Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Unit 1
KEY IDEA America’s early explorers traveled for many reasons: to gain
glory for themselves or for their countries, to find gold or other riches, to
discover new routes for travel and trade. Yet none of these motivators
alone seems enough to make the uncertainties of exploration–unknown
destinations, unknown rewards, unknown dangers–worth the risk. What is
it that causes people to seek out the unknown?
Unit 1
Unit 1
KEY IDEA Puritan settlers believed that human beings were sinful
creatures doomed to a fiery eternity unless saved by the grace of God.
Yet others who came to North America celebrated the powers of reason
and proclaimed the goodness and intrinsic worth of humans. Are people
destined always to struggle against their basest instincts? Or are they
fundamentally good–and capable of becoming even better?
Unit 1
Unit 1
KEY IDEA For centuries, European kings and queens had ruled because it
was believed that they had a God-given right to do so. But in the Age of
Enlightenment, people began to question basic assumptions about
government. In America, a popular uprising put a new kind of government to
the test: democracy. With this experiment, the young American nation was
asking: Who really has the right to rule?
Early American Writing
Early writers focused on describing and trying to
make sense out of their challenging and new
environment
Millions of people lived in the Americas before
the arrival of the Europeans
First relationships between Native Americans and
Europeans was cooperative, until the Europeans
began to force them off their land
From a colony to a country
First colony – Founding fathers,
Jamestown (1607) Franklin, Jefferson,
Loyal to England but Hancock, etc. wrote
not represented Declaration of
Broke from England Independence
and declared “free Adopted in 1788 –
and independent” in United States was
1776 born
Cultural influences
Puritan beliefs and
values directed
people’s lives
Struggle with sin a
daily mission
Felt humans were
sinful; some “elect
would be spared from
hell
Ideas of the age
Burst of intellectual The Great Awakening
energy – – fear that Puritan
Enlightenment values were being lost
Called for people to
Questioned who
rededicate
should hold power themselves
“Give me liberty or Unified colonists
give me death!” and set new
Emphasized reason standards
Emphasized emotion
Early American Literature
Native American Explorers and Early
Experience Settlers
300 cultures, over Journals, diaries,
200 languages letters and logs of
One common first settlers
activity – (Christopher
storytelling Columbus)
Much oral tradition Settlers wrote home
was lost to European and described the
diseases landscape
The Puritan Tradition
Believed writing was
a tool to help
understand the Bible
Logic, clarity and
order are emphasized
in their style
Sermons warn the
dangers of sinful
ways
Puritan poets
Anne Bradstreet
Edward Taylor
Poetry is a means of
exploring the
relationship between
the individual and
God
Writers of the revolution
Focused energies on Thomas Paine
matters of government Wrote Common Sense
rather than religion Argued that American
Publication of pamphlets had a special destiny to
– 1763-1783 be a model to the rest of
the world
Fueled the Welcome people from
revolution around the world to its
Reached thousands free society
quickly
Writing that launched a nation
Declaration of
Independence
Argued that natural
law would govern
(people are born
with rights and
freedoms)
Government protects
those freedoms
Other significant writers
Phillis Wheatley – wrote poems and letters
about the rights of African-Americans