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AMERICAN LITERATURE Beginnings (pg. 2 – 135)

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Title: AMERICAN LITERATURE Beginnings (pg. 2 – 135)


1
AMERICAN LITERATUREBeginnings (pg. 2 135)
  • Exploration, Colonization, Revolution, Expansion
  • 1400 - 1800

2
Beginnings
  • America is a land of immigrants
  • Millions came to America against their will as
    slaves
  • Many of us may be descendants of recent
    immigrants
  • Why do people immigrate?

3
Beginnings
  • Bering Land Bridge brought inhabitants 20-40
    thousand years ago
  • Over the years there was a southward migration

4
Beginnings
  • Numerous Native American cultures existed before
    European exploration
  • Native Americans had well developed,
    sophisticated cultures
  • Native Americans were exploited by Europeans

5
Beginnings
  • Early explorers were often groping in the dark
  • Their journals and accounts often emphasized the
    positive in order to receive support and funding

6
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7
Beginnings
  • The Jamestown settlement was established in 1607
  • Captain John Smith, soldier of fortune, was an
    early leader
  • Jamestown met with many hardships

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12
Beginnings
  • The American character has been shaped by the
    moral, ethical, and religious convictions of the
    Puritans

13
Beginnings
  • The most famous group landed at Plymouth in 1620
  • For Puritans, the everyday world and the
    spiritual world were closely connected

14
Beginnings
  • Puritans had their roots in Europe
  • They wanted to purify the Church of England
  • They wanted simple, direct forms of worship

15
Beginnings
16
Beginnings
  • They were single-minded
  • They were convinced of their rightness and their
    beliefs
  • They believed in a strict and literal
    interpretation of the Bible

Bradford
Edwards
17
Beginnings
  • There was both certainty and doubt in being a
    Puritan
  • Puritans were certain the most humanity was
    damned because of the sins of Adam and Eve
  • Puritans were also certain that Jesus had been
    sent to save particular people
  • There was much doubt about who these particular
    people were

18
Beginnings
  • A Puritan could not know for certain if he or
    she was one of the elect one of the particular
    people chosen by God to be saved
  • Indications that a Puritan might be one of the
    elect came from outward behavior, and a feeling
    of being saved, or born again

19
Beginnings
  • To avoid sin, Puritans tried to lead industrious
    lives
  • They worked long and hard
  • They prayed to fill most of their spare time
  • They avoided any and all activities that could
    lead them to sin, and in turn, to hell

20
Beginnings
  • The Puritans favored plain style in their
    writing elaborate style was considered sinful
  • Puritans believed strongly in education, so that
    one could read and understand Gods word
  • Puritans believed in a spiritual compact between
    the individual and God

21
Beginnings
  • As colonial life allowed more leisure and
    temptations, Puritanism became more and more
    hypocritical
  • Puritans had to pretend to live sin-free, pure
    lives
  • By the early 1700s, Puritanism had decayed

22
Beginnings
  • Eventually, Puritans began to accuse their
    fellow Puritans of being sinful
  • Suspicions, guilt, and mass hysteria brought
    forth the Salem Witch Trials

23
Beginnings
  • In all, almost 150 people in Salem and the
    surrounding area were accused of witchcraft by
    their neighbors

24
Beginnings
  • Nineteen innocent people were hanged
  • One townsman was crushed to death

25
Beginnings
  • The European Age of Reason stimulated thought in
    the American colonies
  • Rationalism was the philosophy that was
    popularized by the Age of Reason
  • Rationalists believed that a humans pursuit of
    truth through reason was more important than
    arriving at truth through faith

26
Beginnings
  • Rationalism was a direct contradiction of
    Puritanism
  • Rationalists saw God as a clockmaker, rather
    than as a supreme being was guided and controlled
    human life

Newton
27
Beginnings
  • The political theories of democracy grew from
    the rationalistic movement
  • The independent, innovative, self-reliant
    American grew from the rationalistic movement
  • Deism was an outlook about God that grew from
    the rationalistic movement

28
Beginnings
  • Thomas Jefferson and other colonial politicians
    subscribed to rationalism and deism

Jefferson
29
Beginnings
  • The Declaration of Independence bases its
    arguments and assumptions on rationalist thought
    and led the colonists to a war that logic would
    have told them not to fight

30
Beginnings
31
Beginnings
  • Contrary to Puritanism, Deists believed that
    humans were inherently good
  • They believed in the perfectibility of every
    human
  • They believed that the best form of worship of
    God was in good deeds to other humans

32
Beginnings - Summary
  • Native Americans populated North America long
    before European explorers
  • European explorers discovered largely through
    wandering
  • Jamestown (1607) settled for profit
  • Plymouth (1620) settled for religious freedom

33
Beginnings - Summary
  • Harsh life bred innovative, self-reliant,
    independent people
  • The southern colonies became dependent on
    agriculture and soil-depleting crops
  • The northern colonies became dependent on
    industry

34
Beginnings - Summary
  • Rationalism and deism were two ways of thinking
    well suited for the American colonists
  • These two movements would eventually lead into
    the American Revolution and democracy
  • Americans became known for their independence
    and self-reliance
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