1. 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.

2. Early American Writing (1600-1800)
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.
Call students’ attention to the various groups mentioned: explorers, settlers, colonists, revolutionaries. Ask students to review the role that each of these groups.
played in the creation of “an entirely new country and unique way of life.” Discuss the kinds
of challenges that early settlers faced, and ask
why writers of the time would have wanted to
record them

3. 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.

4. Early American Writing
1.) Native American
2.) Early Settlers and Explorers
3.) Revolutionists

5. Who discovered America?
A.) Christopher Columbus
B.) Leif Eriksson
C.) Amerigo Vespucci
D.) the Pilgrims
E.) none of the above
Thousands of years before any European set foot in North America, groups of hunters-gathers existed—their descendants are called Native Americans or American Indians. Leif Eriksson– colony in Greenland (now Canada) Amerigo Vespucci- explorer who put his reports into writing (Columbus though he reached the Indies)
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.

6. 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?

7. William Bradford Governor of Plymouth Plantation

8. From Colony to Colony
The first permanent colony was established at Jamestown in 1607 (13 years before the Pilgrims!).
Remained loyal to British parliament.
Have students brainstorm a list of “the tensions and the triumphs of the day” that writers would have been most likely to chronicle. Which items on the list proved to have historical significance, and why?
French and Indians although were outnumbered won in the beginning because they knew the land better. French were the lesser of two evils because they just wanted to trade, not take land.
British soldiers were sent to fight in the French and Indian War ( ) when France allied with Native Americans.

9. 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

10. Why did people come to the New World?
Cultural Influences
Why did people come to the New World?
Some came for land, some came as indentured servants (worked for four to seven years to pay for voyage)—wanted to escape poverty and crowding in Europe. Most were young, single men about sixteen to twenty-seven years of age..Slavery mention? But the main reason was…

11. 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
Some came for land, some came as indentured servants (worked for four to seven years to pay for voyage)—wanted to escape poverty. Pilgrims were part of the Puritans—Wanted to purify the Church of England, especially its elaborate ceremonies and decorations. ANSWER: Hard work, thrift, and responsibility were therefore seen as morally good, a sign that God was working within. Skip to Native American

12. Early American Literature
The Native American Experience

13. Similarities in Native American Culture

14. 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?
Possible answer: Oral tradition requires each person to learn and remember historical and cultural information. The written word requires only that someone read what another person has recorded.
Possible answer: Oral tradition requires people to remember and accurately communicate to others their history, legends, and myths. Written works preserve such information on the printed page, creating a lasting record.