Warm-up –Answer these Essential Questions

1. What did most Puritan literature seek to do?

2. The most important writing of the colonies was what kind?

3. What did this writing seek to do?

4. Name an author from this period.

5. Name a writing from this period.

6. What did “Common Sense” seek to do?

Time Periods of Literature

Lesson 38Colonial/Revolutionary/National

Georgia Performance Standard

• ELAALRL3: The student deepens understanding of literary works by relating them to their contemporary context or historical background, as well as to works from other time periods.

a. The student relates a literary work to the seminal ideas of the time in which it is set or the time of its composition.– ii. Colonial/Revolutionary/National

Literature

In the Colonial period, the Puritans produced private soul-searching literature.

• Sermons, diaries, and personal narratives were written in plain style.

• Writings were meant to instruct and to reinforce the authority of the Bible and church.

Continued…

• People believed a person’s fate was determined by God.

• They also believed that all people were corrupt and must be saved by Christ.

Examples of Colonial Literature• Bradford’s Of Plymouth

Plantation (story of Pilgrims)

• Rowlandson’s “A Narrative of the Captivity”

• Edward’s “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (sermon)

• Though not written during Puritan times, The Crucible & The Scarlet Letter depict life during the time when Puritan theocracy prevailed.

Much of what was written in the Revolutionary period was public writing.

• 30 newspapers, 40 magazines, almanacs from Massachusetts to Georgia

• Political writings were the most important pieces of literature. They were increasingly focused on relations with Great Britain and on the nature of government.

• Highly ornate style• Persuasive writings

Effects/Aspects of Revolutionary Writing…

• Patriotism grew.• instilled pride• created common

agreement about issues

• National mission and the American character were aspects.

Historical Context of the Revolutionary Literature…

• told readers how to interpret what they were reading to encourage Revolutionary support• was instructive

in values

Examples of the Revolutionary Literature…

• writings of Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry

• Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack

• Benjamin Franklin’s “The Autobiography” (considered one of the finest autobiographies of all time)

Click on picture to start video clip (2:06) Poor Richard’s Almanack

Thomas Paine

• wrote Common Sense in 1776 which swayed opinion in favor in independence from Great Britain and sold 100,000 in three months.

Click on picture to start video clip (3:12) Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense”

Other writings…

• The Declaration of Independence (mostly written by Thomas Jefferson in June 1776)

• Constitution of the U.S. drafted in 1787

Other writings… Broadside ballads were popular

(a single sheet of paper, printed on one or both sides and dealing with a single topic)

The Dying Redcoat(written by a dying British sergeant in

the Revolution)

Fight on, America’s noble sons,Fear not Britannia’s thundering guns:Maintain your cause from year to year,God’s on your side, you need not fear.

Phillis Wheatley (a slave) was a poet.

• Phillis Wheatley (1753?-1784). Brought from Africa in 1761, Wheatley was an early woman poet, and is considered the first important African-American writer in America. She was purchased by a Boston merchant, and her special gifts were recognized by her new mistress, who taught her to read and write. Abolitionists used her works to counter arguments about the intellectual inferiority of African Americans. From an engraving published in 1773.

Wheatley continued…• Copies of Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral by

Phillis Wheatley are displayed at Old South Church in Boston. Wheatley (1753?-1784), one of early America's most important poets and its first prominent black poet, was a member of the congregation at the church.

• Joel Barlow was a poet.• Philip Freneau was America’s

earliest important lyric poet.

Freneau and His House

In Conclusion…

• By the end of the 1700s, America could boast a small body of national literature: Native American poetry and legends through oral traditions, the Puritans powerful, inward-looking works, the statesmen of the Revolutionary period, and a few poets and essayists. There were no American novels or play of importance, however, and the modern short story had yet to be invented.

Freneau and His House

Georgia Performance Standard

• ELAALRL3: The student deepens understanding of literary works by relating them to their contemporary context or historical background, as well as to works from other time periods.

a. The student relates a literary work to the seminal ideas of the time in which it is set or the time of its composition.– ii. Colonial/Revolutionary/National

Literature

Closing: Turn your warm-up paper over & answer these questions again.

1. What did most Puritan literature seek to do?

2. The most important writing of the colonies was what kind?

3. What did this writing seek to do?

4. Name an author from this period.

5. Name a writing from this period.

6. What did “Common Sense” seek to do?

1. What did most Puritan literature seek to do?

• instruct and reinforce the authority of the Bible and

the church

2. The most important writing of the colonies was what kind?

•political

3. What did this writing seek to do?

• tried to persuaded people to accept certain political

beliefs

4. Name an author from this period.

• Jefferson, Paine, Henry, Franklin, Wheatley,

Freneau, Barlow

5. Name a writing from this period.

Poor Richard’s AlmanackThe AutobiographyThe Constitution of the U.S.The Declaration of IndependenceCommon Sense

6. What did “Common Sense” seek to do?

• tried to persuade public opinion in favor of independence from

Great Britain