第一单元
文明的交会
The Story of the Times
Beginnings to 1750
More than a century after European explorers first landed in North America,there were still no permanent settlements in the Western Hemisphere north of St.Augustine,Florida.By 1607,however,a small group of English settlers was struggling to survive on a marshy island in the James River in the present state of Virginia.In 1611,Thomas Dale,governor of the colony,wrote a report to the king expressing the colonists' determination to succeed.Despite disease and starvation,Jamestown did survive.
The first settlers were entranced by the native inhabitants they met.They did not at first realize that these earlier Americans,like Europeans,had cultural values and literary traditions of their own.Their literature was entirely oral,for the tribes of North America had not yet developed writing systems.This extensive oral literature,along with the first written works of the colonists,forms the beginning of the American literary heritage.
Historical Background
When Christopher Columbus reached North America in 1492,the continent was already populated,though sparsely,by several hundred Native American tribes. Europeans did not encounter these tribes all at one time.Explorers from different nations came into contact with them at different times.As we now know,these widely dispersed tribes of Native Americans differed greatly from one to another in language,government,social organization,customs,housing,and methods of survival.
The Native Americans
No one knows for certain when or how the first Americans arrived in what is now the United States.It may have been as recently as 12,000 years ago or as long ago as 70,000 years.Even if the shorter estimate is correct,Native Americans have been on the continent thirty times longer than the Europeans.Colonists from Europe did not begin arriving on the east coast of North America until the late 1500's.
What were the earliest Americans doing for those many centuries? To a great extent,the answer is shrouded in mystery.No written story of the Native Americans exists.Archaeologists have deduced a great deal from artifacts,however,and folklorists have recorded a rich variety of songs,legends,and myths.
What we do know is that the Native Americans usually,but by no means always,greeted the earliest European settlers as friends.They instructed the newcomers in their agriculture and woodcraft,introduced them to maize,beans,squash,maple sugar,snowshoes,toboggans,and birch bark canoes.Indeed,many more of the European settlers would have succumbed to the bitter northeastern winters had it not been for the help of these first Americans.
Pilgrims and Puritans
A small group of Europeans sailed from England on the Mayflower in 1620. The passengers were religious reformers—Puritans who were critical of the Church of England.Having given up hope of "purifying" the Church from within,they chose instead to withdraw from the Church.This action earned them the name Separatists. We know them as the Pilgrims.They landed in North America and established a settlement at what is now Plymouth,Massachusetts.With help from friendly tribes of Native Americans,the Plymouth settlement managed to survive the rigors of North America.The colony never grew very large,however.Eventually,it was engulfed by the Massachusetts Bay Colony,the much larger settlement to the north.
Like the Plymouth Colony,the Massachusetts Bay Colony was also founded by religious reformers.These reformers,however,did not withdraw from the Church of England.Unlike the Separatists,they were Puritans who intended instead to reform the Church from within.In America,the Puritans hoped to establish what John Winthrop,governor of the Colony,called a "city upon a hill," a model community guided in all aspects by the Bible.Their form of government would be a theocracy,a state under the immediate guidance of God.
Among the Puritans' central beliefs were the ideas that human beings exist for the glory of God and that the Bible is the sole expression of God's will.They also believed in predestination—John Calvin's doctrine that God has already decided who will achieve salvation and who will not.The elect,or saints,who are to be saved cannot take election for granted,however.Because of that,all devout Puritans searched their souls with great rigor and frequency for signs of grace.The Puritans felt that they could accomplish good only through continual hard work and self-discipline.When people today speak of the "Puritan ethic",that is what they mean.
Puritanism was in decline throughout New England by the early 1700's,as more liberal Protestant congregations attracted followers.A reaction against this new freedom,however,set in around 1720.The Great Awakening,a series of religious revivals led by such eloquent ministers as the famous Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield,swept through the colonies.The Great Awakening attracted thousands of converts to many Protestant groups,but it did little to revive old—fashioned Puritanism.Nevertheless,Puritan ideals of hard work,frugality,self-improvement,and self-reliance are still regarded as basic American virtues.
The Southern Planters
The Southern Colonies differed from New England in climate,crops,social organization,and religion.Prosperous coastal cities grew up in the South,just as in the North,but beyond the southern cities lay large plantations,not small farms.Despite its romantic image,the plantation was in fact a large-scale agricultural enterprise and a center of commerce.Up to a thousand people,many of them enslaved,might live and work on a single plantation.
The first black slaves were brought to Virginia in 1619,a year before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth.The plantation system and the institution of slavery were closely connected from the very beginning,although slavery existed in every colony,including Massachusetts.
Most of the plantation owners were Church of England members who regarded themselves as aristocrats.The first generation of owners,the men who established the great plantations,were ambitious,energetic,self-disciplined,and resourceful,just as the Puritans were.The way of life on most plantations,however,was more sociable and elegant than that of any Puritan.By 1750,Puritanism was in decline everywhere,and the plantation system in the South was just reaching its peak.
Literature of the Period
It was an oddly assorted group that established the foundations of American literature:the Native Americans with their oral traditions,the Puritans with their preoccupation with sin and salvation,and the southern planters with their busy social lives.Indeed,much of the literature that the colonists read was not produced in the colonies—it came from England.Yet,by 1750,there were the clear beginnings of a native literature that would one day be honored throughout the English-speaking world.
Native American Tradition
For a long time,Native American literature was viewed mainly as folklore.The consequence was that song lyrics,hero tales,migration legends,and accounts of the creation were studied more for their content than for their literary qualities.In an oral tradition,the telling of the tale may change with each speaker,and the words are almost sure to change over time.Thus,no fixed versions of such literary works exist.Still,in cases where the words of Native American lyrics or narratives have been captured in writing,the language is often poetic and moving.As might be expected in an oral setting,oratory was much prized among Native Americans.The names of certain orators,such as Logan and Red Jacket,were widely known.
The samples of Native American literature in this unit reveal the depth and power of those original American voices.
"In Adam's Fall/We Sinned All"
Just as religion dominated the lives of the Puritans,it also dominated their writings—most of which would not be considered literary works by modern standards. Typically,the Puritans wrote theological studies,hymns,histories,biographies,an d autobiographies.The purpose of such writing was to provide spiritual insight and instruction.When Puritans wrote for themselves in journals or diaries,their aim was the serious kind of self-examination they practiced in other aspects of their lives.The Puritans produced neither fiction nor drama because they regarded both as sinful.
The Puritans did write poetry,however,as a vehicle of spiritual enlightenment. Although they were less concerned with a poem's literary form than with its message,some writers were naturally more gifted than others.A few excellent Puritan poets emerged in the 1600's,among them Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor.Anne Bradstreet's moving,personal voice and Edward Taylor's devotional intensity shine through the conventional Puritanism of their themes.
The Puritans had a strong belief in education for both men and women.In 1636,they founded Harvard College to ensure a well educated ministry.Two years later,they set up the first printing press in the colonies.In 1647,free public schools were established in Massachusetts.The New England Primer,first published around 1690,combined instruction in spelling and reading with moralistic teachings,such as"In Adam's fall/We sinned all."
One of the first books printed in the colonies was the Bay Psalm Book,the standard hymnal of the time.Increase Mather,one of the book's three authors,served for many years as pastor of the North Church in Boston.He was also the author of some 130 books.Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits,published in 1693,was a discourse on the Salem witchcraft trials of the previous year.The trials,conducted in an atmosphere of hysteria,resulted in the hanging of twenty people as witches.
Increase's eldest son,Cotton Mather,far exceeded his father's literary output, publishing at least 400 works in his lifetime.Cotton Mather,like his father,is remembered in part because of his connection with the Salem witchcraft trials.Although he did not actually take part in the trials,his works on witchcraft had helped to stir up some of the hysteria.Still,Cotton Mather was one of the most learned men of his time,a power in the state and a notable author.His theory of writing was simple(although his writing was not):The more information a work contains,the better its style.
In fact,the Puritans in general had a theory of literary style.They believed in a plain style of writing—one in which clear statement is the highest goal.An ornate or clever style would be a sign of vanity and,as such,would not be in accordance with God's will.Despite the restrictions built into their life and literature,the Puritans succeeded in producing a small body of excellent writing.
Southern Voices
Considering the number of brilliantly literate statesmen who would later emerge in the South,especially in Virginia,it seems surprising that only a few notable southern writers appeared prior to 1750.As in Puritan New England,those who were educated produced a substantial amount of writing,but it was mostly of a practical nature.For example,John Smith,the leader of the settlement at Jamestown,Virginia,wrote The General History of Virginia to describe his experiences for Europeans.In addition to accounts like Smith's,letters written by southern planters also provide insight into this time period.Unlike the Puritans,southerners did not oppose fiction or drama,and the first theater in America opened in Williamsburg,Virginia,in 1716.
The Planter From Westover
The important literature of the pre-Revolutionary South can be summed up in one name—William Byrd.Byrd lived at Westover,a magnificent plantation on the James River bequeathed to him by his wealthy father.Commissioned in 1728 to survey the boundary line between Virginia and North Carolina,Byrd kept a journal of his experiences.That journal served as the basis for his book,The History of the Dividing Line,which was circulated in manuscript form among Byrd's friends in England.Published nearly a century after Byrd's death,the book was immediately recognized as a minor humorous masterpiece.More of Byrd's papers were published later,establishing his reputation as the finest writer in the pre-Revolutionary South.
The writers whose work appears in this unit are not the great names in American literature.They are the founders,the men and women who laid the groundwork for the towering achievements that followed.The modest awakening of American literature seen in this unit had repercussions that echoed down the years.