Early American Writing

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Early American Writing

• Early writers focused on describing and trying to
  make sense out of their challenging and new
  environment
• Millions of people lived in the Americas before
  the arrival of the Europeans
• First relationships between Native Americans and
  Europeans was cooperative, until the Europeans
  began to force them off their land

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From a colony to a country

• First colony Jamestown (1607)
• Loyal to England but not represented
• Broke from England and declared free and
  independent in 1776

• Founding fathers, Franklin, Jefferson, Hancock,
  etc. wrote Declaration of Independence
• Adopted in 1788 United States was born

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Cultural influences

• Puritan beliefs and values directed peoples
  lives
• Struggle with sin a daily mission
• Felt humans were sinful some elect would be
  spared from hell

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Ideas of the age

• Burst of intellectual energy Enlightenment
• Questioned who should hold power
• Give me liberty or give me death!
• Emphasized reason

• The Great Awakening fear that Puritan values
  were being lost
• Called for people to rededicate themselves
• Unified colonists and set new standards
• Emphasized emotion

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Early American Literature

• Native American Experience
• 300 cultures, over 200 languages
• One common activity storytelling
• Much oral tradition was lost to European diseases

• Explorers and Early Settlers
• Journals, diaries, letters and logs of first
  settlers (Christopher Columbus)
• Settlers wrote home and described the landscape

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The Puritan Tradition

• Believed writing was a tool to help understand
  the Bible
• Logic, clarity and order are emphasized in their
  style
• Sermons warn the dangers of sinful ways

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Puritan poets

• Anne Bradstreet
• Edward Taylor
• Poetry is a means of exploring the relationship
  between the individual and God

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Writers of the revolution

• Focused energies on matters of government rather
  than religion
• Publication of pamphlets 1763-1783
• Fueled the revolution
• Reached thousands quickly

• Thomas Paine
• Wrote Common Sense
• Argued that American had a special destiny to be
  a model to the rest of the world
• Welcome people from around the world to its free
  society

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Writing that launched a nation

• Declaration of Independence
• Argued that natural law would govern (people are
  born with rights and freedoms)
• Government protects those freedoms

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Other significant writers

• Phillis Wheatley wrote poems and letters about
  the rights of African-Americans
• Abigail Adams urged her husband, 2nd President,
  to include womens rights in the founding
  documents