History And Anthology Of American Literature
Part I The Literature of Colonial America
Historical Introduction
The First American Writings & Writers
Puritan Thoughts
Historical Introduction
● 1. The discovery of the American continent by Christopher Columbus in 1492 Christopher Columbus’s discovery of America
2. English and European explorers
The earliest settlers included Dutch, Swedes, Germans, French, Spaniards, Italians, and Portuguese, each group settling in different parts of the continent and they all contributed to the forming of the American civilization, but the colonies that became the first United States were for the most part English sustained by English traditions, ruled by English laws, supported by English commerce, and named after English monarchs and English lands.
3. English and European settlements
The first permanent English settlement in North America was established at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. At last early in the 17th century, the English settlements in Virginia and Massachusetts began the main stream of what we recognize as the American history.
Two Important New England Settlements→(Map) The Plymouth Colony
Flagship Mayflower arrives – 1620 Leader - William Bradford Settlers known as Pilgrims (朝圣者，朝觐者,清教徒前辈移民) and Separatists (主张脱离英国国教者) "The Mayflower Compact" provides for social, religious, and economic freedom, while still maintaining ties to Great Britain. The Massachusetts Bay Colony Flagship Arbella arrives – 1630 Leader - John Winthrop Settlers are mostly Puritans or Congregational (公理会教派的) Puritans "The Arbella Covenant" clearly establishes a religious and theocratic (神权政治的) settlement, free of ties to Great Britain.
4. The first American writings
●The first writings that we call American were the narratives and journals of these
settlements. They wrote in diaries and in journals. They wrote letters and contracts and government charters and religious and political statements. They wrote about their voyage to the new land, about adapting themselves to the unfamiliar climates and crops, about dealing with Indians. All seemed possible to them in the new world through hard work and faith.
1) Captain John Smith
●His reports of exploration, published in the early 1600s, were the first distinctly American
literature to be written in English. Smith’s descriptions of America were filled with themes, myths, images, scenes, characters, and events that were a foundation for the nation’s literature. He portrayed English North America as a land of endless bounty.
His vision helped lure the Pilgrims and the Puritans who saw themselves as new saints with a spiritual mission to flee the Old World and create a New Israel (Jerusalem---Heaven on earth), a New Promised Land, in the America that John Smith had described.
2) The writers of the Southern and Middle Colonies
●The writers of the Southern and Middle Colonies who followed John Smith made their
greatest contribution to American literature in the 18th century, in the Age of Reason and Revolution.
