1)

There is a common main idea connecting the proposed works of William Bradford, Anne
Bradstreet and Mary Rowlandson: the Divine Providence, this is the belief in a divine design
given by God and that marks the future of our vital trajectory, of our life and of everything that
happens to us, be it good or bad.

Already in the fifth line of the first proposed text by William Bradford (excerpt from his famous
work Of Plymouth Plantation) we can find a direct reference to “God’s providence” by affirming
that the death of the profane sailor is a divine punishment, due to his morally and spiritually
despicable behavior. Before looking for direct references in the proposed works and authors, we
would like to stop here to present another key feature in the texts of the three authors and their
interpretation of the Biblical texts: basically, they used Biblical quotations and references to
reinforce a previously established discourse, based, ultimately, on blind faith in the omnipotence
of God.

Let's see it. Continuing with Bradford, we can see how the author intends to draw a parallel
between the voyage across the sea of the Mayflower and its crusade and the one made by Moses
and his followers in the Biblical Exodus, with some references as obvious as the one made to the
Pisgah Mountain on line sixty-one. However, here becomes clear how the author intends to
reinforce the heroic character of the early Pilgrims' crusade, for the reference to Pisgah
Mountain is used to emphasize that, by comparison, the Mayflower travelers encountered even
greater difficulties than the Jewish people guided by Moses: "neither could they, as it were, go
up to the top of Pisgah to view from this wilderness a more goodly country to feed their hopes",
something that we could consider a somewhat free interpretation.

The poems of Bradstreet are quite interesting since we see an ambiguity and ambivalence
among them. One reader is not always sure whether she has that strong attachment to God or
if she questions it. In any case, she uses many Bible quotes and God's allusions. For instance, in
her poem to her husband she uses a quote from the Solomon song to express how much she
loves him, in this case she is making a comparison between secular and divine love. In this poem
the doctrine of the weaned fiction can enter in conflict since she is showing a great deal of love
towards him. So when we can think that maybe she loves more his husband than God, she
employs that quote but showing that she still loves and trust God. However, its in the poem "To
the Burning of Our House.” in which she uses more quotes to compare for instance her sufferings
from those of Job in the bible, when she is crying because of the loss of something material. Job
quote is interesting because she explains by using that how God is the one in charge of giving
and taking away things. This was a common belief among Puritans who trust in the divine
providence, all is part of God's will, we can infer.

Finally, in the work of Mary Rowlandson we find divine providence in how the author thanks God
for giving her the ability to endure her captivity, ending her work with another reference to
Exodus: "Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord" (Exodus 14:13).

2)

Equiano makes use of rhetorical devices such as emotional appeals, citation of authoritative
sources, use of logical proof, among others, to convey specific feelings, emotions and messages,
and to gain credibility. Although he sought support for the anti-slavery movement and was
aware of the importance and capability of the white readers of crushing the slave trade, if they
chose to do so, he was also aware that any mistake on his part would be considered insolent
and could alienate the reader, including the simple fact of writing his autobiography. Thus, in
order to gain support and avoid offending any of his white readers, he made use of a double
voice, creating a balance between a humble, yet moralising tone, based on Christian beliefs and
an Enlightenment man’s firmer and more objective one, and combined travel narrative with
personal statements against the mentioned trade, as well as expressing his feelings and thoughts
through a first person perspective, which brought the readers closer to his story. The humble
tone can be seen throughout his narrative, especially at the beginning of the first chapter, where
he claims that he has chosen not to ‘aspire to praise’, in order to avoid censure. On the other
hand, deep feelings are conveyed through abundant use of adjectives, such as ‘surprised’,
‘hungry’, or ‘scared’, which humanised the black population, seeking to destroy stereotypes, and
particularly the last two paragraphs, where he narrates the selling and separation of relatives
and friends, bring the reader closer to the horrors of his experience and that of black slaves,
through the use of intricate and explicit descriptions. The long, complex, and compound
sentences he makes use of, convey objectivity and demonstrate his as well as his thoughts’
complexity. His narrative contributed to the antislavery movement and to literature.

Phillis Wheatley makes use of an imagery language on her poem “On Being Brought from Africa
to America” which plays with dark/bright as a metaphor of the ignorance and the paganism
against the knowledge and the Christian faith. She was brought from Africa, a 'Pagan land' and
she found in America redemption for her soul, which she refers as “benighted”, synonymous of
ignorant. This word could be also split in three, 'be-night-ed', so this is also a reference to the
darkness. Eventually, in the second part of the poem in spite of the colour of her skin is black,
she advises the Christians that it is not an inconvenience to “join th' angelic train”, that means
to reach the salvation. So, we can find in the poem that the colour of the skin is not related to
the colour of the soul Wheatley uses besides this imagery in the poem To the University of
Cambridge, New England. It's in line 4 where she talks about the “Egyptian bloom” to refer to
his homeland again, and, in line 6 she writes about “those dark abodes”, from where the God's
hand brought her in “safety”. Certainly, she would have never take contact with studies and the
Christian faith if she had stayed in Africa. Anyway, this divine hand was the slave-dealing. “To
His Excellency General Washington” is full of these references. Wheatley evokes the grandiose
neoclassical imagery ornamented with 'bright' since the first line, she evokes here the “Celestial
choir” from the “realms of light”. The author uses several expressions as “she flashes dreadful
in refulgent arms” (line 4); or “bright beams of heaven's revolving light” (line 7), in this line
Wheatley refers to the Sun and its movement, maybe inspired by the memory of this mother
pouring out water at the sunrise. She uses these shiny terms to emphasize the rebel's courage
and to bless them in the Revolutionary War. She aims to build an epic tone with it. In the next
stanza, she continues with this rhetoric and writes about making freedom more human (Liberty)
as a goddess that binds her “golden hear” with olives and laurel (line 10) “wherever it shines the
native of the skies” (line 11). In line 19, Wheatley compares the army with Autumn golden reign'
leaves, it is also a reference from John Milton's Paradise Lost, where he describes the legion of
Satan, “thick as autumnal leaves”. Eventually, in the last stanza, she blesses Washington with
the highest honours: “A crown, a mansion, a throne that shine, with gold unfading, Washington!
Be thine” (line 41 and 42) So, the gold, the blaze, the shinning and similar terms in the poem are
tokens of victory and glory.
Bibliography:

American Literature to 1900. Gibert, Teresa. Editorial Universitaria Ramón Areces. 2009.