American Period Name Period Famous Authors and

Literature Characteristics Works

Timeline Period
Dates
Arrived 40,000 -20,000 B.C Native Americans 1. Oral literature: epic narratives,
creation myths, stories, poems,
songs.
2. Use stories to teach moral
lessons and convey practical
information about the natural world.
3. Deep respect for nature and
animals
4. Cyclical world view
5. Figurative language/parallelism
1600-1800 Puritanism 1. Wrote mostly diaries William Bradford (“Of
First “American” colonies and histories, which Plymouth Plantation”),
established expressed the connections Anne Bradstreet (poetry),
Salem Witch Trials between God an their Jonathan Edwards
everyday lives. (“Sinners in the Hands of
2. Sought to “purify” the an Angry God”), Edward
Church of England by Taylor (“Huswifery”)
reforming to the simpler
forms of worship and
church organization
described in the New
Testament
3. Saw religion as a
personal, inner
experience.
4. Believed in original sin
and “elect” who would be
saved.
5. Used a plain style of
writing
1750-1800 Rationalism 1. Mostly comprised of Benjamin Franklin
Revolutionary War “The Age of Reason” philosophers, scientists, (Autobiography), Patrick
The Constitution, The Bill “The Enlighten- writing speeches and Henry (“Speech to the
of Rights, and The ment” pamphlets. Virginia Convention”),
Declaration of 2. Human beings can Thomas Paine (“The
Independence were arrive at truth (God’s rules) Crisis”), Phyllis Wheatley
created. by using deductive (poetry)
reasoning, rather than
relying on the authority of
the past, on religious faith,
or intuition.
1800-1860 Romanticism 1. Valued feeling, intuition, Washington Irving (“Rip
Industrialization idealism, and inductive Van Winkle”), Emily
War of 1812 reasoning. Dickinson (poetry), Walt
California Gold Rush 2. Placed faith in inner Whitman (Leaves of
experience and the power Grass), Edgar Allan Poe
of the imagination. (“The Raven”), Nathaniel
3. Shunned the artificiality Hawthorne (The Scarlet
of civilization and seek Letter)
 unspoiled nature as a path
to spirituality.
4. Championed individual
freedom and the worth of
the individual.
5. Saw poetry as the
highest expression of the
imagination.
6. Dark Romantics: Used
dark and supernatural
themes/settings (Gothic
style)
1840-1860 Transcendentalism 1. Everything in the world, Ralph Waldo Emerson
Abolitionist, Utopian, and “The American Including human beings, is (Nature, “Self-Reliance”),
Women’s Suffrage Renaissance” a reflection of the Divine Henry David Thoreau
Movements Soul (Walden, Life in the
2. People can use their Woods).
intuition to behold God’s Louisa May Alcott (Little
spirit revealed in nature or Women)
in their own souls.
3. Self-reliance and
individualism must
outweigh external authority
and blind conformity to
tradition