Early American and Colonial Period

Early Americanand

Colonial PeriodPrepared by:

Erika PanganibanBSED – Eng1231

begins with the orally

transmitted myths, legends, tales and lyrics of Indian cultures

oral literature is quite diverse

maintained their religion

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

the government ranged from democracies to councils of elders to theocracies

Indian stories glow with reverence for nature as a spiritual as well as physical mother

old world spiritual narratives are often accounts of shamans’ initiations and voyages

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

lyrics

chants

myths

fairy tales

humorous

anecdotes

incantations

riddles

proverbs

epics

legendary

histories

ORAL GENRE

the first

European record of exploration in America is in a Scandinavian language

Literature of Exploration

famous Italian

explorer “Epistola” terror of

women, who feared monsters and thought they might fall off the edge of the world

the near-munity

Christopher Columbus

Columbus faked the ships’ logs so the men would not know how much farther they had travelled than anyone had gone before.

first sighting of land as they neared America

Bartolome de las Casas – richest source of information about the early contact between American Indians and Europeans

transcribed Columbus’s journal

vivid History of the Indians criticizing their enslavement by the Spanish

First Landfall: San Salvador

Second Landfall: Cuba Third Landfall: Hispaniola

Journal of the

First Voyage

an English soldier, explorer, and author

known for his incredible adventures and expeditions

embroidered his adventures

The death of his father brought a drastic change in his life, and he started his life as a traveler and adventurer.

Capt. John Smith

In Jamestown: became involved with the Virginia

Company of London plans to colonize Virginia for profit

charged with munity Jamestown site as a location for

colony

Capt. John Smith

English colonists were killed

and John Smith was taken to Chief Powhatan.

captured by Indian leader Powhatan and almost put to death

saved by Pocahontas

Capt. John Smith

New England: returned to the Americas in a

voyage to the coasts of Maine and Massachusetts Bay

captured by French pirates off the coast of the Azores

escaped after weeks of captivity and made his way back to England

Capt. John Smith

an

English Separatist leader in Leiden, Holland and in Plymouth Colony

a deeply pious, self-educated man who had learned several languages, including Hebrew

William Bradford

a clear and compelling account of the

colony’s beginning First book: focuses mainly on the journey of

the pilgrims from England to North America and discusses the founding of the Plymouth settlement

Second book: not completely finished because of Bradford's death, struggles of the pilgrims in North America in day-to-day living and his concerns about the health and spiritual welfare of the colonists.

Of Plymouth Plantation

first poet and first female writer in the British North American colonies to be published

preferred her long, religious poems on conventional subjects such as the seasons

Contemporary readers most enjoy the witty poems on subjects from daily life and her warm and loving poems to her husband and children.

Anne Bradstreet

If ever two were one, then surely we.If ever man were loved by wife, then thee;

If ever wife was happy in a man,Compare with me, ye women, if you can.

I prize thy love more than whole mines of goldOr all the riches that the East doth hold.

My love is such that rivers cannot quench,Nor ought but love from thee, give recompense.

Thy love is such I can no way repay,The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.

Then while we live, in love let’s so persevereThat when we live no more, we may live ever.

To My Dear and Loving Husband

a colonial American poet, pastor and physician

brilliant poet and minister

the son of a yeoman farmer

a teacher who sailed to New England in 1668 rather than take an oath of loyalty to the Church of England

the best-educated man in the area, and he put his knowledge to use, working as the town minister, doctor, and civic leader

Edward Taylor

Make me, O Lord, thy Spining Wheele compleate.

Thy Holy Worde my Distaff make for mee.Make mine Affections thy Swift Flyers neate

And make my Soule thy holy Spoole to bee. My Conversation make to be thy Reele And reele the yarn thereon spun of thy

Wheele.

Huswifery

Make me thy Loome then, knit therein this Twine: And make thy Holy Spirit, Lord, winde quills:Then weave the Web thyselfe. The yarn is fine. Thine Ordinances make my Fulling Mills. Then dy the same in Heavenly Colours

Choice, All pinkt with Varnisht Flowers of Paradise.

Huswifery

Then cloath therewith mine Understanding, Will, Affections, Judgment, Conscience, MemoryMy Words, and Actions, that their shine may fill

My wayes with glory and thee glorify. Then mine apparell shall display before yee

That I am Cloathd in Holy robes for glory.

Huswifery

a Christian preacher, philosopher, and

theologian

acknowledged to be America's most important and original philosophical theologian

one of America's greatest intellectuals

Jonathan Edwards

Ten considerations:

1. God may cast wicked men into hell at any given moment.

2. The Wicked deserve to be cast into hell. Divine justice does not prevent God from destroying the Wicked at any moment.

3. The Wicked, at this moment, suffer under God's condemnation to Hell.

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

4. The Wicked, on earth - at this very moment - suffer the torments of Hell. The Wicked must not think, simply because they are not physically in Hell, that God (in Whose hand the Wicked now reside) is not - at this very moment - as angry with them as He is with those miserable creatures He is now tormenting in hell, and who - at this very moment - do feel and bear the fierceness of His wrath.

5. At any moment God shall permit him, Satan stands ready to fall upon the Wicked and seize them as his own.


6. If it were not for God's restraints, there are, in the souls of wicked men, hellish principles reigning which, presently, would kindle and flame out into hellfire.

7. Simply because there are not visible means of death before them at any given moment, the Wicked should not feel secure.

8. Simply because it is natural to care for oneself or to think that others may care for them, men should not think themselves safe from God's wrath.


9. All that wicked men may do to save themselves from Hell's pains shall afford them nothing if they continue to reject Christ.

10. God has never promised to save us from Hell, except for those contained in Christ through the covenant of Grace.


Education

Early American and Colonial Period