Puritanism and New England

Literature

March 1, 2011

Li Baojie

The Definition of Puritan The term "Puritan" first began in 1567 (Elizabethan times) as a taunt or insult applied by traditional Anglicans to those who criticized or wished to "purify" the Church of England. In other words, “Puritans” refer to a group of people who grew discontent in the Church of England and worked towards religious, moral and societal reforms.

New England: Although the word is often applied loosely, "Puritan" refers to two distinct groups: "separating" Puritans, such as the Plymouth colonists, who believed that the Church of England was corrupt and that true Christians must separate themselves from it; and non-separating Puritans, such as the colonists who settled the Massachusetts Bay Colony, who believed in reform but not separation.

Puritanism Beliefs Basis of American ethics: Much of what was important about Puritanism is very much alive in the U.S. today. Early in the 20th century the German sociologist Max Weber wrote a book called “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.”

Central position of religion: They emphasized a redemptive piety. Puritans believed that secular governors are accountable to God to protect and reward virtue, and argued that the only head of the Church in heaven or earth is Christ.

Celebrated virtues: Being religious, benevolent and efficient use of God-given resources, thrifty, and industrious. Puritans sought both individual and corporate conformity to the teaching of the Bible, with moral purity pursued both down to the smallest detail.

Family values: big family, and in-marriage sex is not regarded as evil.

Moderate enjoyment of pleasure is tolerated, for special occasions.

Observation of order and law: The doctrine of predestination kept all Puritans constantly working to do good in this life to be chosen for the next eternal one.

Education of young men and free public schools.

The composite photo above brings together some of New England's greatest literary lights. From left to right: John Greenleaf Whittier, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Lothrop Motley, Amos Bronson Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, James Russell Lowell, Louis Agassiz, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Representative Writers of the Colonial Period and American Revolution

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) Thomas Paine (1737-1809) Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) Philip Freneau (1752-1832) Washington Irving (1783-1859)

Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)

Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author and printer, satirist, political theorist, politician, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat.

Question: Why is Franklin regarded as a “secular ideals of the American Enlightenment”? (p.16)

Benjam

in Franklin

Versatile Franklin As a scientist, he was a major figure in the Enlight

enment and his inventions include the lightning rod, bifocals, the Franklin stove, a carriage odometer, and the glass 'armonica'.

As a social activist, he established the first public circulating library and founded the college that later became the University of Pennsylvania.

As a political activist, he was an early proponent of colonial unity and supported the idea of an American nation.

As a diplomat during the American Revolution, he secured the French support.

Franklin as Writer Franklin is credited as being foundational to

the roots of American values and character, a mixture to combine democratic pursuit of freedom and Puritan values of hard work and self-governing disciplines.

He is the co-writer of The Declaration of Independence.

His literary talent is illustrated by his Autobiography.

Thomas Paine

The “Great Commoner of Mankind” with his gift for pamphleteering

Influential works: Common Sense The American Crisis (pp. 29-30, 31-34) Writing style? (Question to be answered

after reading the excerpt)

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

Jefferson Thomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States (1801–09), the principal author of the Declaration of

Independence (1776), and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of republicanism in the United States.

Major events during his presidency include the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806).

Forefather of University of Virginia.

The Louisiana Purchase

It refers to the acquisition by the United States of America of 828,800 square miles of the French territory Louisiana in 1803. The U.S. paid a total cost of $15,000,000 for the Louisiana territory.

Territory Covered by the Purchase

It covers portions of 14 current U.S. states and 2 Canadian Provinces. The land purchased contains all of present-day Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, parts of Minnesota that are west of the Mississippi River, most of North Dakota, nearly all of South Dakota, northeastern New Mexico, the portions of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado east of the Continental Divide, and Louisiana west of the Mississippi River, including the city of New Orleans.

Significance of the Purchase

Jefferson decided to purchase Louisiana because he felt uneasy about France and Spain having the power to block American trade access to the port of New Orleans.

It further blazed the road for the American to move further west to the Pacific coast.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition (1803–1806)

Headed by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, it is the first American overland expedition to the Pacific coast and back.

It is only the second recorded trans-continental crossing of North America north of Mexico by a person not of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

The Poet of American Revolution(1752-1832)

Fair flower, that dost so comely grow, Hid in this silent, dull retreat, Untouched thy honeyed blossoms

blow, Unseen thy little branches greet: No roving foot shall crush thee here, No busy hand provoke a tear. From morning suns and evening dews At first thy little being came: If nothing once, you nothing lose, For when you die you are the same; The space between, is but an hour, The frail duration of flower.

Washington Irving (1783-1859) “Father of American

Literature” His best known short stories

include “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle”.

New England Literature Among the writers most closely associated with New England is

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882). Emerson's beliefs in the mystical unity of nature and the divine, and Thoreau's championing of the simple life in tune with nature's laws, were radical in 19th-century Concord, Massachusetts. Today such unitarian and ecological beliefs are accepted by many people around the world. Along with other writers, Emerson was a founder of the Transcendental movement, and had more effect on American literature than any other New Englander.

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), a friend of Emerson's, is best remembered for Walden, or Life in the Woods(1854). This journal of observations and opinions written during his solitary sojourn (1845-47) on Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts, may be the best-known book on New England. Thoreau was also known for Civil Disobedience, and his accounts of walking trips entitled The Maine Woods and Cape Cod.

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864), was born in Salem, Massachusetts, attended Bowdoin College in Maine, then pursued a career which produced The Scarlet Letter, Twice-told Tales, and The House of the Seven Gables. Hawthorne is thought by many to be the writer who established the truly American short story.

His contemporary, Edgar Allen Poe (1809-1849), was born in Boston, but pursued his career in Virginia.

Among New England poets, the 1800's belonged to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882). Born in Portland, Maine, he attended Bowdoin College, taught at Harvard, and lived in a big yellow house on Brattle Street in Cambridge which is now a historic landmark. Several of Longfellow's poems are so much a part of Americana that many forget that he wrote them: "Paul Revere's Ride," "The Song of Hiawatha," "The Village Blacksmith," "Excelsior," and "The Wreck of the Hesperus" are among the better-known ones.

Few Americans realize that Samuel Clemens (1835-1910), better known as Mark Twain, settled in Hartford, Connecticut at the age of 35. Though Missouri-born, Twain wrote his masterpieces Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn in Hartford, as well as The Prince and the Pauper, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Touring his grand Victorian mansion at Nook Farm is the high point of a visit to Hartford.

Opposite in temperament to the energetic Ms. Stowe was poet Emily Dickenson (1830-1886), a native of Amherst, Massachusetts, who lived there in near seclusion most of her life. Only seven of her poems were published during her lifetime, but the posthumous editing and publishing of nearly 2,000 poems established her reputation. Her influence on American poetry is matched only by that of Robert Frost.

Robert Frost (1874-1963) was born in San Francisco, but his family had lived in New England for generations. He moved to New England early in life, attended Dartmouth and Harvard without taking a degree, and later returned to teach poetry at Amherst and Harvard. His many books capture the quintessence of New England living and the Yankee soul.

Assignment Reading

“The Raven”, “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Poe;

“The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving;

Recommended reading: Autobiography by Franklin;