2. 1700-1776 The Pursuit of Happiness

Prose. The previous chapter described a variety of non-fictional genres known in the 17 th

century, which continued to develop in the 18th century, but there was an important change.

Fiction was the most important addition: late in the 18th century there appeared the first

American novels and short stories.

Before fiction, numerous authors wrote journals and autobiographical narratives, as well as

political and religious prose. J o n a t h a n E d w a r d s (1703-1758) and B e n j a m i n

F r a n k l i n (1706-1790) are two important authors of such texts. The contrast between

Franklin and Edwards is a good example of change that occurred in America (and in Europe)

in the 18th century: the transition into the radically optimistic and revolutionary phase of the

Enlightenment. (In America, this transition was concurrent with the historical movement

which led to the American Revolution in 1775, the Declaration of Independence in 1776, and

development of democratic federal government.) Edwards belonged to the past (the Puritan

past), and treated himself and the world as cryptic signs of God’s will; his attitude this life

was not full of pride and hope, but rather anxious and inquisitive. Franklin, on the other hand,

was a great believer in individual and collective progress, which stemmed from his pride

about humanity and great trust in human intelligence. He was, of course, also a religious

believer, but his God was a benevolent, deist engineer who whose greatest works were human

beings. In other words, Edwards was closer to the doubting rationalism of Descartes, and

Franklin was closer to the optimistic (rational and deistic) empiricism of Voltaire.

Jonathan Edward’s Personal Narrative (1739) is an intimate account of the religious

conversion he underwent in his youth, and of the ecstatic state of mind afterwards. The book

is not a journal, but an autobiography written by a mature man looking back at his life.

Edward’s approach is individualistic and introspective, which supposedly makes the narrative

distinctly American. Thus, although Edwards does not share Franklin's pride and enthusiasm

about being human, both authors' autobiographies are similar in a way. The narrative recalls

several important moments of solitude, when Edwards feels in communion with God and

nature; these moments are most precious for him, and bring the most important spiritual

advancements. In a way, there is nothing special (i.e. distinctly American or Edwardsian)

about such moments, because everyone experiences them in one way or another. However, in

the 19th century similar moments were described in a manner which is strikingly similar to

Edward's narrative, e.g. in Ralph Waldo Emerson's Nature (1836), and Henry David

Thoreau's Walden (1854). The similarity points out to some sort of continuity, if not in

America, then at least in New England, of an optimistic belief in the possibility of the

individual search for an absolute, spiritual reality (transcendence) in a single human soul.

However, Edwards is not only the author of Personal Narrative; he wrote numerous works of

theology, natural science, history, as well as a great number of sermons. In spite of his

intensive religious sentiment, he was influenced by contemporary English philosophy of the

Enlightenment, e.g. by Berkeley and Locke. Edward’s writings range from a treatise Of

Insects (1751), through A Treatise concerning Religious Affections (1746), through The Great

Christian Doctrine of Original Sin Defended (1758), to a major philosophical inquiry into the

freedom of will entitled (another long title), A Careful and Strict Enquiry into the Modern

Prevailing Notions of that Freedom of the Will Which Is Supposed to Be Essential to Moral

Agency, Virtue and Vice, Reward and Punishment, Praise and Blame (1754), which was

influenced by the views of Locke and Hobbes.

Edwards is also author of many sermons, including what became the most famous (among

modern students) of all Puritan sermons, although it was written and delivered when

Puritanism was becoming a thing of the past. However, the fact that Puritan sentiments could

be periodically rekindled in a series of the so called revivals, indicates that these fervent

attitudes were an enduring trait of New England culture. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry

God (1741) was a sermon delivered during the first of the revivals, called the Great

Awakening. The sermon is based on a terrible image of human beings awaiting the inevitable

fall into hell, like spiders hanging on their threads. Their fate had been decided before they

knew it, before they were even born.

At first sight, Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography (modern title) represents human life in an

entirely different way from Edward's narrative, as if the two authors lived in two different

worlds (which they did not). Franklin's book was first published in French in Paris (1791),

and then translated into English and published in London (1795) as The Private Life of the

Late Benjamin Franklin, LL.D. ... (the title goes on and on through sixteen lines!). At that

time, people both in France and England were excited about the prospects of the newly

independent, democratic nation in America, and searched for the new human being who

would be its perfect example of it. Franklin, or rather his autobiography, came to be this

example. His life is logically predictable and optimistically designed: Franklin seems to

believe that with good planning and systematic effort it is possible to do anything you want

with your life. For instance, he plans to train himself to be virtuous (frugal, hard-working,

energetic) by means of a sort of virtue-table with scheduled assignments and notes. He also

leaves his fiancée for London (admits it as the big mistake of his life), and then wins her love

back, when he returns after several years. He manages a similar reunion with his family in

Boston, years after he run away to Philadelphia to start his own life (the scene of arrival in

Philadelphia is probably the most famous fragment). Smaller feats include getting rich,

learning whatever he wants to, and remaining fit and healthy till the end of his life. In other

words, Franklin is not only able to do whatever good thing he wants to, but also to undo

whatever bad things he has done. Time and other people never seem to be a hindrance in the

world of Franklin's Autobiography. This genuinely American approach to life is one of the

perennial themes of American literature: some authors believe it, others do not, but few seem

to forget it. Europe, then as now, is looking in amazement.

Despite these differences, both Edwards and Franklin are highly individualistic in their

autobiographies; they share the belief in the value and importance of individual decisions and

introspection. Another, perhaps related quality, was the universal curiosity of both authors,

who fervently, all their lives, tried to understand the world they lived in; they were polymaths.

Their interests included natural sciences, geography, history, politics, theology, and both

authors produced volumes about these areas of knowledge.

Apart from the Autobiography, Franklin (like Edwards) wrote numerous and very varied

works. While in London, for instance, he published A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity,

Pleasure and Pain (1725), which is a deistic philosophical discussion of the freedom of will

and its relation to God. Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac, which he published yearly and

successfully from 1732 on, includes a stock of American common-sense and optimism. Rules

by Which a Great Empire May be Reduced to a Small One (1773) is a political satire on

colonialism. Apart from these books and pamphlets, Franklin published numerous articles in

scientific journals of his time.

Apart from Edwards and Franklin, numerous persons wrote non-fictional narratives that

present today's readers with a panorama of life in the colonies. Those narratives, as evidence

of life, thoughts and feelings in those times, in the 18 th century are still on a par with fiction.

In the 19th century, when “literature” became more like it is today, fiction will overshadow

them. Examples include very different people, cultural backgrounds, and walks of life. They

can be divided geographically (for variety), to reflect (as well as possible here) the cultural

geography of English colonies in America.

Prose in New England (Northern Colonies). Apart from Edwards, who was undoubtedly the

greatest non–fiction of 18th century New England, and Franklin, who left New England for

Philadelphia (in Pennsylvania, one of the middle colonies), New England is represented

(among others, of course) by J o h n W i s e (1652-1725), S a r a h K e m b l e K n i g h t

(1666-1727), S a m s o n O c c o m (1723-1792), and B r i t o n H a m m o n (?, fl. 1760).

John Wise belonged to the same cultural group as Jonathan Edwards; he wrote liberal

theological treatises, e.g. A Vindication of the Government of New-England Churches (1717).

His arguments favored democracy and civil liberty; he was a sort of liberal counterpart of

Jonathan Edwards. Sarah Kemble Knight’s Journal (published only in 1825) records the

journey she made in 1704-05 from Boston to New York (a protracted journey of over 300

kilometers, between New England and Middle Colonies). Knight’s account is incisive,

satirical, and realistic; it provides a sober and funny panorama of American habits, attitudes

(weaknesses), and cultures in early 18th century.

Samson Occom and Briton Hammon provide some of the first recorded (i.e. written down)

narratives of the oppressed and forgotten cultures. Their personal narratives, unlike Benjamin

Franklin’s success story, are built on the ethos of resistance and survival, not against nature

and fate, but against other people (i.e. the whites); it is an altogether different way of defining

American identity, a different American tradition. Occom’s A Short Narrative of My Life

(unpublished until 1982) was written in 1768; it is one of the first Indian autobiographies.

Occom was a Mohegan educated to be a teacher and a divine; he was ordained as a

Presbyterian minister of religion. Because of his duties, he wrote numerous hymns and

sermons, but today he is best remembered for the short personal narrative. It records his

education, teaching and missionary work, and travel to Europe. It also records discrimination

and maltreatment he suffered as an Indian. Britton Hammon, a black slave servant, wrote his

Narrative of the Uncommon Sufferings, and Surprizing Deliverance of Britton Hammon, a

Negro Man (1760) to record his terrible adventures in Florida, where he sailed as common

seaman, and where he was captured by Indians. Hammon’s work is one of many captivity

narratives, similar to Mary Rowlandson’s A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration

(discussed in previous chapter). It is unusual, however, because of its geographical location

on the Atlantic rim (where numerous cultures and social groups mixed and fought, then as

now), because of the author’s social position (he makes conscious comments about his

inferior status), and because it is the first autobiographical narrative written by a Black

American.

Royall TylerThe Federalist PapersCharoline Mantle WarrenMORE NOVELISTS!Olaudah EquianoThomas Godfrey

Prose in Middle Colonies. The middle colonies were Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New

York. Compared with New England, they were characterized greater cultural variety, more

liberal attitudes and greater tolerance. Middle Colonies were settled by immigrants of

different national and religious backgrounds (Germans in Pennsylvania, the Dutch in New

York, Catholics in Maryland, Quakers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey). Quakerism, a

denomination traditionally associated with Pennsylvania and other middle colonies, is notable

for its tolerance, charity, and opposition to slavery (although some Quakers would own

slaves; apparently no division can be simple and absolute). The most famous writers include

(apart from Benjamin Franklin) John Woolman (1720-1772), Olaudah Equiano (1745-1792).

John Woolman’s Journal (1774) records his lifelong effort to promote and live up to

humanitarian indeals. Woolman, being a Quaker, opposed slavery, social injustice, and

luxury. His other writings include an anti-slavery essay, Some Considerations on the Keeping

of Negroes (1754), and A Word of Remembrance and Caution to the Rich (1793), which

promotes social egalitarianism.

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vasa, the African

(1789, another American book published first in London) was the most important and

autobiographical narrative by a Black American before Frederick Douglass’s Narrative

(1845). Importantly, Equiano purchased his freedom (from a Quaker master in Philadelphia)

and immediately left America, never to return again (he lived in London and various regions

of the Atlantic Rim, and traveled to Turkey, Italy, and South America). For him, America was

not a land of new hope, and his narrative records injustice, intolerance, and suffering as the

most important qualities of American life; another example of traditions radically different

from Franklin’s individualist success story, or Puritan God-assisted expansion. The

Interesting Narrative contains graphic (drastic) descriptions of slave trade and racist violence.

Equiano was probably the first American Black who had a chance to write openly and

eloquently against slavery. His book referred to the ideals of the Enlightenment (humanity,

reason, logic), and gained great popularity in his time.

Prose in Southern Colonies. Although slaves were owned in all colonies, slavery came to be

associated with forced labor at tobacco and cotton plantations in the South. These colonies

were primarily Episcopalian (Church of England), and aristocratic, since plantations and

slaves were usually owned by members of British aristocracy. As authors of non–fiction,

Southern aristocrats produced works of great elegance, wit, and eloquence. Examples include

W i l l i a m B y r d (1674-1744), W i l l i a m B a r t r a m (1739-1823), and A l e x a n d e r

S p o t s w o o d (1676-1740).

Byrd was an opposite to the Puritan views and way of life. He was a rich planter, open to

sensual pleasures and closed to anxious introspection. His non-fiction writings were not

intended for publication, and became available to the public only in 1841, as Westover

Manuscriptis. These include History of the Dividing Line Run in the Year 1728, which is a

satirical and pessimistic description of the Western frontier, and two more travelogues: A

Journey to the Land of Eden in the Year 1733, and A Progress to the Mines, in the Year 1732.

Bird is also remembered for his Diary (published and deciphered only in 1941), which

includes intimate and witty descriptions of everyday life.

William Bartram also wrote travelogues, and is remembered for his Travels through North

and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida (1791), which ostensibly is a scientific

work, with detailed descriptions of plants and animals, but includes vivid meditations of

nature, which is represented in almost a mystical way. Alexander Spotswood, governor of

Virginia from 1710 to 1722, wrote Official Letters (published in 1882) which describe the

state and its history.

Many architects of American independence and constitution were Southern aristocrats, e.g.

George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Their elitist (and defunct) vision of American

democracy will be discussed separately the subsequent section.

Political writings of the American Revolution. When American colonies declared

independence in 1776, they technically (and in practice) became independent states. The

exceptional thing about them was that none of the states was a monarchy or principality, all

were republics. (At that time there were very few republics, and they were very small, e.g.

Venice and Switzerland.) Together, the states fought and won the War of American

Independence, and then decided to form a union. This union, to the astonishment of the rest of

the world, was also a republic. It became the greatest democratic (less than more, but still)

country in the world. Before French Revolution (1789), no large country, other than the

United States, was a republic. The idea of a large republic was by no means obvious, and with

many people (in Europe and America) it was not popular; for many it was difficult to imagine.

Therefore, in the first years of the independence, especially when American Constitution

(1787) was being prepared, there was a considerable debate about the future government of

the Union. Then as now, this debate is an important and extremely interesting event in the

history of ideas.

Among numerous authors who took part in the debate, there were H e c t o r S t . J o h n D e

C r è v e c o e u r (1735–1813), T h o m a s P a i n e (1737–1809), T h o m a s J e f f e r s o n

(1743–1826), A l e x a n d e r H a m i l t o n (1757–1804), J a m e s M a d i s o n (1751–1836),

G e o r g e W a s h i n g t o n (1732–1799), and J o h n A d a m s (1735–1826). Crèvecoeur, a

French author whose actual name was Michel–Guillaume Jean de Crèvecoeur (he lived in

America for 36 years), is best remembered for his Letters from an American Farmer (1782), a

description of rural life in an idealized democratic America. Crèvecoeur praises America as

home of the “new man” of unlimited possibilities, which is similar to Benjamin Franklin’s

autobiography. Another foreigner, Thomas Paine, wrote very popular pamphlets which

advocated American independence and democratic ideas: Common Sense (1776), The Right of

Man (1791–92), The Age of Reason (1794–1796). Neither Crèvecoeur nor Paine took part in

the actual shaping of the democratic government of the Union; their social position was too

low for that. Among the important citizens (politicians) who actually did it, the most

important division was that between federalists and antifederalists. Federalists were

advocates of a strong federal (central) government, more or less the way it exists today, and

the powers of the Union federal government would limit the sovereignty of each state

(especially the Southern states). Federalists, as a political party, were replaced by Whigs, and

then (in the 1850s) by today’s Republican Party. Antifederalists, on the other hand, opted for

a loose confederacy of semi-independent states (the doctrine of “state laws”). The Democratic

Party of today stems from the antifederalist movement.

The most important antifederalist, and one of the most important of all political writers in

America, was Thomas Jefferson, one of the key figures of the American Revolution (he

drafted the Declaration of Independence, was a congressman and president of the United

States). Opposing any form of strong government in favor of individual liberties, he expressed

liberal ideas in The Declaration of Independence (1776), and in the Bill of Rights (i.e. a series

of amendments, providing for individual liberties, to the Constitution of the United States).

Apart from political documents, Jefferson expressed his ideas in only book, Notes on the State

of Virginia (1784), ostensibly a geographical and statistical description, but in fact a complex

philosophical essay. Jefferson, like Edwards and Franklin, was a polymath, and published

numerous letters and essays on varied subjects, e.g. “Thoughts on English Prosody” (1786), or

“Plan for Establishing Uniformity in the Coinage, Weights, and Measures of the United

States” (1790).

Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, on the other hand, advocated strong, centralized

government (urbanization and industrialization) as the necessary qualities of the future United

States. The principal political achievement of the federalists was the Constitution of the

United States (1787): first it had to be written (written so that no state objected), and then the

states had to be persuaded to ratify it and join the Union (which was the major political

victory of the federalists). The Constitution, based on the idea of a centralized, republican,

federal government, was highly innovative and provoked much controversy. Hamilton and

Madison (and other proponents of the Constitution) defended it in The Federalist (1787-

1788), an important work of political theory.

For two more notable examples of 18th century political writing, George Washington’s

Farewell Address (1793) is a warning against internal strife and a call for a consistent foreign

policy, and John Adam’s A Defence of the Constitution of the United States of America (1787-

1788) presents an aristocratic version of the republican government, with a limited access to

power. (The United States were initially an aristocratic republic, not the democracy we know

today. Modern popular suffrage rights for white men were introduced only in the 1830s, black

men formally could vote only in 1864, and women only in 1926.)

Fiction. Late 18th century saw the beginnings of modern fiction (i.e. novels, tales, and short

stories) in America. From the beginning, like it did in Europe, fiction (or actually novel)

showed great potential for self–transformation, which resulted with a great variety of sub-

genres, most importantly novel of manners, sentimental novel, and romance (i.e. fiction

whose theme was historical adventure and/or Gothic horror). In America, the main

characteristic of early fiction was didacticism of the novel, flourishing of easily adopted

Gothic romance, and attempts at use of American themes. The opposition between novel and

romance remained important throughout the 19th century, although the two sub-genres cannot

be easily divided, or even clearly defined. The most important authors of early fiction include

W i l l i a m H i l l B r o w n (1765-1793), H a n n a h W . F o s t e r (1759-1840), S u s a n n a

R o w s o n (1752-1824), T a b i t h a T e n n e y (1762-37), S a r a h S a y w a r d B a r r e l l

K e a t i n g W o o d (1759-1855), H u g h H e n r y B r a c k e n r i d g e (1748-1816), and (by a

chronological stretch) C h a r l e s B r o c k d e n B r o w n (1771-1810).

William Hill Brown is credited with writing the first American novel, The Power of Sympathy

(1789). It is a sentimental novel, set in American and in England, with a didactically

presented theme of true virtue overcoming obstacles and leading to a happy marriage (with

seduction, sin, and suicide as the dark side of the plot). Seduction was an important theme of

sentimental novel, e.g. Susanna Rowson’s Charlotte Temple (1791), and Hannah W. Foster’s

The Coquette (1797). These earliest examples were followed by numerous other sentimental

novels. The vogue of sentimental didacticism inspired many, equally popular parodies, e.g.

Tabitha Tenney’s Female Quixotism (1801), about a young woman who has read too many

sentimental novel, and like Don Quixote, tries to behave like a novelistic heroine, and cannot

distinguish truth from fiction.

Apart from sentimental novel, there were other sub-genres as well. For an exceptional

instance, Hugh Henry Brackenridge’s Modern Chivalry (1792-1815) is a satirical novel, a

predecessor of the realistic novel of manners. Another, more prolific, sub-genre was the

Gothic romance. The earliest representatives of American Gothic are Sarah Sayward Barrell

Keating Wood (Sally Wood) and Charles Brockden Brown. Wood’s Julia and the Illuminated

Baron (1800) was followed by three more romances with lush, exotic settings (including a

fantastic Poland), demonic characters, and terrible scenes. Brown’s romances attempted to

transplant the Gothic into American scenery, using frontier violence, isolation, and madness

as sources of horror, which the author did in Wieland (1798), and Edgar Huntly; or Memoirs

of a Sleep-Walker (1799). Brown’s horror initiated the American variety of Gothic, which

combined mundane imagery (supposedly normal village houses, fields and forests, and wild

landscape of the frontier) with depths of madness and horrible violence (psycho-Gothic). This

was arguably a crazed version of the Puritan imagination, and it has become an enduring sub-

genre of American fiction until today.

Other than Gothic, romance included what today is called historical novel and adventure

novel. J e r e m y B e l k n a p (1744-1798), a historian of the American Revolution, was the

author of one of America’s first historical romances, The Foresters: An American Tale

(1792), about the Revolutionary War. R o y a l l T y l e r (1757-1826) wrote an early adventure

romance, The Algerine Captive: or, The Life and Adventures of Doctor Updike Underhill

(1797), a sort of fictional captivity narrative with pirates of Algiers instead of Indians.

Poetry. In comparison with the 17th century, when poetry was dominated by New England

authors (Puritan poetry), the 18th century saw rise of poetry in middle and Southern colonies,

with new themes, attitudes, and types of imagination. Another important development was the

continuing English influence; in the 17th century American poetry was similar to English

metaphysical poetry, whereas in the 18th century many American poets were influenced by the

Augustian (neoclassical) standards of poetic taste in England (i.e. John Dryden and Alexander

Pope).

Before American Revolution, the best known example of poetry in Middle Colonies is a

single long poem by E b e n e z e r C o o k e (?-1730), who wrote a satirical mock-epic about

Maryland, The Sot-Weed Factor (1708). Formally, it is written in heroic couplets, like John

Dryden’s satires and heroic epics. The poem recounts a disastrously unsuccessful attempt of

an Englishman to settle in America. Cooke’s Maryland, shown in a bawdy and down-to-earth

manner, is an inhospitable place with all the humorously described human vices reigning

among colonists, like they did in the old country. In comparison with Puritan poetry, Cooke’s

perspective is sensual (today we’d say materialistic), i.e. it includes no spiritual (symbolic)

meaning of the mundane images. Similarly unlike Puritan poetry, The Sot-Weed Factor is a

pessimistic poem, which does not treat the colonies as places where life could begin anew

(and in a better way) for settlers. The poem, thus, ridicules myths about moral superiority of

America, and about America as a place of new beginning. By this way of reading, Cooke’s

poem inspired an important modern novel, John Barth’s The Sot-Weed Factor (1959).

More than a generation later, an entire constellation of American poets followed the aesthetic

standards of the Augustian age: A n n i s B o u d i n o t S t o c k t o n (1736-1801), P h i l i p

F r e n e a u (1752-1832), and P h i l l i s W h e a t l e y (c. 1753-1784); these poets, with wit and

elegance required by their time, wrote personal poetry and expressed the public (national,

political) aspirations of their nascent country.

Annis Boudinot Stockton was a wealthy citizen of New Jersey, and with her social standing

she could promote intellectual and artistic life of the region. Her poetry was circulated in

manuscripts and intended for public reciting during social meetings (following the etiquette of

high society in England), but she also published several poems in contemporary (monthly)

magazines and (weekly) newspapers. In personal poems, e.g. “To my Burissa—” (1757), or

“Tears of friendship …” (?) Stockton uses conventional forms of Augustan poetry (ode, elegy,

pastoral) to express feelings (both poems are about friendship). Her poems with public themes

include “A Sarcasm against the ladies in a newspaper; An impromptu answer” (1756) and

“An ode on the birth day of the illustrious George Washington, President of the United

States” (1790).

Philip Freneau, much lower on the social ladder than Stockton, was famous as a revolutionary

poet, whose fervent patriotic sentiments were expressed in a variety of poetic forms: satires,

elegies, and heroic verse (but no major heroic epic). He also wrote lyric poetry inspired by

beauty of nature. The best remembered poems include the elegy “To the Memory of Brave

Americans” (1781), and lyrical poems such as “To a Wild Honeysuckle” (1786), or “The

Indian Burying Ground” (1788). Most of his poems, e.g. “On Mr. Paine’s Rights of Man”

(1795) or “On the Religion of Nature” (1815) were verse commentaries on the contemporary

political and intellectual concerns of the American Revolution.

Phillis Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773)1 was the first

poetry book of an American Black, and thus may be regarded as the starting point of the

tradition of American black writing, and American black woman writing. Wheatley was a

1 Like many American books, Wheatley’s Poems were at first published in England (in London). There are many examples of famous American books that were first published there, e.g. Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. The practice indicates strong cultural links between both countries (and England’s domination in publishing).

slave servant with a Boston merchant family, who provided her with an education

characteristic of their class. Like with Stockton and Freneau, her poetry follows the formal

conventions of Augustan Age. Thematically, Wheatley’s work includes religious poems, e.g.

“Thoughts on the Works of Providence” (1773), celebratory poems written for public

occasions, e.g. “To the University of Cambridge, in New England” (1773) or “On the Death

of the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield” (1773), and similar patriotic poems about the American

Revolution, e.g. “To His Excellency General Washington” (1775-76). Wheatley’s most

important theme, however, was her identity and status as a Black, a woman, and a slave. “On

Being Brought from Africa to America” (1773), “To S.M., a Young African Painter, on

Seeing His Works” (1773). Together with the narratives of Olaudah Equiano and Samson

Occom, Wheatley’s poems are among the first surviving texts of the American literature

written by the underprivileged and excluded ethnic groups.

More or less at the same time (the Revolutionary period) three poets formed (informally) what

can be described as the first American poetic group. J o h n T r u m b u l l (1750-1831),

T i m o t h y D w i g h t (1752-1817), and J o e l B a r l o w (1754-1812) are grouped together

as The Connecticut Wits, and their goal was to emulate the success (both in England and in

America) of Augustian epic poems, such as those written by Alexander Pope (e.g. An Essay

on Man of 1733-34). At the same time, The Connecticut Wits tried to create a heroic epic of

the newly independent United States, and create a convincing, delightful, poetic vision of its

future glory. In accordance with the canons of Augustian poetry, the epic poems were written

in heroic couplets, and used conventional rhetoric devices, rules of composition, typical

figures and imagery (but there were exceptions, of course, especially among shorter poems).

Examples (very long and dignified poems) include Dwight’s The Greenfield Hill (1794),

where idealized images of a rural community stand for the prosperity of a future American

empire, and Barlow’s The Vision of Columbus (1787), which was later expanded into The

Columbiad (1807). In accordance with Augustian genre division, heroic epic poems were

written in parallel with their satirical or half-mocking idyllic equivalents, e.g. Trumbull’s

M’Fingal (1775), a satire on the Tories (i.e. American loyalists who opposed independence),

and Barlow’s mock-heroic country idyll, The Hasty Pudding (1793), which, among those

poems, is perhaps the most accessible one for today’s reader.

Interestingly, Joel Barlow is perhaps the only major American author who died and was

buried in Poland. Serving as American diplomatic observer with Napoleon’s army, he saw its

advance and retreat from Russia. Subsequently, while traveling through southern Poland, he

contracted pneumonia and died in Żarnowiec, a village about 80 kilometers north of Kraków.

The church in Żarnowiec has a memorial plaque founded by a Polish officer who was present

at Barlow’s death. There is also a small modern monument founded by the American

diplomatic service.

Drama. Puritan attitudes (and parochialism of life in general) delayed the development of

dramatic art in the colonies. For instance, drama was banned as indecent entertainment in

Philadelphia until 1787, and until 1791 in Boston. After the bans were lifted, professional

(English) theatrical groups almost immediately staged first plays, mostly English ones, but

also plays written in America. T h o m a s G o d f r e y (1736-1763) may be placed as “the

first” (very unlikely, especially with Indian dramatic narrative art) American dramatist. His

The Prince of Parthia (1765) was staged in 1767; it was the first American tragedy performed

in English colonies. It is written in blank verse, and similar to Shakespeare’s tragedies. The

first professionally (and legally) staged American play, The Contrast (published 1790) was a

comedy written by Royall Tyler, and staged in 1787 (in New York). This moment is

considered to be the beginning of American drama (i.e. drama in English, for and by whites).

The Contrast is a didactic comedy about, well, the contrast between English (i.e. snobbish)

and American (natural and unpretentious) attitudes. The play introduces a shrewd and

spontaneous Yankee (Jonathan) as the positive stereotype of American attitudes; this

character will have many followers both in drama and in fiction. Tyler was a prolific author

(drama, fiction, poetry), but few of his plays survived. Apart from Tyler, early American

dramatists include William Dunlap, Mercy Otis Warren, John. B. Burk, and Joseph Hutton.

Selective quality of this outline. The previous sections introduced numerous writers and

works, but still they do not convey a proper idea of how much was going on in American

literature even at this early stage. For instance, the section about novel lists The Power of

Sympathy (1789) and Charlotte Temple (1791) as if they were the first and second American

novels. When, in fact, they were separated by dozens of texts. The list below is based on

Cambridge History of American Literature. It becomes even denser in the 19th century, and it

is still selective. What is selected, who selects, and how, is an interesting question for every

reader, even a reader of this outline.

1789

William Hill Brown’s The Power of Sympathy is published, all right, and then:

William Dunlap’s drama The Father, or American Shandyism.

Olaudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative comes out in London (pirated in America only

1798).

Thomas Jefferson writes Thoughts on English Prosody.

Jedidiah Morse’s The American Geography is one of the most popular books.

David Ramsay published The History of the American Revolution.

1790

Benjamin Rush’s Account of the Climate of Pennsylvania.

Sarah Wentworth Morton’s Ouabi; or he Virtues of Nature is an early example of women

poetry.

Judith Sargent Murray publishes the feminist essay “On the Equality of the Sexes” in The

Massachusetts Magazine.

Royall Tyler publishes The Contrast in book form.

Mercy Otis Warren’s Poems, Dramatic and Miscenllaneous.

1791

William Bartram’s Travels.

Alexander Hamilton presents Report on Manufactures, an early pro-industrial political

manifesto.

Much has been said and written about 1620, when first Puritans arrived in New England: that

they went to America in search of freedom, that they brought “American values” of

independence and self-reliance, etc. Their ship, the Mayflower, has become an American icon.

Not quite as much has been said and written about another ship, which brought the first Black

slaves to Virginia in 1619. That was one year before Puritans. Instead of independence and

freedom, it brought such “American values” as defiance and stubborn resistance to

oppression. It also brought slavery and contempt for other human beings: are those two also

“American values”?