Unit 1 Lecture Notes

Question 1

When did people want to start colonization in North America

Answer 1

The lates 1500s

Question 2

What brought people to North America and the colonies

Answer 2

The promise of a new and better life

Question 3

When colonists first moved over to North America what did they share with the Native Americans

Answer 3

They shared ideas, values, and beliefs

Question 4

What was early American literature about

Answer 4

Was practical writing about everyday life, fascination of the wilderness and government and practical matters

Question 5

Native American Literature

Answer 5

• oral tradition (no writing)
• writing was about nature and politics
• the Iroquois constitution inspired ours

Question 6

New England Writing

Answer 6

• used the Puritan plain style of writing

- wrote sermons, journals, histories, prayers and poetry

Question 7

Puritans

Answer 7

Belong to the Church of England but believe it can be purified. Made a theocracy (government under the church)

Question 8

Pilgrims

Answer 8

They were the separatists who believed that the Church of England was a lost cause and they had to create their own

Question 9

What did the puritans want to create

Answer 9

They wanted to build a “city upon a hill” or a holy example for the rest of society to see

Question 10

Writing of the Middle Colonies

Answer 10

• wrote historical documents

- all people were welcomed and loved in this area of America

Question 11

Writing of the Southern Colonies

Answer 11

• wrote historical narratives, journals, and diaries

- had leisure time down south so there was more entertainment literature

Question 12

Pioneers writing

Answer 12

• they were nomadic people

- wrote discoveries, explorations, and narratives

Question 13

John Smith

Answer 13

• wrote the general history of Virginia

- was a map maker and egotist

Question 14

William Bradford

Answer 14

• wrote “of Plymouth Plantation”
• ## was reflected governor of Plymouth 30 times

Question 15

Jonathan Edwards

Answer 15

• was a Puritan minister
• his teachings started the “Great Awakening”
• he wrote “sinners in the hands of an angry God”

Question 16

Edward Taylor

Answer 16

• most talented poet of the colonial period
• wrote with conceits and wrote in the metaphysical school of writing style
• used heroic couplets (2 rhyming lines of Iambic Pentameter)

Question 17

Anne Bradstreet

Answer 17

• first American woman to publish a volume of poetry

- topics of writing were medicine, history, home life, children and husband

Question 18

What are the 4 freedoms

Answer 18

1) speech
2) experiment
3) question
4) arbitrary rulers

Question 19

What were the topics of literature in the revolutionary period

Answer 19

• science
• ethics
• government
• politics

Question 20

What did the people of the colonies start to think in the revolutionary period

Answer 20

They began to think of themselves as Americans and not Englishmen

Question 21

What is the most important literary work of the 18th century

Answer 21

The Declaration of Independence

Question 22

Benjamin Franklin

Answer 22

• chief spokesmen for the colonies
• renaissance man
• helped write and sign the Declaration of Independence

Question 23

Thomas Jefferson

Answer 23

• wrote the Declaration of Independence
• founded the university of virginia
• 3rd president of the United States

Question 24

Thomas Paine

Answer 24

• journalist
• wrote “common sense” and “American Crisis”
• know for his rhetoric and persuasiveness

Question 25

Phillis Wheatley

Answer 25

• poet and slave
• 1st American Slave to publish poetry
• was a big fan of George Washington

Question 26

Patrick Henry

Answer 26

• was a great orator

- was the man who said “ give me liberty or give me death”

Question 27

Michael William John

Answer 27

• wrote about transformation of Europeans into Americans
• wrote “letters from an American farmer”
• his farm was burned down and his family was killed. After this he lost his love for America and moved back to France

Question 28

Who inspired the age of exploration

Answer 28

Christopher Columbus on his explorations for Spain