Beginnings to 1750: Native American and Puritan influence on America

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Beginnings to 1750 Native American and Puritan
influence on America
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The Native Americans

• No one really knows when or how they arrived
  here, and we arent sure what they were doing
  before we got here.
• Greeted European settlers as friends and helped
  instruct them in the ways of the land however,
  friendly relationship declined near end of 17th
  century.

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Native American Literature

• No fixed versions of literary works because they
  were all oral.
• Nearly all works exhibit a deep respect for
  nature celebrate wonders of natural world and
  its connection to spiritual world.
• Song lyrics, hero tales, migration legends, and
  accounts of the creation.

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Important Dates slide 1

• 1517 Protestant Reformation
• Monk Martin Luther is dissatisfied with the
  corruption in the Catholic Church
• Nails his 95 theses (complaints) to the door of
  the Wittenberg Church
• Schism
• 1529 1536 Church of England separates from the
  Catholic Church because they dont want to be
  under the jurisdiction of the pope (remember
  Henry VIII)

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Important Dates Slide 2

• 1558 Queen Mary I (Bloody Mary)
• Queen of England
• Catholic kills all the Protestants
• Killed
• 1558 Queen Elizabeth I
• Protestant
• 1608 Pilgrims (sect of Puritans) go to Amsterdam
• Leave England because not wanted
• Amsterdam haven for religious rejects

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Important Dates Slide 3

• 1617 Pilgrims go back to England
• Kicked out of Amsterdam (even the Dutch didnt
  want them)
• 1620 Pilgrims arrive in Americas
• The Mayflower, Plymouth Rock
• Pilgrims desire their own religious land want
  to recreate Gods land on earth
• Pilgrims want to separate from Church of England
  and form their own church

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The Puritans

• Critical of the Church of England wanted to
  reform church from within purify the church (vs.
  Pilgrims who wanted to leave the church)
• Intended to create a model community guided in
  all aspects by the Bible
• Worked under a theocracy a state under immediate
  guidance from God

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Puritan beliefs

• Humans exist for the glory of God
• Bible is sole expression of Gods will
• Predestination God has already determined who
  will achieve salvation and who will not
• The Puritan Ethic - Good is obtained only
  through hard work and self-discipline
• Also valued frugality, self-improvement, and
  self-reliance
• Began decline by 1750

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Puritan Literature

• Dominated by religion theological studies,
  hymns, histories, biographies, autobiographies
• Purpose was to provide spiritual insight and
  instruction
• Regarded fiction and drama as sinful
• Used poetry as a vehicle of spiritual
  enlightenment
• Believed in a plain style of writing that had a
  clear message
• Heavy hitters Anne Bradstreet, Edward Taylor,
  Increase Mather, Cotton Mather

Cotton Mather
Anne Bradstreet
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Puritan Plain Style

• Reflected style of their lives spare, simple,
  straightforward
• Characterized by short words, direct statements,
  and references to ordinary, everyday objects
• Only expressed useful or religious ideas
• Did not appeal to senses or emotions

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Other Early Literature

• Explorers Accounts Narrative accounts of voyage
  and discovery
• Slave Narratives Autobiographical accounts of
  slavery and the Middle Passage
• Southern Unlike Puritans, did not oppose fiction
  or drama