The middle colonies

(now comprises the following states:

New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware)

• the colonies were represented by the migrants from different protestant countries, largely from Holland and Germany.

The diversity of national strata brought about the variety of ideas, cultural traditions and religions. All these created among the population of the Middle Colonies the atmosphere of great tolerance toward any nonconformism.

The major geographical priority of this region was the availability of good harbors and shipping rivers. The settlements of the middle colonies appeared to be on the crossing of the major flow of goods that went into and out of America. But what is more, they appeared to be on the crossing of the mercantile sea-lanes between Europe, the Caribbean sea and South America.

All these factors contributed to the development of banking, different business undertakings, to the growth of the cities.

The Middle Colonies, with New York at the head, became the focal point of the commercial life of the new continent. What a newyorker valued at those times more than everything was money and gold.

The southern colonies

(now comprises the following states:

Virginia, Maryland, Carolina, Georgia)

Due to specific climatic conditions of this region the system of lend-tenure there was a peculiar one. The climate of the South was hot. Among the major agricultural plants there were tobacco and cotton. Their cultivation required vast territories, market stability and a great number of laborers. That is why the southern colonies were managed largely by planters who needed cheep labor force – the fact that contributed to the transplantation of the black slaves.

One part of the population of the southern colonies consisted of English aristocracy that tried to escape the revolutionary turmoil in England; the other part was introduced by adventurers, so-called fortune-seekers. Contrary to puritans, who were obsessed with the idea to save the humanity, the southerners didn’t expose religious rigorism. Most of them were adherents of the English Church and didn’t fix on the ideas of reformation. Some were attracted by the fertility of the land, the possibility of getting a big and quick buck; the others were attracted by freedom for which in England they had to suffer a great payment. (Let us remind that the 17^th century in England – the epoch of great political changes, among them: The Civil War, The Bourgeois Revolution, the dictatorship of Cromwell).

That is why the spiritual life of the southerners was distinguished by the close connection with their environment, pragmatic approach to life, desire to improve their lot, and a great interest in the material world.

Little by little within this region an idea or rather a “myth” about missionary work emerged, the one which became highly influential in the South. Initially it appeared as an attempt to justify their relations with aboriginals. Their acquaintance with the “savages” gave rise to the idea that it was God who declared that the highest race (white) had to manage and patronize Indian people. They (the Europeans) brought them true faith and knowledge.

To their minds the Europeans also had to manage and patronize the black, fighting with their “natural sloth”, “savagery”, “inability to provide for themselves”.

This type of land management, based on slavery, gave rise to the analogies with antiquity. In the consciousness of the southerners they were new patricians whom the labor of their slaves opened a possibility for aristocratic life. Idealizing plantership and patriarchal way of life the southerners sow themselves as successors of the new history, the creators of a new antique state.

Thus, we see that there was no unity between these colonies. They largely depended on Europe, especially England, than on their neighbors.

Divergence in traditions, for instance, between the northern puritans and the southern planters gradually grew into the open opposition, the result of which was – The Civil War (1861-1865).

Thus, the disconnection of the regions, essential differences in their development, the absence of a cultural center contributed to the fact that regionalism became one of the major features of American literature.

In the 17^th century they were the colonies of New England that had the priorities of the social and spiritual unity, as for the other colonies the unifying concept appeared there considerably later. For its basis they took the ideology of Puritanism. The puritans considered literary art as a sphere of human activity, meant to show explicitly the sinful nature of a human being. The literary art could have been justified only in the case when it became a means of religious upbringing or propaganda. In no way it was meant to entertain people.

With unconscious faithfulness this Puritan literature reflects the Puritan mind: its rigid Calvinism, its morbid consciousness of sin, its superstition, its austerity, its stoical bravery, its contradictory tendencies toward orthodoxy and noncomformity.

Puritan literature is antique in manner and often in matter; yet it treats profoundly a few subjects of universal and permanent importance, such as the relation between church and state, and the source and functions of governmental sovereignty.

Such utilitarian approach to literary art determined the development of theological genres in the literature of New England.

Theological genres: sermons

holy tracts

life descriptions of the church leaders

the descriptions of miracles.

The major stylistic features: imagery: Major exponents:

clarity biblical imagery Cotton Mather

plausibility symbolism Jonathan Edwards

persuasiveness John Woolman

truth to life

Secular genres: Major exponents in poetry:

simple lyrics Ann Bradstreet (her collection of poetry includes religious poetry as well as

simple lyrics on nature and home life)

chronicles Michael Wigglesworth

diaries Edward Taylor

travel notes Major exponents in travel literature:

letters John Smith (adventure stories, wrote the 1^st personal account of colonial life)

memoirs William Bradford

John Winthrop

Summary of the main characteristics of American literature of the 17^th century:

• regionalism

• the predominance of literary legacy of the New English authors

• imitativeness (they tried to imitate English literature following their patterns)

• the absence of diversity in genres and aesthetic originality

• the predominance of non-fictional genres

• utilitarianism

All in all the American writings of the 17^th century possess no great artistic merit. They are valuable chiefly as a study in origins and as a complex mirror of early American experience. The world witch they reflect is that of Renaissance and Reformation and Calvin’s doctrines of freedom of will.

Those whom we call First American writers were not writers at all, id est. it was not literature that constituted and sustained their lives.

In New England they were clergymen; in the Northern Colonies – lawyers, doctors, judges, preachers; in the Southern Colonies – gentlemen-lаndowners, planters.

Within the frameworks of this tradition literature was thought to be as a hobby of an educated gentlemen. The status of a writer for a long time remained rather low. Literature was not a serious business for a serious person. Literature was something that could give you neither money, nor name, instead it had to be practical and instructive. In the 18^th century the situation became complicated. As we know, the first American writers belonged to the intellectual stratum of the colonial society, but, in the years of struggle for independence this stratum overtly democratized. Among them there were those who considered themselves patriots.

2. ENLIGHTENMENT

American Literature 18^th century

/ \

I half ( - 60) II half (60 – 90)

Peculiarities:

/ \

• Retain the peculiarities the critical condition of American society in

of the literature of the 17^th century 1763-1783,

• The gradual relaxation of Puritanism, its division into 2 camps led to the appearance

Move towards Secularization of politicizing literature

• The emergence of new ideas Publicist style became a dominant one

Genres:

/ \

sermons revolutionary poetry

holy tracts political pamphlets

life description of the church leaders correspondence

interpretation of the Holy Scripture essay

oratory prose

During the 1800’s, religious interests gradually gave way to political concerns. After Great Britain (British Parliament) passed a number of discriminatory acts, the acts that limited the rights of the migrants, the Stamp Act of 1765 in particular, protests arose from all parts of the colonies. Dozens of revolutionary pamphlets and poems were written and circulated. Some rank as important works of literature.

New literary forms appeared after the Revolutionary War. Political independence brought a strong desire for literary independence. For the first time, American writers broke with their European past.

The period of Enlightenment in America covers the whole 18^th century, it was tightly connected with great changes in spiritual and political spheres: it observes a profound shift in people’s minds, in their mentality, – from colonial to national conscience.

POLITICS AND PAMPHLETS

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) became a spokesman for American interests of the 1700’s. He produced numerous tracts on issues such as politics, legal theory, education, language and population control. Along with his large and varied correspondence, they constitute a witty and informative history of 18^th century America. He criticized British policies in a pamphlet called “Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One” (1773). Franklin also wrote other political satires, but he did not limit himself to politics. He produced influential literature in his roles as a prosperous publisher, a curious scientist, and a reasoning philosopher.

Franklin’s witty proverbs made “Poor Richard’s Almanac” (1732-58) one of his most popular publications. He published it under the pseudonym of Richard Saunders. As well as calendars and astronomical data, it contained many of Franklin’s well-known maxims recommending homely wisdom, virtue, tolerance, industry and frugality. The central character can be considered as a symbol of ideal national model of life. In this work the author shows that any man, disregarding his origins, can achieve higher status due to his industry, his personal cultivation.

Franklin’s major literary work was his unfinished “Autobiography”. It became a model for later stories of the rise “from rags to riches”. His “On the Slave Trade” (1790) – a memorandum to Congress which advocates the abolition of slavery.

Franklin was actively involved in the public affairs of Philadelphia: he was responsible for drawing up the plans for the lighting and maintenance of the city’s streets, for a police force, and for a circulating library; he founded a city hospital, and an Academy for the Education of Youth which later became the University of Pennsylvania. It is known that in 1769 he founded the American Philosophical Society (in Philadelphia). He served in the Continental Congress and was part of the committee that ordered the drafting of the Declaration of Independence. In 1785 he was appointed president of the Executive Council of Pennsylvania, a post which he held for 3 years, and participated in the Constitutional Convention; he signed the Constitution in 1787.

Other writers published works that were more violently revolutionary than Franklin’s political writings. Thomas Pain, in his pamphlet “Common Sense” (1776), demanded complete independence from Britain. Paine’s series of pamphlets called “The Crisis” (1776-1783) encouraged the colonists during the darkest days of the Revolutionary War in America.

After the Revolutionary War, the United States Constitution stirred up sharp debate throughout the nation. Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay urged the ratification of the Constitution in a series of brilliant letters called “The Federalist”.

PATRIOTISM AND WIT Patriotism inspired a number of poets during the Revolutionary period.

Philip Freneau was the most talented poet of the time. He became known as the “Poet of the American Revolution” for the poetry he wrote (“The Rising Glory of America”, for instance) attacking the British and celebrating American heroes during the Revolutionary War (1775-1783). He continued to express a passionate patriotism and hatred for the British in many of his later poems and journalistic writings – most notably in the “National Gazette”, a Philadelphia journal that he founded, it opposed the Federalist Party led by Alexander Hamilton.

Freneau also wrote descriptive and imaginative poetry about nature (but they have little literary value), among the best ones are: “The Wild Honey Suckle” and “The Indian Burying Ground”.

A group of young poets at Yale University became particularly popular. They were known as the “Wicked Wits”, the “Hartford Wits”, or the “Connecticut Wits”. In most of their poems, such “wits” as Timothy Dwight and John Trumbull imitated the humor of Alexander Pope and other British satirists. Joel Barlow was a leading member of the group. He impressed readers with his long patriotic poem “The Vision of Columbus” (1787).

ABILITION and UNCLE TOM

During the 1830’s, slavery became a burning issue in the United States. Abolitionists, who wanted to end slavery, published stirring essays, novels, pamphlets, and poems. William Lloyd Garrison, a Boston journalist, led the antislavery crusade in his newspaper “The Liberator”.

Harriet Beecher Stowe gained fame as the most influential abolitionist writer. Her sensational novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (1851-1852) sold millions of copies and is still widely read. It was made into the most successful stage play of the 1800’s. President Abraham Lincoln believed that “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” helped cause the Civil War, which started in 1861. He is reported to have remarked that Mrs Stowe was “the lady who wrote the book that made this great war”.

Uncle Tom is a saintly and faithful slave owned by the Shelby family. When the Shelbys find themselves in finantial straits, Tom is separated from his wife and children and sold to a slave trader. Young George Shelby sympathizes with Tom and vows to redeem him some day. Tom is taken South, and on the voyage down the Mississippi he saves the life of Eva St Clare with the result that her father buys him out of gratitude. They go to the St Clare home in New Orleans, where Tom is happy and grows close to Eva and her black friend Topsy. After two years little Eva dies from a weakened constitution in a highly sentimental death scene. Her father is then killed in an accident and Tom is sold at auction to the villainous Simon Legree, a cruel and drunken Yankee. Two female slaves capitalize on Tom’s ever-patient nature by pretending to escape and going into hiding. Tom will not reveal their whereabouts, and Legree has him brutally whipped to death. As he is dying, George Shelby arrives to rescue him but it is too late. In despair, Shelby pledges to fight for the Abolitionist cause. “God wrote the book”, Mrs Stowe once said. “I took His Dictation”.