Chapter 1: The Colonial

Beginnings
Begins in the early 1600s
The earliest writers were Englishmen describing the English
exploration and colonization of the New World. Also, the Pilgrims and
the Puritans.
Their works were used as travel guides but the writers often mixed facts
with fantasy, so these reports had a second kind of readers (like
modern readers of science fiction)
The first colony was founded in Virginia (New England)
JOHN SMITH: He was a captain and a real adventurer who found
Jamestown, the first English colony in America. His contribution to
American literature was the General Historie of Virginia, New England
and the Summer Isles. His famous tale was about Pocahontas, an
Indian princess, who rescued him from being killed by his father.
In the Southern colonies, they had black slaves who worked in the
plantations of tobacco. They worked slowly to develop a literature of
their own because they preferred to read books imported from England.
In New England colonies, culture and literature developed much
faster. Harvard was the first college founded in the colonies, in order to
train Puritan ministers. The first printing press and the first newspaper
in America were founded in Boston.

New England Puritan literature: to the Puritans, history developed according

to Gods plan. In all of their early New England histories, they saw New
England as the Promise Land of the Bible. The central drama of history was
struggled between Christ and Satan.

Theocracy: is the application of the biblical laws to society.

MATHER FAMILY

The Mather family in New England is a clear representation of how the

`Puritan tradition grew weaker and weaker. At the beginning, their writings
talked about the Laws of God as a superior matter. The style they used
moved from plain to a more complicated language (including Latin words).
Also, Increase Mather was important because he was a leader of the New
England Theocracy.

ANNE BRADSTREET

Anne Bradstreets work is a testament to plight of the women of the

age.
She became one of the first poets to write English verse in the
American colonies.
 Her poems showed the continuous struggle between body and soul.
They were written mainly during the long periods of loneliness while her
husband was away on political errands.
She was a well educated woman who spent much time with her
children, reading and teaching them.
Her style is deceptively simple.