William Bradford

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North America.

Historical background from its beginnings to 1825

1492 – Christopher Columbus discovered America.

1584 – Colony established in Virginia by Sir Walter Raleigh.

1620 – The Pilgrim Fathers sailed from England and set up a colony in Massachusetts.

1664 – New Amsterdam becomes New York

1692 – Witch hunt in Salem, Massachusetts (20 people were hanged)

1775-1783 – The War of Independence

1776 – The Declaration of Independence. September 3, 1783, England declares the war has ended; the American colonies become the United States of America.

1789-1796 – George Washington becomes the first president of the United States of America.

1797- 1801 – President John Adams.

1801-1809 – President Thomas Jefferson.

1809-1807 – President James Madison.

1817-1825 – President James Monroe.

Beginnings of national literature in America

American literature is usually said to begin either in 1585 (the first descriptions of exploration and settlement in what is now North Carolina) or in 1607 (the first writings about the first permanent English colony in America, Jamestown, Virginia).

The main subjects:

ü Religion

ü Exploration of the country.

The main types:

ü Prose

ü poetry

The main forms:

ü Sermon

ü Diary

ü Autobiography

ü Spiritual journal

ü Histories (the Indian captivity, the slave narrative).

The main writers:

William Bradford – the governor of New Plymouth, “History of the Plymouth Plantation”;

ü Describes the Puritan’s voyage to America and the challenges that the settlers faced,

ü Realistic description of the early settlement.

John Winthrop, a priest.

ü Is known for Puritan sermons remarkable for their richness of imagery, force of argument and psychological depth: “… we must consider that we shall be as a City upon a Hill” (first examines what it means to be American).

Cotton Mather, a priest.

ü wrote more than 450 books of religious content;

ü Is famous for the writing about witch hunt in Salem, Massachusetts.

Captain John Smith, one of the Pilgrim Fathers.

“A True Relation of…. Virginia”- a repost of the first permanent English colony.

“The General History of Virginia, New England and the Summer Isles”.

- description of all the major English settlements in America”.

Poetry:

Ann Bradstreet, Edward Taylor laid the foundation of American poetry.

Ann Bradstreet:

ü the daughter of the Governor of Massachusetts

ü the author of the book of verse: “The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America”.