First Encounters

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First Encounters

• Accounts of Exploration and Exploitation

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The Landing of Columbus at San Salvador October
12, 1492
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Exploration

• Columbus lands on a tiny Caribbean island in 1492
• He called the natives Indians because he
  thought he was in the East Indies
• A native cut his hand on Columbus sword because
  he did not know what it was
• These events, mistaken identity and injury, began
  the history of European conquest over the native
  people of the Americas for the next 500 years

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Motivations for Coming to America

• Desire for fame and adventure
• Expectations to find great riches
• To spread Christianity
• To seek religious freedom (ie. the Puritans)

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Religious Impact

• For both Catholics and Protestants, Christianity
  was the only true religion
• Non-Christians had to be converted by persuasion
  or force
• Those who rejected Christianity were considered
  enemies of God, suitable only for enslavement or
  death

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Slavery

• Africans first brought in large numbers to the
  West Indies to provide labor for sugar
  plantations
• Before long, English colonists were also
  participating in the slave trade
• In 1619, 20 Africans were brought to the colonies
  as indentured servants
• In 1637 the first American built slave ship, The
  Desire set sail for Africa

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Early American Literature

• As peoples from different cultures first
  interacted with one another in America, they
  produced records of their interactions
• Some of these records still exist today and
  provide insight into the past
• These records are called Historical Narratives

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Historical Narratives

• Accounts of real life historical experiences,
  either by a person who experienced those events,
  or by a person who has studied or observed them
• Some historical narratives are key historical
  documents, existing as our principal record of
  events
• Historical narratives take two forms Primary
  Sources and Secondary Sources

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Primary Sources

• Direct, firsthand knowledge of a subject
• Written by someone who actually witnessed the
  events
• Can take the form of documents such as letters,
  diaries, journals, and autobiographies

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Secondary Sources

• Indirect, secondhand knowledge of a subject
• Written by someone who has studied or observed
  the events
• Can take the form of histories and biographies
• Textbooks are a good example of secondary sources

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Why Narrative?

• Historical Narratives are a type of narrative
  nonfiction
• Fiction - novels and stories that describe
  imaginary people and events
• Nonfiction Writing that deals with real people,
  places, and events
• So what is Narrative Nonfiction?

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Narrative Nonfiction

• Narrative nonfiction Writing that brings the
  facts to life by presenting them in a story like
  way, using elements typically found in fiction,
  such as plot, setting and character
• Early American Literature, while nonfiction,
  contains these elements

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Reporting the News

• Many historical narratives were survivors tales,
  gripping adventure stories written down in
  journals and letters by explorers
• Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, a Spanish explorer,
  wrote La Relacion, a report to the King of
  Spain
• Note the details he uses in the following
  passage

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From La Relacionby Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca

• When night fell, only the navigator and I
  remained able to tend the barge. Two hours after
  dark he told me I must take over he believed he
  was going to die that night.

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Life in the Settlements

• Historical narratives also consisted of
  chronicles of the lives of settlers
• In 1630, William Bradford, the second Governor of
  the Plymouth Colony, began writing Of Plymouth
  Plantation
• His vivid, sensory details make the following
  passage about the colonys first winter come to
  life

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from Of Plymouth Plantationby William Bradford

• The weather was very cold and it froze so hard
  as the spray of the sea lighting on their coats,
  they were as if they had been glazed.

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Life of Slavery

• As American Colonies expanded from the 16th
  though the 18th centuries, the slave trade
  expanded as well
• Some slaves who survived their ordeals wrote
  historical narratives of their lives
• These narratives were aptly called slave
  narratives

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Slave Narratives

• The slave narrative is an American literary Genre
  that portrays the daily life of slaves as written
  by the slaves themselves after having gained
  their freedom
• Some 6000 slave narratives are known to exist
• Probably the most influential slave narrative is
  the autobiographical Narrative of the Life of
  Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

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Slave Narratives

• Olaudah Equiano, one of the millions of Africans
  captured and transported to the Americas,
  survived his ordeal and published his
  autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the
  Life of Olaudah Equiano in 1789
• The following passage describes Equianos first
  reactions to going below the decks of a slave
  ship

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from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of
Olaudah Equianoby Olaudah Equiano

• There I received such a salutation in my
  nostrils as I had never experienced in my life,
  so that, with the loathsomeness of the stench,
  and crying together, I became so sick and low
  that I was not able to eat, nor had I the least
  desire to taste anything.

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Here is a nonfiction account of the same type of
experience

• The smell aboard slave ships was extremely bad,
  causing the slaves to experience the horrible
  conditions together, often crying. Some slaves
  were so affected by the smell that they were
  unable to consume food.

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from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of
Olaudah Equianoby Olaudah Equiano

• There I received such a salutation in my
  nostrils as I had never experienced in my life,
  so that, with the loathsomeness of the stench,
  and crying together, I became so sick and low
  that I was not able to eat, nor had I the least
  desire to taste anything.

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Here is a nonfiction account of the same type of
experience

• The smell aboard slave ships was extremely bad,
  causing the slaves to experience the horrible
  conditions together, often crying. Some slaves
  were so affected by the smell that they were
  unable to consume food.

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Vocabulary

• Succumb (verb) to give up or give in yield
• I tried to keep my hopes up, but eventually I
  succumbed to the loneliness.
• I predict that Frank will succumb to the other
  mans superior skills in the boxing match.