1620-1776)

2.2.1 The First Years 2.2.2 The Pilgrims 2.2.3 The Puritans 2.2.4 Preachers

2.2.1 The First Years

Types of writing

• Chronicles of European

explorers

• Captivity narrative
• Spiritual

autobiographies

• Poetry, drama, etc.

(works approaching the novel as a genre).

Historical background

• The Pilgrims and the
• Puritans. These are two

terms that are often

• confused. Here is some

basic information on them.

The Pilgrims

• In the 16th century

Henry VIII of England split from the Roman Catholic Church and created the Church of England

• The Separatists didn’t

believe the king should head the Church and broke off

• They thought anyone

could worship God and read the Bible in their

• wn way

• William Bradford lead

the Pilgrims toward Virginia, but they ended up in Massachusetts Bay and landed in Plymouth in 1620

• Came over on the

Mayflower

• The first winter was

difficult, but the Wampanoag Indians helped them.

• Massasoit, their leader

helped them though the first winter and, aided by Squanto, helped the Pilgrims survive. This is thought to be the origin

• f Thanksgiving.

The Puritans

• They didn’t want to

separate entirely from the Church of England; they wanted reforms

• John Winthrop led some

1,000 people to the New World and set the Massachusetts Bay Colony (the start of the Great Migration).

The Puritans

• They followed a strict

adherence to the “laws

• f God” and based their

colonial government on them.

• Influenced by the

iconoclastic Swiss theologian, John Calvin.

John Smith (1580-1631)

• English explorer
• Leader of the Virginia

Colony 1608-1609, the first permanent English settlement in North America

• Travelled north and

named New England

• Promoted migration to

the New World

• Wrote a number of books,
• f which his most famous

is The General History of Virginia, New England and the Summer Isles (1624)

• He is probably most well

known for his own story about how he was taken captive by Powhatan, chief of the Chesapeake Bay Indians, and then freed by the chief’s daughter, Pocahontas.

• This story has been

retold many times, perhaps most famously by the two Disney movies in her name

• Some scholars

question the veracity of some or all of the actual events as Smith describes them.

2.2.2 The Pilgrims

William Bradford (1590-1657)

• He led the Pilgrims to

Plymouth

• First governor of the

Plymouth colony

• Helped establish the

Mayflower Compact, their protectionist treatise that established the protection of individuals rights.

• He wrote Of Plimoth

Plantation (pub. in 1856)

Of Plimoth Plantation:

• Other immediately

posterior writers drew from the original manuscript for their

• wn work, including

Cotton Mather (we will see about him in a future slide)

• Written in plain style,

his style is purposefully accessible in common language to a large readership.

• It tells of the Pilgrims

arrival, their hardships and survival, giving constant thanks to God.

2.2.3 The Puritans

John Winthrop

• He led the Puritans to

the New World

• His most famous

sermon is “A Modell of Christian Charity”, which helped set the religious ideas of the new colony.

• It is based on the belief

that certain people were selected to “lead”

• thers, and that each

person has her/his place in society.

• The concept of

Christian “charity” and community are important

• He was aware the world

would be watching their “model” of a City upon a hill

Anne Bradstreet (~1612-1672)

• Poetry of spiritual

reflection

• Themes of religious

nature and portraits of colonial life

• The Tenth Muse is her
• nly volume of poetry

(1650, published in England)

• The first published

book of poetry of the English colonies

• Poems about gender

issues, poems to her children and husband, poems about God and existence.

Her first poem "Upon a Fit of Sickness, Anno. 1632,” is about life, death and salvation: O Bubble blast, how long can'st last? That always art a breaking, No sooner blown, but dead and gone, Ev'n as a word that's speaking. O whil'st I live, this grace me give, I doing good may be, Then death's arrest I shall count best, because it's thy decree.

Michael Wigglesworth (1631–1705)

• He wrote The Day of

Doom (1660), a long, best-selling Puritan poem about the Last Judgment

• It goes into detail on the

different categories of people that will be judged

• It’s the longest poem of

the Colonial Period, with 224 stanzas

• Close to 2,000 were

sold in the first year, and the poem stuck around dining rooms and parlors for the next 100 years or so.

The Day of Doom (excerpt) XXXII Adulterers and Whore mongers were there, with all unchast. There Covetous, and Ravenous, that Riches got too fast: Who us'd vile ways themselves to raise t'Estates and worldly wealth, Oppression by, or Knavery, by Force, or Fraud, or Stealth.

Mary Rowlandson (~1636-1711)

• Most known for her

captivity narrative (a common genre of the times) about her time under duress by the Wampanoag Indians

• During King Philip’s

War (began 1675), Metacomet (Massasoit’s son) pillaged, and killed

• r captured thousands
• f colonists.

• She was taken prisoner

in 1626 for 11 weeks.

• She was taken from her

home after one of her children was killed, she enslaved for a time, and was eventually released.

A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mary Rowlandson was published in 1682 (Boston).

• It was the most popular

“American” text of the 17th century.

• The narrative is split

into “removes” or episodes.

• The language

represents a dichotomy between her bitter criticism of the Native Americans and her appreciation and reverence to God

• There are moments of

recognition of kind deeds performed by some of her captors toward her, but these do not dominate the overall negative judgments of them.

This genre, the captivity novel, was popular for some 300 years around the

• time. It most always follows

the same format: a devout Christian is taken captive by the “barbarous” natives, and, by God’s divine mercy and intervention, is eventually returned to her proper place in the community.

Edward Taylor (1642-1729)

• A Puritan poet who

studied at Harvard then spent more than 50 years as a preacher in Westfield, Massachusetts.

• A poet of different styles

whose work was discovered and published in 1939.

• Most known for his

Preparatory Meditations, verses written before his giving of communion during his religious services.

Here is a stanza from his “Meditation 1”: Oh! that thy Love might overflow my Heart! To fire the same with Love: for Love I would. But oh! my streight'ned Breast! my Lifeless Sparke! My Fireless Flame! What Chilly Love, and Cold? In measure small! In Manner Chilly! See. Lord blow the Coal: Thy Love Enflame in mee

2.2.4 Preachers

Cotton Mather (1663-1728)

• He wrote some 400 works,

but his most famous is the Magnalia Christi Americana, a super-long, seven-volume nostalgic work of the history of New England in a Christian context, how God helped people become civilized in the New World (yes, people are already feeling nostalgic about 1620).

• He speaks of Bradford

and Winthrop (remember the founders?)

• He represents the old
• rder of Puritan

preachers, like his father.

Cotton Mather (1663-1728) Some of his ideas in his writing were ahead of this time:

• He promoted inoculation against smallpox (he

entertained the thought of becoming a doctor before he was a preacher), which was in stark contrast with his spiritual ideas (he believed in witchcraft and was indirectly involved in the Salem Witch Trials).

• He promoted the

“carrot” over the “stick” in school discipline.

• He promoted the mental

as well as the physical state of health.

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)

• A Puritan preacher of

great repute and fire

• He was influenced by

the Enlightenment

• Worked in Northampton,

Massachusetts as a preacher, replacing his grandfather.

• He was part of the Great

Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s, which strived to resuscitate American spiritual values

• He published many of his
• sermons. His most

famous is “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” in 1741

Jonathan Edwards “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (1741)

• Poetic language and

imagery

• Sense of urgency

• Tone of the sermon and

the message it entails, that God has a negative view on mankind

• Contrast to some of his
• ther optimistic

sermons that about salvation

If you cry to God to pity you, he will be so far from pitying you in your doleful Case, or shewing you the least Regard

• r Favour, that instead of that he’ll only tread you under

Foot: And tho’ he will know that you can’t bear the Weight

• f Omnipotence treading upon you, yet he won’t regard

that, but he will crush you under his Feet without Mercy; he’ll crush out your Blood, and make it fly, and it shall be sprinkled on his Garments, so as to stain all his Raiment. He will not only hate you, but he will have you in the utmost Contempt; no Place shall be thought fit for you, but under his Feet, to be trodden down as the Mire of the Streets.

On genres We have seen various genres of the New World:

• Explorers chronicles
• Poetry
• The captivity novel
• The sermon

• Another genre closely related to religion is the

spiritual autobiography, which are written by individuals to show how they have attained grace through God and worked their way up the spiritual ladder from a state of sin. An example of this is Jonathan Edward’s Personal Narrative.

2.3 The Early National Period (1750-1820)

2.3.1 The Early National Period Part 1 2.3.2 The Early National Period Part 2 2.3.3 The Early National Period Part 3

2.3.1 The Early National Period Part 1

Much of the work of this phase in history was influenced by the Age of Enlightenment.

The Enlightenment was a major movement in Western culture in which the power of reason and

• bjective thought

influenced political, religious and institutional beliefs.

General thought moved away from a strict adherence to the Bible and Puritan thought.

With the Enlightenment, the former, Puritan views

• n God, life and human

interaction were put aside to open discourse to a new way of seeing the

• world. General thought

moved away from a strict adherence to the Bible, and many influential thinkers considered themselves Deists.

Although some might dispute this claim, some prominent Deists of the time were Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, to name a few.

Deists believed that God created the world but has since been detached from it, which has let humans create their own path in

• life. This is different from

the Puritan belief in which individuals are directly chosen or punished by God.

The Enlightenment influenced this change of thought because Deists rejected supernaturalism and relied on reason, evidence and natural phenomena to explain the existence of God and themselves.

2.3.2 The Early National Period Part 2

Cadwallader Colden (1688-1776)

• Lieutenant governor of

the state of New York, physician, scientist

• He wrote on botany and

science

• Had a long-time

epistolary relationship with Benjamin Franklin

• Wrote The History of the

Five Indian Nations (1727), when he was appointed as first colonial representative

• f the Iroquois. It is an

important work because it criticizes the English treatment of them.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

• Printer, publisher,

scientist, inventor, diplomat, author, etc.

• Influenced by the

Enlightenment, his style

• f memoir was a radical

change from previous

• memoirs. His perspective
• f the self is more worldly

and non-deterministic, and happiness can be found here and now in the autonomy of human rationale and reason.

Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography

• In regard to his

contribution to letters, his autobiography is one

• f the most popular ones

in America.

• Written in 1771, 1783 and

1788.

• There are various parts to

the text: the first part talks about his youth as a publisher in America and the “errors” of youth. In another part he strives for “moral perfection” by trying one virtue after another (silence, frugality, chastity, humility and moderation are just a few of them). It only covers until 1757 because he passed before he finished it.

“The Way to Wealth”

• This is an essay written

in 1758. It’s a collection

• f work that was

published in Poor Richard’s Almanac over the course of many

• years. Many popular

sayings today come from it:

• “There are no gains,

without pains”

• “One today is worth

two tomorrows”

• “Early to be, early to

rise, makes a man, healthy, wealthy and wise”

Elizabeth Ashbridge (1713-1755)

• A Quaker woman with

an independent spirit that broke from her Anglican roots because she wanted more respect of women.

• She was an indentured

servant to America.

• She became a Quaker

minister in 1738.

• She returned to Europe
• n a trip and died quite

young.

Her spiritual autobiography entitled Some Account of the Fore Part of the Life of Elizabeth Ashbridge, follows the typical format

• f this genre: sins in youth,

an awakening, cycles of faith, and final conversion and “salvation”, like she says at the beginning:

“My life having been attended with many uncommon occurrences, I have thought proper to make some remarks on the dealings of divine goodness with me.”

John Woolman (1720-1772)

• His The Journal of John

Woolman is his legacy

• It has a liking to spiritual

autobiographies but is different in many ways: because he was a Quaker, he rejected slavery, he lived under testimonies of peace and of simplicity, and, most notably, refused to use products produced from slave labor.

Samson Occom (1723-1792)

• Wrote A Short Narrative
• f My Life in 1768 (but it

was not discovered until 1982)

• A Mohegan Native

American, he converted to Christianity and was a minister amongst various

• tribes. He explains, “…but

I can assure them I have endeavoured to teach them as well as I know how;—but I must Say, I believe it is because I am a poor Indian. I Can’t help that God has made me So; I did not make my self so,”

• J. Hector St. John de

Crèvecoeur (1735-1813)

• He wrote Letters From

an American Farmer (1782)

• The letters describe the

botany of America and the conditions in which the settlers lived.

• He also denounces

slavery

• He wrote about the

Revolutionary War and how he felt things were beyond his control, and how he wanted to run away to live with the Native Americans until the war passed.

Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

• One of the Founding

Fathers

• He emigrated to America

when he was into his thirties.

• He was very involved in

the revolutionary cause. He published a short text entitled Common Sense, which sold some 100,000 copies in 1776.

• It was most likely the

first work to directly ask for independence from Great Britain.

• It was written in plain

language so it was easily accessible to all.

• As he wrote in a section

entitled “Of Monarchy and Hereditary Succession”: “Monarchy is ranked in scripture as one of the sins of the Jews, for which a curse in reserve is denounced against

• them. The history of that

transaction is worth attending to.”

• He also wrote:
• Rights of Man (~1791),

which showed his support for the French Revolution (he was jailed in France for a spell)

• The Age of Reason

(~1794), which promoted deism and criticized

• rganized religion and

the Church as an institution.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

• He wrote the Declaration
• f Independence, but

Congress edited parts of it.

• He was the third

president of the US

• He founded the

University of Virginia

• His personal library was

the foundation of the Library of Congress

2.3.3 The Early National Period Part 3

Olaudah Equiano (~1745-1797)

• He wrote the

autobiography The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African (1789)

• His universal narrative is

the story of many Africans brought to America

• In America he was able

to buy his freedom. After this he became the spokesperson of nearly the million slaves in America

• He became a Christian

and used liturgical language to solicit interest in his cause

From the introduction: “Permit me, with the greatest deference and respect, to lay at your feet the following genuine Narrative; the chief design of which is to excite in your august assemblies a sense of compassion for the miseries which the Slave-Trade has entailed on my unfortunate

• countrymen. By the horrors of that trade was I first torn

away from all the tender connexions that were naturally dear to my heart;

“but these, through the mysterious ways of Providence, I ought to regard as infinitely more than compensated by the introduction I have thence

• btained to the knowledge of the Christian religion, and
• f a nation which, by its liberal sentiments, its

humanity, the glorious freedom of its government, and its proficiency in arts and sciences, has exalted the dignity of human nature.”

John Trumball (1750-1831)

• He passed the entrance

exams to get into Yale when he was seven, but didn’t go until he was a teenager

• An American poet,

known for his satire

• “Epithalamium” (1769) is

a name that comes from a poem designed for the bride on her way to consummating her

• marriage. Written with

witty scholarship

• Progress of Dulness

(1772–73), criticizes educational techniques.

“Epithalamium” (excerpt): Sing then, my muse, in lofty crambo, How Hymen came with lighted flambeau, To kindle fire of love between 'em And make their livers burn within 'em. Juno, it seems, by sad mishap, O'er night with Jove was pulling cap,— For by what way she's wont to govern (So Homer tells) the hen-peckt sov'reign, But now stole off, and left him fretting, And rode post-haste to come to wedding:

Progress of Dulness (excerpt): So to the priest in form he goes, Prepar'd to study and to doze. The parson in his youth before, Had run the same dull progress o'er; His sole concern to see with care His church, and farm in good repair. His skill in tongues, that once he knew, Had bid him long, a last adieu; Away his latin rules had fled,

John Trumball

• His major work was the comic epic M’Fingal

(1776–82). this rash but deliberate epigrammatic form was a popular style of poem in America for its political poignancy during the Revolution. It was condemned abroad, but this poem was solicited widely in the United States for its focus on independence and self-governance.

M’Fingal (excerpt): When Yankies, skill'd in martial rule, First put the British troops to school; Instructed them in warlike trade, And new manoeuvres of parade, The true war-dance of Yankee reels, And manual exercise of heels; Made them give up, like saints complete, The arm of flesh, and trust the feet,

James Madison (1751-1836)

• He was the 4th president of the US
• One of the Founding Fathers (in case you were

curious, the historian Richard Morris – in 1973 – claimed that the “Founding Fathers” were, in alphabetical order, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and George Washington).

• Is considered the

“Father of the Constitution” because

• f his work on the

Constitution and the Bill

• f Rights

• Along with Alexander

Hamilton and John Jay, he wrote the Federalist Papers, which were written in support of the Constitution.

Philip Freneau (1752-1832)

• Sometimes called the

“Poet of the American Revolution”

• The subject matter of

his poetry rolls between awareness of the Revolutionary War and the countryside.

• “The Beauties of Santa

Cruz” and “The House of Night” are two of his more famous poems.

• After being Captured by

the British, Freneau wrote biting verse, as seen in “The British Prison-Ship (1781).

“The House of Night” (excerpt): 135 Too nearly join’d to sickness, toils, and pains, (Perhaps for former crimes imprison’d here) True to itself the immortal soul remains, And seeks new mansions in the starry sphere. 136 When Nature bids thee from the world retire, With joy thy lodging leave a fated guest; In Paradise, the land of thy desire, Existing always, always to be blest.

Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784)

• She was the first African

American writer to publish a book in the United States, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773)

• People didn’t think she

was the actual author of her work, but she defended herself in court successfully.

• She wrote about religion

and politics, and criticized slavery:

“On Being Brought from Africa to America” 'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land, Taught my benighted soul to understand That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too: Once I redemption neither sought nor knew. Some view our sable race with scornful eye, "Their colour is a diabolic die." Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain, May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.

Alexander Hamilton (1755?-1804)

• One of the Founding

Fathers

• Along with James

Madison and John Jay, he wrote the Federalist Papers to support the Constitution.

• A political rival of

Thomas Jefferson

• He was anti-slavery and

promoted religious freedom

• He dies in a duel with

Jefferson's vice president, Aaron Burr