14. Early American Literature: Basic characteristic of colonial writing. Puritanism.
Colonial literature
Some of the American literature were pamphlets and writings extolling the benefits of the colonies to both a European and colonist audience. Captain John Smith could be considered the first American author with his works: A True Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Noate as Hath Happened in Virginia... (1608) and The Generall Historie of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles (1624). Other writers of this manner included Daniel Denton, Thomas Ashe, William Penn, George Percy, William Strachey, Daniel Coxe, Gabriel Thomas, and John Lawson.
The religious disputes that prompted settlement in America were also topics of early writing. A journal written by John Winthrop, The History of New England, discussed the religious foundations of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Edward Winslow also recorded a diary of the first years after the Mayflower's arrival. Other religiously influenced writers included Increase Mather and William Bradford, author of the journal published as a History of Plymouth Plantation, 1620-47. Others like Roger Williams and Nathaniel Ward more fiercely argued state and church separation. And still others, like Thomas Morton, cared little for the church; Morton's The New English Canaan mocked the religious settlers and declared that the Native Americans were actually better people than the British.[3]
Puritan poetry was highly religious in nature, and one of the earliest books of poetry published was the Bay Psalm Book, a set of translations of the biblical Psalms; however, the translators' intention was not to create great literature but to created hymns that could be used in worship.[3] Among lyric poets, the most important figures are Anne Bradstreet, who wrote personal poems about her family and homelife; pastor Edward Taylor, whose best poems, the Preparatory Meditations, were written to help him prepare for leading worship; and Michael Wigglesworth, whose best-selling poem, The Day of Doom, describes the time of judgment. Nicholas Noyes was also known for his doggerel verse.
Other late writings described conflicts and interaction with the Indians, as seen in writings by Daniel Gookin, Alexander Whitaker, John Mason, Benjamin Church, and Mary Rowlandson. John Eliot translated the Bible into the Algonquin language.
Of the second generation of New England settlers, Cotton Mather stands out as a theologian and historian, who wrote the history of the colonies with a view to God's activity in their midst and to connecting the Puritan leaders with the great heroes of the Christian faith. His best-known works include the Magnalia Christi Americana, the Wonders of the Invisible World and The Biblia Americana.
Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield represented the Great Awakening, a religious revival in the early 18th century that asserted strict Calvinism. Other Puritan and religious writers include Thomas Hooker, Thomas Shepard, John Wise, and Samuel Willard. Less strict and serious writers included Samuel Sewall (who wrote a diary revealing the daily life of the late 17th century), and Sarah Kemble Knight.
New England was not the only area in the colonies; southern literature is represented by the diary of William Byrd of Virginia, as well as by The History of the Dividing Line, which detailed the expedition to survey the swamp between Virginia and North Carolina but which also comments on the different lifestyles of the Native Americans and the white settlers in the area.[3] In a similar book, Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West, William Bartram described in great detail the Southern landscape and the Native American peoples whom he encountered; Bartram's book was very popular in Europe, being translated into German, French and Dutch.[3]
As the colonies moved towards their break with England, perhaps one of the most important discussions of American culture and identity came from the French immigrant J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur, whose Letters from an American Farmer addresses the question what is an American by moving between praise for the opportunities and peace offered in the new society and recognition that the solid life of the farmer must rest uneasily between the oppressive aspects of the urban life (with its luxuries built on slavery) and the lawless aspects of the frontier, where the lack of social structures leads to the loss of civilized living.[3]
This same period saw the birth of African American literature, through the poetry of Phillis Wheatley and, shortly after the Revolution, the slave narrative of Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. This era also saw the birth of Native American literature, through the two published works of Samson Occom: A Sermon Preached at the Execution of Moses Paul and a popular hymnbook, Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs, "the first Indian best-seller".[4]
The revolutionary period also contained political writings, including those by colonists Samuel Adams, Josiah Quincy, John Dickinson, and Joseph Galloway, a loyalist to the crown. Two key figures were Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine. Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac and The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin are esteemed works with their wit and influence toward the formation of a budding American identity. Paine's pamphlet Common Sense and The American Crisis writings are seen as playing a key role in influencing the political tone of the period.
During the revolution itself, poems and songs such as "Yankee Doodle" and "Nathan Hale" were popular. Major satirists included John Trumbull and Francis Hopkinson. Philip Morin Freneau also wrote poems about the war's course.
During the 18th century, writing shifted focus from the Puritanical ideals of Winthrop and Bradford to the power of the human mind and rational thought. The belief that human and natural occurrences were messages from God no longer fit with the new human centered world. Many intellectuals believed that the human mind could comprehend the universe through the laws of physics as described by Isaac Newton. The enormous scientific, economic, social, and philosophical, changes of the 18th century, called the Enlightenment, impacted the authority of clergyman and scripture, making way for democratic principles. The increase in population helped account for the greater diversity of opinion in religious and political life as seen in the literature of this time. In 1670, the population of the colonies numbered approximately 111,000. Thirty years later it was more than 250,000. By 1760, it reached 1,600,000.[2] The growth of communities and therefore social life led people to become more interested in the progress of individuals and their shared experience on the colonies. These new ideals are accounted for in the widespread popularity of Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography.
I. Basic Puritan Beliefs
1. Total Depravity - through Adam's fall, every human is born sinful - concept of Original Sin.
2. Unconditional Election - God "saves" those he wishes - only a few are selected for salvation - concept of predestination.
3. Limited Atonement - Jesus died for the chosen only, not for everyone.
4. Irresistible Grace - God's grace is freely given, it cannot be earned or denied. Grace is defined as the saving and transfiguring power of God.
5. Perseverance of the "saints" - those elected by God have full power to interpret the will of God, and to live uprightly. If anyone rejects grace after feeling its power in his life, he will be going against the will of God - something impossible in Puritanism.
II. The Function of Puritan Writers
1. To transform a mysterious God - mysterious because he is separate from the world.
2. To make him more relevant to the universe.
3. To glorify God.
III. The Style of Puritan Writing
1. Protestant - against ornateness; reverence for the Bible.
2. Purposiveness - there was a purpose to Puritan writing - described in Part II above.
3. Puritan writing reflected the character and scope of the reading public, which was literate and well-grounded in religion.
IV. Reasons for Puritan Literary Dominance over the Virginians
1. Puritans were basically middle class and fairly well-educated.
2. Virginians were tradesmen and separated from English writing.
3. Puritans were children of the covenant; gave them a drive and a purpose to write.
V. Common Themes in Early Puritan Writing
1. Idealism - both religious and political.
2. Pragmaticism - practicality and purposiveness
VI. Important Puritan Personalities
William Bradford (1590-1657)One of the leaders of colonial America, Bradford arrived at Cape Cod on November 11, 1620, on the flagship Mayflower. He was one of the authors of The Mayflower Compact. His greatest contribution to early writing is his History of Plymouth Plantation, 1620-1647.
John Winthrop (1588-1649)One of the founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Winthrop arrived in 1630 aboard the flagship Arbella. As governor of the Colony, he established the center of government at Boston. Winthrop began writing his Journal in 1630 and continued it till his death. On board the Arbella, he prepared his famous sermon "A Model of Christian Charity."
Anne Bradstreet(1612?-1672)Famous as the first American poet, Bradstreet's first work, published in London in 1650, was called The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America. Her complete works are available in The Works of Anne Bradstreet in Prose and Verse, edited by J. H. Ellis, 1932.
Michael Wigglesworth (1631-1705) A minister, Wigglesworth is today remembered for two works -The Day of Doom (1662) and God's Controversy with New England (written in 1662 but published more than two hundred years later). The first book is known as the first American bestseller. It contains an expression of the basic Puritan beliefs described earlier.
Edward Taylor (1645?-1729) Known as the best writer of the Puritan times, Taylor's works were not published until 1939. A minister for sixty years, Taylor's poetry captures the attitudes of the second generation Puritans in its emphasis on self-examination, particularly in an individual's relations to God. A good edition's of Taylor's poetry is The Poems of Edward Taylor edited by Donald E. Stanford, 1960.
Anne Marbury Hutchinson (1591-1643)Anne soon organized weekly meetings of Boston women to discuss recent sermons and to give expression to her own theological views. Before long her sessions attracted ministers and magistrates as well. She stressed the individual's intuition as a means of reaching God and salvation, rather than the observance of institutionalized beliefs and the precepts of ministers. Her opponents accused her of antinomianism--the view that God's grace has freed the Christian from the need to observe established moral precepts.
VII. Forces Undermining Puritanism
1. A person's natural desire to do good - this works against predestination.
2. Dislike of a "closed" life.
3. Resentment of the power of the few over many.
4. Change in economic conditions - growth of fishery, farms, etc.
5. Presence of the leaders of dissent - Anne Hutchinson, Roger Williams.
6. The presence of the frontier - concept of self-reliance, individualism, and optimism.
7. Change in political conditions - Massachusetts became a Crown colony.
8. Theocracy suffered from a lack of flexibility.
9. Growth of rationality - use of the mind to know God - less dependence on the Bible.
10. Cosmopolitanism of the new immigrants.
VIII. Visible Signs of Puritan Decay
1. Visible decay of godliness.
2. Manifestations of pride - especially among the new rich.
3. Presence of "heretics" - Quakers and Anabaptists.
4. Violations of the Sabbath and swearing and sleeping during sermons.
5. Decay in family government.
6. People full of contention - rise in lawsuits and lawyers.
7. Sins of sex and alcohol on the increase.
8. Decay in business morality - lying, laborers underpaid, etc.
9. No disposition to reform.
10. Lacking in social behavior.
(Ideas in Sections VII & VIII are discussed in detail in Perry Miller's Errand Into the Wilderness 1956.)
IX. Some Aspects of the Puritan Legacy: each has positive and negative implications.
a. The need for moral justification for private, public, and governmental acts.
b. The Questing for Freedom - personal, political, economic, and social.
c. The Puritan work ethic.
d. Elegiac verse - morbid fascination with death.
e. The city upon the hill - concept of manifest destiny.