Warm Up

Personification: The use of human
characteristics to describe animals, things,
or ideas.
Carl Sandburg’s poem “Chicago”
describes the city as “Stormy, husky,
brawling. / City of the Big Shoulders.”
Write a poem (or prose) personifying
either the city of Charlotte or Northwest
School of the Arts.
For many people, early America was an experiment in hope.
Explorers seeking adventure, settlers searching for religious
freedom, colonists building communities, revolutionaries
designing a new government—all embraced their challenges
with a sense of faith and purpose. Writers of the day recorded
and interpreted the extraordinary experiences of these ordinary
people. They and their fellow colonists imagined and created an
entirely new country and unique way of life.
Historical Context

Early American literature captures a nation in its infancy. From
the first interactions between Native Americans and Europeans to
the stirring cries of the Revolutionary War, writers chronicled the
tensions and the triumphs of the day.
Early American Writing

 1.) Native American
 2.) Early Settlers and Explorers
 3.) Revolutionists
Who discovered
America?

A.) Christopher Columbus
B.) Leif Eriksson
C.) Amerigo Vespucci
D.) the Pilgrims
E.) none of the above
The answer is letter e. It’s true that all the people above came to the
Americas. But these Europeans didn’t discover what they came to call the
“new World” any more than bears discovered honey. The land was just new
to them because they hadn’t known it existed.
The Meeting of Two
Worlds

 What was life like in the Americas prior to the arrival
of the Europeans?
 How do the William Wood and William Bradford
quotations illustrate the clash of cultures that
occurred when Europeans and Native Americans
first met?
 Were Wood and Bradford fair in their assessment of
the landscape and population of North America?

William Bradford
Governor of Plymouth Plantation
From Colony to Colony

 The first permanent colony was established at
Jamestown in 1607 (13 years before the Pilgrims!).
 Remained loyal to British parliament.
British soldiers were sent to
fight in the French and
Indian War (1759-1763) when
France allied with Native
Americans.
A Break with England





Tax to recover war debt
“No taxation without representation”
1776 fought and defeated Great Britain!
Documents we will study…
 Declaration of Independence
 Constitution of the United States
 U.S.A is born!
French and Indian War  Stamp Act and Tea Act  Boston
Tea Party  Revolutionary War Birth of a nation
Cultural Influences

Why did people come to the New World?
Puritan Beliefs

 Religion was the most influential cultural force on writers
of this period. Puritan values and beliefs directed
people’s everyday lives as well as the formation of an
American society.
 How would Puritan values contributed to the success of
the settlements?
 Puritan writers




Believed writing should be useful and clear
Wrote histories, sermons, scientific works, and essays
Delivered sermons contrasting good and evil
Wrote poems with religious themes
Early American
Literature

The Native American Experience
Similarities in Native
American Culture

Native American
Culture

 oral tradition: the practice of storytelling to pass a
group’s memories, histories, and stories from one
generation to the next”
 legendary histories: stories passed down from earlier
times and popularly regarded as true”
 From the perspective of the Native American holy
woman, how is oral tradition more meaningful than the
written word?
 Why is preservation through oral tradition more
vulnerable to loss than preservation through written
works?