1620-1820 American Lit: Colonial & Early National Period *HISTORY*

Quote from Mary Rowlandson's Narrative

"Yet I see, when God calls a person to anything, and through never so many difficulties, yet He is fully able to carry them through and make them see, and say they have been gainers thereby."

Based on the doctrines of John Calvin's "The Institutes of the Christian Religion" and the "Bay Psalm Book" (1640) ...

...Puritans adhered to 5 basic tenets of religious life; original sin, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance of the saints, and predestination. Basically, humans are "corrupt and prone to evil," but only a few can receive salvation. Those who are members of the elect cannot deny their salvation because God, through predestination, has already chosen those who will reach heaven.

The Puritains world view was extremely intellectual, and in 1636, the Puritains...

...established Harvard University.

During the early Colonial years...

...many explorers and colonists chose to write about their experiences, both as a form of advertisement for prospective pilgrims and as a form of journalistic therapy to ward off the intense boredom and vicissitudes of life in the New World. Much of the writing of the time centers on issues of security in the wilderness. -Quick Study

John Smith's journals and propoganda...

...present fascinating and overblown accounts of Indian skirmishes, all the time focusing of the innate strength and strategic cunning of the early explorers. -Quick Study

John Hector St. John (1735- 1813)

A French-American writer Wrote "Letters from an American Farmer" which was highly successful in both England and France. Born Michel Guillaume Jean de Crèvecœur in Caen, Normandy, France, to the Count & Countess of Crèvecœur. He was naturalized in New York as ___.

John Woolman (1720-1772)

A North American merchant, tailor, journalist, and itinerant Quaker preacher, and an early abolitionist in the colonial era. He published numerous essays, especially against slavery. He kept a journal throughout his life; it was published posthumously, entitled The Journal of ___. (1774).

Edward Taylor (1642-1729)

A colonial American poet, pastor and physician. Born in England, but following restoration of the monarchy and the Act of Uniformity under Charles II, he lost his teaching position and emigrated in 1668 to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in America. Writings include: "Upon a Spider Catching a Fly"," The Ebb and Flow", "Huswifery","Upon Wedlock and Death of Children", and "Preparatory Meditations", "The Joy of Church Fellowship Rightly Attended", "Meditation Eight", "The Preface to God's Determination"

The Great Awakening

A period of religious revival in American religious history characterized by widespread revivals led by evangelical Protestant ministers, a sharp increase of interest in religion, a profound sense of conviction and redemption on the part of those affected, an increase in evangelical church membership. The First Great Awakening began in the 1730s and lasted to about 1743, though pockets of revivalism had occurred in years prior, especially amongst the ministry of Solomon Stoddard, Jonathan Edwards's grandfather.Edwards's congregation was involved in a revival later called the "Frontier Revivals" in the mid-1730s, though this was on the wane by 1737. The great British Evangelist George Whitefield arrived in Georgia in 1738, and returned in 1739 for a second visit. In 1740, he visited New England, and "at every place he visited, the consequences were large and tumultuous."

Olaudah Equiano (c. 1745-1797)

A prominent African in London, a freed slave who supported the British movement to end the slave trade. His autobiography, published in 1789 and attracting wide attention, was considered highly influential in gaining passage of the Slave Trade Act 1807, which ended the African trade for Britain and its colonies. His biography was written before Douglass's.

Salem Witch Trials

A series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. Resulted in the executions of twenty people, most of them women.

Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas or the Border War (1854 - 1861)

A series of violent political confrontations in the United States involving anti-slavery Free-Staters and pro-slavery "Border Ruffian" elements, that took place in the Kansas Territory and the neighboring towns of the state of Missouri between 1854 and 1861. It was a proxy war between anti-slavery forces in the North and pro-slavery forces from the South over the issue of slavery in the United States

John Brown (1800-1859)

A white American abolitionist who believed armed insurrection was the only way to overthrow the institution of slavery in the United States. In 1859, He led an unsuccessful raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry that ended with his capture. His trial resulted in his conviction and a sentence of death by hanging. Historians agree that the Harpers Ferry raid in 1859 escalated tensions that, a year later, led to secession and the American Civil War.

Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810)

American novelist, historian, and editor of the Early National period. Generally regarded by scholars as the most important American novelist before James Fenimore Cooper. He is the most frequently studied and republished practitioner of the US novel between 1789 and roughly 1820. Although not the first American novelist, the breadth and complexity of his achievement as a writer in multiple genres (novels, short stories, essays and periodical writings of every sort, poetry, historiography, reviews) makes him a crucial figure in US literature and culture of the 1790s and first decade of the 19th century, and a significant public intellectual in the wider Atlantic print culture and public sphere of the era of the French Revolution. His novels (Wieland, Ormond, Edgar Huntly, and Arthur Mervyn) have received the lion's share of commentary and attention. Other novels "Stephen Calvert", "Clara Howard" and "Jane Talbot". Essays "Walstein's School of History" (1799) and "The Difference Between History and Romance" (1800)

Philip Freneau (1752-1832)

American poet, nationalist (also known as Federalist), polemicist, sea captain and newspaper editor sometimes called the "Poet of the American Revolution". "The Wild Honey Suckle" (1786), "The Indian Burying Ground" (1787), "To Sir Toby" (1784), "The House of Night" (1779)

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

An American Founding Father, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and the third President of the United States (1801-1809). He was an ardent proponent of democracy and embraced the principles of republicanism and the rights of the individual with worldwide influence. He also wrote "Notes on the State of Virginia" (1784-5)and "The Autobiography of ___"(1820). He is considered one of the great statesmen, inventors, and thinkers in American culture.

Roger Williams (1603-1683)

An English Protestant theologian who was an early proponent of religious freedom and the separation of church and state. In 1636, he began the colony of Providence Plantation, which provided a refuge for religious minorities. Williams started the first Baptist church in America, the First Baptist Church of Providence. He was a student of Native American languages and an advocate for fair dealings with Native Americans. Williams was arguably the first abolitionist in North America, having organized the first attempt to prohibit slavery in any of the original thirteen colonies.

The Enlightenment

An era from the 1650s to the 1780s also known as the Age of Reason in which cultural and intellectual forces emphasized reason, analysis, and individualism rather than traditional lines of authority. It challenged the authority of institutions that were deeply rooted in society.

Mary Rowlandson (c 1635-c 1678)

Captured by the Wampanoag Indians during King Philip's War, her account of captivity was published in 1682 and became the most popular American text in the 17th century. "The Sovereignty and Goodness of God, Together with the Faithfulness of His Promises Displayed; Being a Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. __.

Great Migration

Caused by years of conflict between Puritans and Church of England, the exodus of Puritains in 1630 led by John Winthrop

John Smith (1580-1631)

Cheeky explorer who became popular for his own narrative of his capture by Powhatan and rescue by Pocahontas. Wrote The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles (1624) which contained heroic accounts of non-Puritans and native Americans.

Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672)

Considered the first poet in the new colonies. Her collection of poems, "The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America" (1650 under authority of her brother in law, Pastor John Woodbridge), reveals her love for her husband, devotion to her family, and observations of colonial life. Passenger on the Arbella.

Thomas Morton (c. 1579-1647)

Early American colonist from Devon, famed for founding the colony of Merrymount, writing the humorous three-volume "New English Canaan" (1637) and his work studying Native American culture. A lawyer, writer and social reformer.

Thomas Paine (1753-1809)

Edited the Pennsylvania Magazine (1775), The American Crisis series (1776-83), 13 Pamphlets that helped stir sentiment for the revolution, Common Sense (1776), The Rights of Man (1791-2), The Age of Reason (1794,1796)

From Anne Bradstreet's most anthologized poem, "To My Dear and Loving Husband".

If ever two were one, then surly we. If ever man were loved by wife, then thee; If ever wife was happy in in a man, Compare with me, ye women, if you can.

Crevecoeur

John Hector St. John

Citty upon a hill

John Winthrop's most famous and widely quoted passage. From "A Modell of Christian Charity". He believed that the world would be watching, and ultimately judging, this American experiment.

Samuel Sewall (1652-1730)

Judge, businessman, and printer. Best known for his involvement in the Salem Witch Trials. Wrote the essay "The Selling of Joseph" (1700) which criticized slavery. He served for many years as the chief justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court of Judicature, the province's high court.

Cotton Mather (1663-1728)

Known for his history of Christianity in New England, "Magnalia Christi Americana" (The Great American Works of Christ)(1702), The Wonders of the Invisible World (1692), and for his heavy involvement in the Salem Witch Trials.

William Bradford (1590-1657)

Leader of the Pilgrims, a group who breached from Roman Catholicism to form independent churches. Wrote "Of Plymouth Plantation", a definitive work detailing the Pilgrims' adventures.

"The House of Night" (1779) Philip Freneau (1752-1832)

Made its mark as one of the first romantic poems written and published in America.

Captivity narrative

Mary Rowlandson's Narrative was the first of many accounts of this genre. Mostly associated with 16th to 19th centuries. Best sellers of their time. Followed a tight archetype: a devoutly religious person, usually a woman, is forced to stay fast to her religious faith in the face of great temptation and pagan indecency. The captive relies on God's power alone to deliver her from her torment and place her back into the fold. REA

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

One of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A renowned person of wide-ranging knowledge and learning. A leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. Took twenty years to write his autobiography. Created the humorous character Silence Dogood, who escapades were published in his brother's magazine when he was still a teenager. Strove to reach "Moral Perfection."

William Apess (1798-1839)

Ordained Methodist minister, writer, and activist of mixed Pequot descent, a leader in Massachusetts. His autobiography was among the first published by a Native American writer.

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)

Protestant preacher, philosopher, and theologian. Widely acknowledged to be America's most important and original philosophical theologian and one of America's greatest ntellectuals. He was rooted in Reformed theology, the metaphysics of theological determinism, and the Puritan heritage. The Enlightenment was central to his mindset. He played a critical role in shaping the First Great Awakening. (Wikipedia) The classic "fire and brimstone" preacher, his most famous sermon was "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" (1741). He also wrote, "The End For Which God Created the World, The Life of David Brainerd", which served to inspire thousands of missionaries throughout the 19th century, and "Religious Affections." He was the grandfather of Aaron Burr

Susanna Rowson née Haswell (1762-1824)

Published "Charlotte Temple" (1791) which became the first American best-selling novel. British-American novelist, poet, playwright, religious writer, stage actress, and educator. "Charlotte Temple" was the most popular best-seller in American literature until Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin was published in 1852.

John Winthrop (1587-1649)

Puritan pastor, famous for his sermon, "A Modell of Christian Prosperity" (City on a Hill), delivered to passengers on the flagship Arbella in 1630.

Puritans

Sect of Christian reformers who struggled to "purify" the Church of Englad of any resemblance to Roman Catholicism. Not separatists. Not liked by English royalty.

Pilgrims

Separatist Christian reformers who left England with William Bradford.

William Byrd II (1674-1744)

The History of the Dividing Line betwixt Virginia and North Carolina, Run in the Year of Our Lord 1728 (1841) Secret Diary (1941), provides vignettes of his life. He was one of the few colonialists who advocated marriage with Indians.

Washington Irving (1783-1859)

The first American international superstar. An American author, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820), both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.. His historical works include biographies of George Washington, Oliver Goldsmith and Muhammad, and several histories of 15th-century Spain dealing with subjects such as Christopher Columbus, the Moors and the Alhambra. He served as the U.S. ambassador to Spain from 1842 to 1846.

Rip Van Winkle

The first American story. Part of "The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon" by Washington Irving

Samson Occum (1723-1792)

The first Native American to publish his writings in English, and also helped found several settlements. A member of Mohegan nation, from near New London, Connecticut, who became a Presbyterian cleric. Together with the missionary John Eliot, he became one of the foremost missionaries who cross-fertilized Native American communities with Christianized European culture.

Phillis Wheatley (c 1753-1784)

The first published African-American woman and first published African-American poet. Born in West Africa, she was sold into slavery at the age of seven and transported to North America. She was purchased by the Wheatley family of Boston, who taught her to read and write, and encouraged her poetry when they saw her talent. The publication of her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773) (before she was 20) brought her fame both in England and the American colonies; figures such as George Washington praised her work.

1620-1820

The scope of the Colonial and Early National Period.

From Anne Bradstreet's poem, "The Author to Her Book". Written after her brother in law, Pastor John Woodbridge took her poems to England and had them published in 1650 under the title "The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America".

Tho ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain, Who after birth didst by my side remain, Till snatched from thence by friends, less wise than true, Who thee abroad exposed to public view,

William Hill Brown (1765-1793)

Wrote the first American novel, "The Power of Sympathy" (1789), also the author's first novel. He also wrote "Harriot, Or The Domestick Reconciliation" as well as the serial essay "The Reformer" published in Isaiah Thomas' Massachusetts Magazine.