The Age of Faith andPuritan Legacy

American Literature’s Colonial Roots

Remember the Pilgrims?

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The Age of Faith

Defined:The earliest period of American, literature. Focused largely on God and salvation.

Dates: England governed American colonies from 1607-1776. Writing begins with the pilgrims’ arrival in 1620 and ends in the middle 1700’s.

What We’re Reading:•“Here Follow Some Verses Upon the Burning of My House” (Bradstreet)

•“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (Edwards)

•“Of Plimoth Plantation” (Bradford)

•The Crucible* (Miller)

*not written in, but about, this period

We Read So You Can:•Analyze what abstract concepts, word and phrase choices mean and how they affect a work of literature from an era different than your own.

•Understand the purpose of an author’s writing– even when that purpose is tough to relate to.

•Interpret the meanings of texts and identify the commonalities between them.

•Analyze the development of form (early non-fiction narratives, poems, and speeches are all represented).

•Figure out how social context influences this writing, and how the writing relates to your own experience.

Pilgrims and Puritans

The Pilgrims were part of a group of English Puritans called the “Separatists” who fled persecution in England.

•The Pilgrims traveled to America aboard the Mayflower and landed at Plymouth in 1620.

Puritans is a general term for English Protestants who wanted to “purify” the Church of England.

•The Puritans objected to the rituals, decorations, and organization of the Church of England. They wanted a simpler form of worship and organization.

A Puritan Time Line

1620: Mayflower

Pilgrims land at Plymouth

1630: Great migration of Puritans to New England begins

1692: Salem witch

trials

1653–1658: Puritan Oliver Cromwell rules England as lord

protector

1642–1651: English civil

wars between Puritans and

Royalists

1660: Monarchy

restored under Charles II

1608: Separatists flee England for Holland

In England

In America

1600 1700

What the Puritans Believed

•Religion is a personal, inner experience.

•Humans are wicked by nature, and most are marked for damnation (can’t change where you’re headed).

•A chosen few can be saved through the grace of God (God’s choice—NOT yours).

•Hard work and worldly success are signs of God’s grace (not the signs of a person trying to earn a ticket to heaven).

•Education is essential in order to read the Word of God (it’s not about improving one’s self for one’s own sake).

The Puritan God• Puritans saw God as an angry punisher

• God punished man for our many sins (biblical roots)

• Puritans viewed the bible as the literal word of God

• God was seen in everyday events

• Name your natural phenomenon– according to the Puritans, it happens at God’s command (where is science in all this?)

• Puritans believed in complete divine direction

Puritans on Mankind

• Puritans saw themselves as pilgrims (physical and spiritual journey)

• Built a new society in a vast wilderness with the goal of living closer to God (Governor Winthrop’s “City on a Hill”– Bradford bought in completely)

• Believed in being industrious, temperate, and plain

• Believed that man is inherently evil, sinful, and corrupt

Puritans on Work & Money

• Idle hands are the devil’s playground

• Good works make good men (grace)

• Competent in business

Puritans on Nature

• Frightened of nature

• Evil lurks in the forest

• Connotations of darkness and wilderness vs. church and town

Puritan Women

• Caregivers

• Homemakers

• Domestic Sphere (vs. Public Sphere)

• Education not a priority (Think of the purpose of education to a Puritan—why were women largely left uneducated??)

Enormous lobster.

Like, freak of nature.

Grace: The Puritan Ideal

•Grace—God’s special favor—was the only way to escape an eternity in Hell.

•People did not know for certain if they had grace, but they could feel the arrival of grace as an intense emotion.

•People who had grace were among the “elect” (saved).

•People who did not have grace were among the “unregenerate” (damned).

Grace: The Puritan Ideal

•The presence of grace was demonstrated by a person’s outward behavior. People with grace displayed

•self-reliance

•personal responsibility

•industriousness

•temperance

•simplicity

Why is this a little sketchy to we cynics?

Puritan Government

In Theory

•Every individual had an equal covenant with God.

•Laws came from God, as revealed in scripture.

In Practice

•Most people yielded authority to those seen as the saintly “elect.”

•Conformity and obedience took precedence over individual rights.

Puritan Literature

What the Puritans Read

•The Bible and other religious texts

Why They Read

•Puritans stressed individual responsibility for spiritual development.

•Every person was responsible for reading and understanding the Bible.

Puritan Literature

What the Puritans Wrote

•Sermons, essays, and poems on spiritual and religious subjects

•Diaries and histories that recorded inner and outer events of their lives

Why They Wrote

•Puritans used writing to explore their lives for signs of grace and to describe the workings of God in their communities.

Plain Style

Puritans favored a plain style of writing. Plain style is a way of writing that stresses simplicity and clarity of expression. Plain style

•emphasizes uncomplicated sentences and the use of everyday words from common speech

•avoids elaborate figures of speech and imagery

“There is nothing between you and hell but the air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up.”

from “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards

Salem: Believers Run Amok

•1692—Girls suffer from mysterious “illness” in Salem, Massachusetts.

•Doctors blame witchcraft.

•Mass hysteria erupts; neighbors accuse one another.

•In the end, about 150 people were accused, and 20 were executed.

What Happened to the Puritans?

•The Age of Faith gradually gave way to the Age of Reason.

•Philosophers and scientists stressed the importance of using reason, rather than religion, to explain how the world operates.

•The Puritans didn’t disappear—their culture was absorbed into the colonial mainstream.

The Puritan Legacy

In the United States, we generally value:

•individual rights and responsibilities

•equality of individuals

•literacy and education

•spiritual and worldly rewards for hard work

We got all that from the Puritans!

What Have You Learned?

1. Puritans believed that religion was a personal, inner experience.

a. true b. false

2. Those who had grace were among the

a. damned b. unregenerate c. elect

3. A person with grace may display all of the following characteristics except

a. simplicity b. self-reliance c. greed

Now:

Read the biography of Anne Bradstreet on page 27. In your notes, answer the following questions as complete thoughts (abbreviation and shorthand is okay):

• How did Shakespeare influence Anne Bradstreet’s work?• How was her work different from Shakespeare’s?• Describe the difference in roles between Anne and her father and

husband. What were their principal responsibilities? Was this typical of Puritan families at the time?

• Why is it unsurprising that Anne, a Puritan, never sought recognition for her poetry?

• Which of Bradstreet’s poems are the most popular today? Is this fitting? Why?

HOMEWORK: Read, on page 29, Anne Bradstreet’s “Here Follow Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House.”