Outline #1

Outline

I.               Historical Context

A.     The Meeting of Two Worlds

1.     Early writings focused on describing their environment and the people around them

2.     Early writers chronicled how Native Americans and Europeans interacted

3.     Native Americans had established their communities already

B.     From Colony to Country

1.     First permanent colony was established at Jamestown in 1607

2.     Colonists practiced self-government

3.     Colonists saw themselves as English subjects

4.     They had no representation in Parliament

5.     They exported raw goods and imported manufactured ones

6.     Britain fought for colonists in French and Indian War

7.     England made alliances with the Iroquois

8.     Colonies declared themselves free and independent in 1776

9.     Fought one of worlds greatest military powers to maintain freedom

10. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson both helped write the Declaration and the Constitution

11. Constitution was approved in 1788

II.             Cultural Influences

A.     Puritan Beliefs

1.     Majority of settlers were Puritans

2.     Puritans wanted to “purify” the Church of England

3.     Also wanted to return to simpler ways of worship

4.     Their beliefs were unwelcome in England

5.     Many came to America

6.     Saw human sin as a daily mission

7.     Believed that the Bible would help them through anything

8.     Believed humans were essentially sinful

9.     Thought select few would be spared by God

10. Hard work, thrift, and responsibility were seen as good and a sign that God was at work

11. Puritan settlements thrived

12. Puritans were inflexible in their religious faith

13. Involved in Salem Witch Trials

III.           Ideas of the Age

A.     The Enlightenment

1.     In the 1700s the Enlightenment took place

2.     Enlightenment thinkers began to question who should hold the power in the government

3.     They thought up a government by the people

4.     American colonies adopted these thoughts

5.     These ideals encouraged action and gave colonists a better idea for revolution

6.     “I know not what course others may take. But as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” Patrick Henry at the second Virginia Convention in 1775

B.     The Great Awakening

1.     Many people worried about losing Puritan values

2.     Jonathan Edwards wanted people to reedicate themselves the original Puritan vision

3.     New wave of religious enthusiasm began to rise called First Great Awakening

4.     This united diverse colonists

5.     People joined in belief that there was a higher power helping set Americans standard of life

6.     Enlightenment and Great Awakening emphasized reason and emotionalism

7.     Both had similar consequences- people questioning traditional authority

8.     This eventually led to colonists becoming America

IV.            Early American Literature

A.     The Native American Experience

1.     When explorers arrived in America more than 300 different Native American cultures existed

2.     They all had strongly differing customs and there were around 200 different languages

3.     One activity was featured prominently in Native Americans cultures-storytelling

4.     Native Americans did not have a written language

5.     Their history, legends, and memories were only in memory

6.     Passed from generation to generation through oral tradition

7.     One type-creation stories- were in every culture

8.     Much of this literature did not survive the attack of European diseases on the Native Americans

9.     90% of Native Americans died

B.     Exploration and the Early Settlers

1.     Native American literature lets us somewhat see the ways and values of the indigenous people

2.     Most information comes from first-person accounts, journals, diaries, letters, logs, and historical narratives

3.     The first were Christopher Columbus’ journals and letters form his voyages

4.     50 years later La Relation by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca appeared

5.     He was one of the four survivors of the 600-man Narvaez expedition

6.     It chronicled his eight years of wandering through Florida, Texas, and Mexico

7.     It told of people, land, and animals he encountered

8.     The French and Dutch also sent explorers

9.     Samuel de Champlain of France wrote vivid accounts of New England and the Iroquois

10.  Early English settlers used letters, reports, and chronicles to describe their new lives

11. A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia by Thomas Harriot captured the natural resources, the ways of life of the Native Americans, and the potential for a successful colony

12. It was published in 1588 accompanied by illustrations that helped many many people understand American life much better

13. Writing began to focus less on description and more on the story of colonial growth

14. Captain John Smith wrote sometimes unrealistic accounts of colonial life and Virginia and New England histories

15.  Captain Smiths accounts brought many more people to Virginia-ensuring that colonies success

16. William Bradford-longtime governor of Plymouth- and John Winthrop Sr.-governor of Massachusetts- reflected on their role in God’s plan for a better society

17. Olaudah Equiano described how he had been captured from his African home and the brutal treatment he received in the West Indies

C.     The Puritan Tradition

1.     Puritan writers wrote to encourage and help people to understand the Bible and to help them through their daily lives

2.     Puritans used more logic, clarity, and order in their writing instead of fancy adornments

3.     The Puritans writing has helped shape our direct, powerful, plain language of America

4.     Cotton Mather and Jonathan Edwards wrote histories of the colonies and fiery sermons on dangers of being a sinner

5.     Cotton Mather chronicled the Salem witch trials and the 20 executions

6.     Mather also wrote about smallpox inoculation

7.     Jonathan Edwards wrote about flying (ballooning) spiders

8.     His account of these spiders is considered the first natural history essay on that subject

9.     He also uses spiders in his work “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”

10. Most Puritan sermons had contrasts between good and evil, vivid imagery, powerful language, and strong moral lessons

11. First book issued to North American colonies was the Bay Psalm Book released in 1640

12. Poetry was viewed mainly as another way to connect with God

13. Poetry also provide insight into how women were treated in these societies

14. The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America was the first North American woman to be published in 1650

D.    Writers of the Revolution

1.     Many gifted minds wrote about politics

2.     About 2,000 pamphlets were published because they were inexpensive

3.     Pamphlets greatly helped fuel the revolution

4.     Thomas Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense propelled colonists to revolution

5.     Paine agreed with Puritan belief that America had a special destiny to be a model to the rest of the world

6.     Thomas Jefferson’s greatest contribution was the Declaration of Independence

7.     Natural law- the idea that people are born with rights and freedoms and the government is supposed to protect those freedoms

8.     11 years after the Declaration came about there was another meeting in Philadelphia that produced the Constitution

9.     The delegates included Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and George Washington

10. Former slave Phillis Wheatley claimed that African-Americans had natural rights too

11. Abigail Adams thought that women should be allowed to have rights as well as men