Warm-up –Answer these Essential Questions
1. What did most Puritan literature seek
to do?
2. The most important writing of the
colonies was what kind?
3. What did this writing seek to do?
4. Name an author from this period.
5. Name a writing from this period.
6. What did “Common Sense” seek to do?
Time Periods of Literature
Lesson 38
Colonial/Revolutionary/National
Georgia Performance Standard
• ELAALRL3: The student deepens
understanding of literary works by
relating them to their contemporary
context or historical background, as well
as to works from other time periods.
a. The student relates a literary work to
the seminal ideas of the time in which it
is set or the time of its composition.
– ii. Colonial/Revolutionary/National Literature
In the Colonial period, the Puritans produced
private soul-searching literature.
• Sermons, diaries,
and personal
narratives were
written in plain
style.
• Writings were meant
to instruct and to
reinforce the
authority of the
Bible and church.
Continued…
• People believed a
person’s fate was
determined by
God.
• They also believed
that all people
were corrupt and
must be saved by
Christ.
Examples of Colonial Literature
• Bradford’s Of Plymouth
Plantation (story of
Pilgrims)
• Rowlandson’s “A Narrative
of the Captivity”
• Edward’s “Sinners in the
Hands of an Angry God”
(sermon)
• Though not written during
Puritan times, The Crucible
& The Scarlet Letter
depict life during the time
when Puritan theocracy
prevailed.
Much of what was written in the
Revolutionary period was public writing.
• 30 newspapers, 40
magazines, almanacs from
Massachusetts to Georgia
• Political writings were the
most important pieces of
literature. They were
increasingly focused on
relations with Great Britain
and on the nature of
government.
• Highly ornate style
• Persuasive writings
Effects/Aspects of Revolutionary
Writing…
• Patriotism grew.
• instilled pride
• created common
agreement about
issues
• National mission
and the American
character were
aspects.
Historical Context of the Revolutionary
Literature…
• told readers how
to interpret what
they were reading
to encourage
Revolutionary
support
• was instructive in
values
Examples of the Revolutionary
Literature…
• writings of Thomas
Jefferson, Thomas Paine,
Patrick Henry
• Benjamin Franklin’s Poor
Richard’s Almanack
• Benjamin Franklin’s “The
Autobiography”
(considered one of the
finest autobiographies of
all time)
Click on picture to start video clip (2:06) Poor Richard’s Almanack
Thomas Paine
• wrote Common
Sense in 1776
which swayed
opinion in favor in
independence
from Great
Britain and sold
100,000 in three
months.
Click on picture to start video clip (3:12) Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense”
Other writings…
• The Declaration
of Independence
(mostly written
by Thomas
Jefferson in
June 1776)
• Constitution of
the U.S. drafted
in 1787
Other writings…
Broadside ballads were popular
(a single sheet of paper, printed on one or both
sides and dealing with a single topic)
The Dying Redcoat
(written by a dying British sergeant in the Revolution)
Fight on, America’s noble sons,
Fear not Britannia’s thundering guns:
Maintain your cause from year to year,
God’s on your side, you need not fear.
Phillis Wheatley (a slave) was a poet.
• Phillis Wheatley (1753?1784). Brought from Africa in
1761, Wheatley was an early
woman poet, and is
considered the first important
African-American writer in
America. She was purchased
by a Boston merchant, and
her special gifts were
recognized by her new
mistress, who taught her to
read and write. Abolitionists
used her works to counter
arguments about the
intellectual inferiority of
African Americans. From an
engraving published in 1773.
Wheatley continued…
• Copies of Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral by
Phillis Wheatley are displayed at Old South Church in Boston.
Wheatley (1753?-1784), one of early America's most
important poets and its first prominent black poet, was a
member of the congregation at the church.
• Joel Barlow was a poet.
• Philip Freneau was America’s earliest
important lyric poet.
Freneau and His House
In Conclusion…
• By the end of the 1700s, America
could boast a small body of national
literature: Native American poetry and
legends through oral traditions, the
Puritans powerful, inward-looking
works, the statesmen of the
Revolutionary period, and a few poets
and essayists. There were no American
novels or play of importance, however,
and the modern short story had yet to
be invented.
Freneau and His House
Georgia Performance Standard
• ELAALRL3: The student deepens
understanding of literary works by
relating them to their contemporary
context or historical background, as well
as to works from other time periods.
a. The student relates a literary work to
the seminal ideas of the time in which it
is set or the time of its composition.
– ii. Colonial/Revolutionary/National Literature
Closing: Turn your warm-up paper over &
answer these questions again.
1. What did most Puritan literature seek
to do?
2. The most important writing of the
colonies was what kind?
3. What did this writing seek to do?
4. Name an author from this period.
5. Name a writing from this period.
6. What did “Common Sense” seek to do?
1. What did most Puritan
literature seek to do?
• instruct and reinforce the
authority of the Bible and the
church
2. The most important writing
of the colonies was what kind?
• political
3. What did this writing seek to
do?
• tried to persuaded people to
accept certain political beliefs
4. Name an author from this
period.
• Jefferson, Paine, Henry,
Franklin, Wheatley,
Freneau, Barlow
5. Name a writing from this
period.
Poor Richard’s Almanack
The Autobiography
The Constitution of the U.S.
The Declaration of Independence
Common Sense
6. What did “Common Sense”
seek to do?
• tried to persuade public
opinion in favor of
independence from Great
Britain