1. Literary Movement: Puritan/Colonial Literature 1620-1750

2. Historical Context 1620 Mayflower lands at Plymouth
1630 Great Migration of Puritans to New England
1690 Slavery exists in all English Colonies in North America
1721 Smallpox epidemic hits Boston
Great Awakening

3. Worldview “Age of Faith” (to be followed by “Age of Reason”)
Religious authority and tradition as means of knowing truth
Puritanism was the dominant shaping force of the early American worldview. Puritans believed:
Humans are inherently sinful.
Salvation belongs to God’s elect, who are saved by grace.
A person should be hardworking, modest, and simple.
“Puritan Work Ethic”
Society should be modeled after the Bible.

4. Common Elements of the Literature
Characteristics of Puritan literature:
Authors modeled their writings after the Bible.
They used their writings to explore God’s workings in their inner and outer lives.
Diaries and histories were the most common forms of expression.
Puritans favored a “plain style” of writing.

5. Common Elements of the Literature
Narratives (both Puritan and non-Puritan) recorded a variety of individuals’ experiences in the New World
Travel Narratives (Cabeza de Vaca)
Tales of Life in North America (John Smith)
Captivity Stories (Mary Rowlandson)
Slave Narratives (Olaudah Equiano)
* See Elements of Literature p. 43

6. Famous Authors William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation (1620-47)
Mary Rowlandson, A Narrative of Captivity (1682)
William Byrd, The History of the Dividing Line (1728)
Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (1741)
Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789)

7. from Of Plymouth Plantation
About the Author: William Bradford
Came to the New World aboard the Mayflower in 1620 with a group of Separatists
Wife Dorothy either fell or jumped overboard
Was elected governor of the Plymouth Colony thirty times
Literary Concept: Plain style is a way of writing that stresses simplicity and clarity of expression.

8. From The History of the Dividing Line
About the Author: William Byrd
Born in Virginia in 1674 to a wealthy landowner and merchant
Educated in England and preferred London (lavish, intellectual community, gambling)
Shared the Cavalier perspective
Unlike the Puritans, the Cavaliers
enjoyed British intellectual and
social trends
“Renaissance Man”: translator, poet, mathematician, farmer

9. From The History of the Dividing Line
Literary Concepts:
Satire is a type of writing that ridicules the shortcomings of people or institutions in an attempt to bring about a change
Tone is the writer’s attitude toward the subject of the work, the characters, or the audience

10. From A Narrative of the Captivity
About the Author: Mary Rowlandson ( )
Born in England, sailed for Salem in 1639
Wife of Joseph Rowlandson, a Congregational minister in Lancaster, a frontier town thirty miles west of Boston
Taken captive by the Wampanoag after they raided her town, along with her three children
Literary Terms
Captivity narratives related the experiences of colonists who were kidnapped by Native Americans.
An allusion is a reference to someone or something well known from literature, religion, politics, sports, science, or some other aspect of culture.
Chronological order presents events in the order in which they occurred.

11. From A Narrative of the Captivity
Historical Context
An estimated 7-18 million Native Americans north of the Rio Grande pre-1600
Scholars have recently estimated a North American Indian population of 2-5 million pre-1600
By 1890, an estimated 228,000 North American Indians
Following the arrival of European explorers and colonists, native populations dramatically decreased due to disease, starvation, and warfare.
King Phillip’s War ( ) was the most devastating war between the Native Americans and the colonists in New England. Named after King Philip, the sachem (chief) of the Wampanoag, who was Massasoit’s son.
Source of population statistics: A Population History of North America by Michael R. Haines and Richard H. Steckel