Unit 1: A Gathering of Voices
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Transcript Unit 1: A Gathering of Voices
Literature of Early America
Beginnings to 1800
“I come again to greet and thank the League;
I come again to greet and thank the kindered;
I come again to great and thank the warriors;
I come again to greet and thank the women.
My forefathers – what they established –
My forefathers – hearken to them!”
-Iroquois Hymn
The First Americans
As a best guess, the first Americans, Indians, arrived
12,000-70,000 years ago.
The Native Americans had oral literature – myths,
legends, and songs.
European colonists reached America in the late 1500s.
Early settlers (St. Augustine, Florida, 1565 and
Jamestown, Virginia, 1607) relied heavily on lessons
learned from Native Americans for survival.
Puritans, Pilgrims
The Mayflower reaches Plymouth, Massachusetts in
1620.
Puritans, now called Pilgrims, wanted to escape the
Church of England by building their own “city upon a
hill.”
Puritans took pride in hard work, self-discipline, and
predetermination - Created theocratic societies.
Puritanism slowly declined before the Great Awakening
in 1720.
Planters
A division sets in between the northern settlements and
the southern settlements.
The southern colonists are called planters because of
their climate, crops, social organization, and religion.
The Age of Reason
The Enlightenment – time period of new scientific
development by philosophers in Europe
The ideas of the enlightenment leads to the American
Revolution.
“Social Contract” forms basis of government.
Push away from religion
The Birth of a Nation
Taxes imposed by Britain cause Americans to consider
succesion.
1775 – the First Continental Congress sends “the shot
heard ‘round the world.”
6 years of war followed leading to Britain surrendering
at Yorktown in 1781.
Constitution and Bill of Rights unites the states.
What is the relationship between literature and place?
What makes American literature American?
How does literature shape or reflect society?
What was the New World’s natural environment?
Place of wonder
Nature of the Americas was vastly different from anything
Europeans have experienced.
It was not Europe.
At one with the place
Native Americans thought people belonged to the land – land
and water gave life.
Nature was not to be feared or overcome, but honored as the
source of life.
What were the colonists’ attitudes toward the New
World environment?
Land belonged to people
Dream vs. Reality
Dream = Theocracy
Reality = Avoid harsh death
Independent Place and People
“We live in an independent place, so why aren’t we an
independent people?”
Place taught Americans how to be Americans
How did attitudes toward nature show up in literature?
“Errand into the Wilderness”
Religious p.o.v. – combat evil in an “uncivilized” place.
Forest = wild
Place and Nation
“In Europe they were as many useless plants… they withered
and were mowed down by want, hunger, and war; but now by
the power of transplantation, like all other plants they have
taken root and flourished.” – Jean de Crevecoeur
What is a theme, and how does it find expression in
literature?
Theme – the central idea, message, or insight that a
literary work reveals.
What were early American themes?
Wilderness
Community
Individualism
What is uniquely American about those themes?
The Place
New World = Garden of Eden/Enemy
The Past
America did not have a history of literature like Europe did.
The Vision
New, new, new
New kind of nation
What social and political forces affected early
American literature?
Puritanism
Self examination and spiritual insight
The Enlightenment
Debate and clear thinking
The Declaration of Independence = rational argument for
independence.
Native Americans/African Americans
What were the major roles of early American writers?
Writer as Oral Poet and Historian
Writer as Preacher and Lawmaker
Writer as Autobiographer
“Why should you be interested in my life? What did I learn
from it? What can you learn from it?”
1492 – Columbus lands in the Bahamas
1499 – 20,000 die in London Plague
1508 – Michelangelo begins painting ceiling of Sistine Chapel
1519 – Chocolate introduced to Europe
1565 – First permanent U.S. settlement founded; St. Augustine
1588 – The Spanish Armada is defeated by England
1595 - Shakespeare completes A Midsummer Night’s Dream
1609 – Galileo builds first telescope
1620 – Pilgrims land at Plymouth
1642 – Civil War begins in England
1692 – Salem With Trials
1755 – Dictionary of the English Language
1773 – Boston Tea Party
1776 – Declaration of Independence
1789 – George Washington elected first President of the United States
Part 1: Meeting of Cultures
The Earth on Turtle’s Back, When Grizzlies Walked Upright,
and The Navajo Origin Legend
Of Plymouth Plantation
(The Iroquois Constitution)
Part 2: The Puritan Influence
To My Dear and Loving Husband
Huswifery
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
Part 3: A Nation is Born
The Declaration of Independence and The American Crisis
The Autobiography and Poor Richard’s Almanack
(Speech in the Virginia Convention)
(To His Excellency, General Washington)