AMERICAN LITERATURE Beginnings

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AMERICAN LITERATUREBeginnings

• Exploration, Colonization, Revolution, Expansion
• 1400 - 1800

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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?

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Beginnings

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

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Beginnings

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

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Beginnings

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

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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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Beginnings

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

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Beginnings

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

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Beginnings

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

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Beginnings
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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
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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Beginnings

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

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Beginnings

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

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Beginnings

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

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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

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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
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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

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Beginnings

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

Jefferson
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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

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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

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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

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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

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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