The Beginnings-1750

1. The Beginnings-1750

2. Native Americans • First Native Americans migrated from Asia across the Bering Strait 35,000 years ago. • They migrated all over North and South America, forming hundreds of tribes.

3. Central Beliefs Shared by Native Americans • Land is sacred; no one owns the land. • Cycles of nature ruled life. • Oral tradition is vitally important; this is how culture is passed down. • Folktales • Fables • Sacred stories • Speeches

4. Exploring • European Renaissance: 1000-1600s AD • Explorers sought wealth and adventure • Columbus in 1492 • Spanish explorers

5. Settling in the New World • Jamestown, VA in 1607 • 105 Englishmen landed in Jamestown • Only 32 survived the first year • Plymouth, MA in 1620 • Pilgrims, Puritans • Mostly English, but included Dutch, German, and Scots-Irish • African slaves were brought over in the late 1600s

6. Firsts • Spanish explorers bring horses to the New World (1500s) • John Rolfe harvests first tobacco crop in VA (1612) • Mail is delivered b/w Boston & New York (1673) • Colonists are faced with animals and vegetation unlike any they have ever seen.

7. Food & Fashion • Native Americans introduce corn, squash, beans, and certain fish to the settlers. • Cattle and pigs are brought from Europe. • Some settlers start chewing tree resin. • Puritans wore plain, dark clothing. • Women had to wear several layers. • Wealthy non-Puritans wore more lavish attire.

8. Entertainment • Native Americans played sleight-of-hand games, dice games, lacrosse, and hoop-and-spear. • Many colonists played musical instruments and/or danced. • Puritans, however, do not allow dice or cards or bowling.

9. Reading/Writing • Fliers and Pamphlets • Religious Books • Newspapers • Journals and Diaries • Letters • Plain style • No set spelling rules

10. The Native American Oral Tradition • Oral literature – stories passed down from one generation to the next as they were told and retold in the privacy of households and in tribal ceremonies. • Myth – anonymous, traditional story that relies on supernatural phenomenon, to explain a natural phenomenon, an aspect of human nature, or a mystery of the universe. (Seek to explain why the world is the way it is)

11. Oral Tradition continued . . . • Creation myths – tell how the world and human life came to exist • Origin myths – explain how natural phenomenon such as the stars, moon, and mountains came to be or why a society has certain beliefs and customs. (Many myths emphasize a bond b/w the Creator, humanity, and the entire natural world. They explain it is the duty of humanity to maintain a balance with the natural world.)

12. Oral Tradition continued . . . Animals play an important role in Native American myths. • Totem – animal or object to which a clan is “connected”; revered by that clan • Trickster – animal characters with 2 sides to their personalities; rebels who often created chaos; curious, clever, creative; may exhibit wisdom (coyote, raven, mink)

13. William Bradford1590-1657 • Passenger on the Mayflower, which landed at Plymouth in 1620 • He was 30 years old at the time. • He became a Separatist (Puritan) at 17. • Helped to write the Mayflower Compact (colony’s rules of government) • Elected leader of the colony in 1621

14. Literary Terms • Diction – word choice • Allusion – referring to another work of literature • Point-of-view – relationship of the storyteller to the story

15. Poetry in Puritan Times • Puritans were allowed to read poetry only if it was religious in nature. • All events were to be viewed within the context of God’s divine plan.

16. Anne Bradstreet1612-1672 • English • Educated by her father • Puritan • Moved to Massachusetts Bay Colony with her husband and her parents when she was 18 years old

17. Anne Bradstreet (2) • Considered to be the first American poet • Wrote whenever she could find time • Wrote in a time when women were not supposed to do such activities • Her 1st book of poetry has a disclaimer telling the reader that she did not shirk any of her duties in order to write.

18. Anne Bradstreet (3) • Her brother-in-law had her poetry published in England without her knowledge. • She wrote about common, everyday occurrences: • Her love for her husband • Her parents’ deaths • Housework • Tragedies • Raising her children

19. Literary Terms • Inversion – changing the “usual” order of words • Couplet – two consecutive, paired lines of poetry, usually rhymed, and usually forming a stanza • Paradox – a situation or statement that seems to be impossible or contradictory but is nevertheless true, literally or figuratively.

20. Literary Terms (2) • Metaphor – a figure of speech that compares or equates two seemingly unlike things • Extended metaphor – a metaphor that compares two unlike things in various ways throughout a paragraph, a stanza, or an entire piece of writing

21. Jonathan Edwards1703-1758 • Entered Yale University before he turned 13 and graduated 1st in his class • Came from a family of Puritan ministers • Became a minister at 23 • Known for “preaching terror” • Was “relieved” of his preaching duties in 1750 because of his extreme views and preachings • Spent last years of his life as a missionary with Native Americans

22. The Great Awakening • Edwards and George Whitefield, another Puritan minister, started a spiritual revival that swept through the colonies. • They believed the Puritan church has gotten too lenient and preached a return to stricter codes and behavior. • Predestination – the belief that only a select few chosen by God would be saved. No individual could earn grace by doing good deeds. God was all-powerful and humans had no free will.

23. Literary Terms • Repetition – the recurrence of sounds, words, phrases, lines, or stanzas in a speech or piece of writing; increases the sense of unity in a work and can call attention to particular ideas • Symbol – any object, person, place, or experience that exists on a literal level but also represents something else, usually something abstract

24. Literary Terms • Imagery – the “word pictures” that writers create to evoke an emotional response; uses sensory details or descriptions that appeal to one or more of the five senses