Overview

Notes

• Christopher Columbus left Palos, Spain, on August 6, 1492 and sighted the shores of the Bahamian island that he and his crew named San Salvador at two in the morning of October 12.
• European colonists brought textiles, tools, and institutions of the church and state, such as slavery, to the Americas.
• Native American literatures originated in oral performance, which were offered to audiences as dramatic events in time and language for the ear.
• More than any European nation, Spain aggressively colonized the Americas.
• Columbus’s letter to the court of Luis de Santagel, narrating his voyage to the “West Indies,” became a means to stir individual imaginations and national ambitions in Europe, but “early American writing” by Native Americans and European colonists served numerous other purposes.
• Although English later became a useful lingua franca for the thirteen British colonies and the literary medium of choice, other languages remained actively in use for both mundane and expressive purposes.
• Texts that documented the cross-cultural relations of European colonists and Native Americans were prolific.

Full Text

Christopher Columbus left Palos, Spain, on August 6, 1492 and sighted the shores of the Bahamian island that he and his crew named San Salvador at two in the morning of October 12. There, he seized seven Taino Indians and took them to Spain, where he renamed them and baptized them as Christians. When Columbus returned to the Americas in November 1493, Diego Colón, one of the Taino Indians, spoke of the “marvels” he had seen in Europe. Four others died during the voyage. Later, other Europeans arrived to colonize the Americas, so that the fortresses, churches, horses, and new foods about which Colón spoke soon became part of the landscape.

European colonists brought textiles, tools, and institutions of the church and state, such as slavery, to the Americas. Europeans engaged in violence and warfare to seize land from Native American tribes who, though they found the scale of such actions appalling, were quick to make use of them. African slaves were brought to the Americas in the sixteenth century. Local populations died in large numbers due to war, enslavement, brutal mistreatment, despair, and disease. The destruction of one people by European colonists was invariably accompanied by the displacement and enslavement of another. On the island of Hispaniola, African slaves displaced the indigenous population, who had mostly died of disease by the middle of the sixteenth century. Other groups, however, were resourceful in resisting, transforming, and exploiting the European cultures that were imposed upon them.

When the European colonists arrived in the Americas, Native Americans spoke hundreds of distinct languages, engaged in different religious practices, and structured their cultures in extraordinarily diverse economic and political forms. Native American literatures originated in oral performance, which were offered to audiences as dramatic events in time and language for the ear. Unlike the Europeans, most did not use a written alphabet. It was not until the early nineteenth century, with the advent of Romanticism in Europe, that Native American verbal expression was recognized as literature from a Western perspective.

Many European colonial settlements were ruined by in-fighting, including riots and mutinies among greedy settlers. Amidst this disorder, European nations continued to expand their colonial presence in the Americas. The Portuguese established colonies in Brazil, and the French explorer Jacques Cartier sailed St. Lawrence River in present-day Canada. More than any European nation, Spain aggressively colonized the Americas.

Columbus’s letter to the court of Luis de Santagel, narrating his voyage to the “West Indies,” became a means to stir individual imaginations and national ambitions in Europe, but “early American writing” by Native Americans and European colonists served numerous other purposes. Most Native Americans maintained an oral culture that valued memory over documentation as a means of preserving texts. Others, such as the Aztecs, made use of their written traditions to respond to European invasions and colonization. European colonists used writing to defend actions taken in the Americas, influence official policy in Europe, and reveal political intentions to European powers. In some cases, Europeans, such as Bartolomé de las Casas, were outright critical of the ruthless destruction of Native Americans by Europeans.

After leaving England and the Netherlands, the Pilgrims established Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts in 1620. The mythical import of their escape from religious persecution in Europe was later used to divert attention from more prevalent economic and political reasons for colonizing the Americas. Another fundamentalist religious group, the Puritans, who attempted to work within the confines of the Church of England rather than separating themselves from it completely, established a settlement north of Plymouth in 1630. Although English later became a useful lingua franca for the thirteen British colonies and the literary medium of choice, other languages remained actively in use for both mundane and expressive purposes.

Although printing was confined to four locations in England before 1693, it flourished without restrictive laws in the British colonies. One of the most prolific writers was Cotton Mather, who wrote a wide variety of titles that expanded the scope of early American writing from the religious writing of the Puritans. Texts that documented the cross-cultural relations of European colonists and Native Americans were prolific. Some were of official importance, such as the “Propositions Made by the Five Nations” to the governor of New York about the harassment of the Iroquois by Native American allies of the French. Other texts combined piety, adventure, and exoticism to present less accurate, though wildly popular, representations of Native Americans. Samuel Sewall published one of the earliest antislavery tracts in North America.

Notes

• While trade brought great wealth to planters and merchants in the British colonies, it also created the world’s first multiethnic working class, as well as an underclass of slaves and other exploited peoples.
• Scientists and philosophers of the early eighteenth century struggled to resolve implicit conflicts between their discoveries and traditionally held Christian truths.
• Although some historians view the great number of religious revivals in England and America between 1735 and 1750 as a result of desperate efforts to reassert outmoded Puritan values in the face of new ideas, others have pointed out that they were directly inspired by the new cult of feeling whose foundation was laid by John Locke.
• During the revolutionary period newspapers and magazines flourished, and the cry for a “national literature” (meaning anti-British) made careers in letters advantageous.
• While social mobility was more possible in the United States than in Europe, in 1820 freedom did not extend to everyone living in the newly independent country.

Full Text

The ways that colonialists viewed their world changed greatly in the eighteenth century due to economic, social, and political developments. No longer looking toward religion alone, many intellectuals embraced a belief in the power of the human mind to comprehend the universe, new psychological paradigms that promulgated human sympathy—rather than supernatural grace—as the basis for moral life, and a belief that each individual had the power to control his or her spiritual destiny. Religion thus became one of many elements of the new “nation” of colonists in British North America. Rapidly expanding trade linked the colonies to the “Atlantic Rim,” a region encompassing Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas. While trade brought great wealth to planters and merchants in the British colonies, it also created the world’s first multiethnic working class, as well as an underclass of slaves and other exploited peoples. The rhetoric of Christian charity and a “community” of mutually helpful souls was challenged by increased bickering among the first settlers and newcomers over the proper form and substance of worship, splinter groups who advocated the establishment of a “second” church, land speculators who sold acreage at a high profit to newly arrived colonists, and a gradual awakening among colonists to the incongruity of slavery.

Scientists and philosophers of the early eighteenth century struggled to resolve implicit conflicts between their discoveries and traditionally held Christian truths. As a result of such inquiries, the universe came to be understood as more rational and benevolent than it had been according to Puritan doctrine. Increasingly, people defined their highest duties in social, rather than spiritual, terms.

Although some historians view the great number of religious revivals in England and America between 1735 and 1750 as a result of desperate efforts to reassert outmoded Puritan values in the face of new ideas, others have pointed out that they were directly inspired by the new cult of feeling whose foundation was laid by John Locke. One of the most vocal revivalists was Jonathan Edwards, whose name has become synonymous with the “Great Awakening” of the 1730s. Edwards began to rejuvenate the basic tenets of Calvinism, some of which were difficult to reconcile with Enlightenment principles. Opponents to the Awakening engaged in pamphlet wars with revivalists in order to win over public opinion.

Moved by Richard Henry Lee’s statement that “these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states” at the second Continental Congress on June 7, 1776, a committee was duly appointed and prepared a declaration of independence, issued on July 4, for the United States of America. Events such as the Boston “Tea Party” and pamphlets such as Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” inspired colonists toward revolution. During the revolutionary period newspapers and magazines flourished, and the cry for a “national literature” (meaning anti-British) made careers in letters advantageous. Even women writers, who were obliged by conventions of the day to publish anonymously, found eager audiences. The most significant writings of the period were political essays, such as those by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison. Despite the proliferation of American writing, the technological and economic infrastructure of the United States did not support a truly national audience.

While social mobility was more possible in the United States than in Europe, in 1820 freedom did not extend to everyone living in the newly independent country. Some of the country’s Founding Fathers, like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, were slave owners themselves. The right to vote was restricted to male landowners. Not only were women not entitled to vote, but they were prohibited from owning property, keeping any wages they might earn, and participating in public, intellectual life. Native Americans were systematically displaced from their traditional territories. Americans agitated for an extension of the principle of liberty codified by the Revolutionary generation, with writers such as Freneau, Franklin, and de Crèvecoeur arguing that the transplanted European might learn something about fellowship and manners from “the noble savages,” rather than rude white settlers, slave owners, and backwoods pioneers.