American Literature (Colonial Period)

1607 - 1765
• Colonial American literature emerged from the original U. S. colonies
during the period from 1607 to late 1700s and was largely influenced
by British writers.

• Many of the characteristics of colonial American literature can be

found in the poems, journals, letters, narratives, histories, and
teaching materials written by settlers and historic figures of the
period.

• Colonial American literature includes the writings of Mary

Rowlandson, William Bradford, Anne Bradstreet, John Winthrop and
John Smith.
• THE COLONIAL PERIOD
European nations came to the Americas to increase their wealth
and broaden their influence over world affairs. The Spanish were
among the first Europeans to explore the New World and the first to
settle in what is now the United States.
By 1650, however , England had established a dominant presence
on the Atlantic Coast. The first colony was founded at Jamestown,
Virginia, in 1607. Many of the people who settled in the New World
came to escape religious persecution.
The PILGRIMS founder of Plymouth, Massachusetts, arrived in
1620. in both Virginia and Massachusetts, the colonists flourished with
some assistance from Native Americans.
RELIGION and POETRY
Religion is prominent in colonial American literature and can be
found mostly in the Puritan writings. The Puritans wrote about the
religious foundations of many of their settlements, especially the
exodus from Britain, and employed the constant theme that God
should be worshiped. They also use text that prepared them for
worship.

This literature helped spread the message of God, suggesting that

“life was a test” and the soul would face damnation if that test was
failed. Ambition and hard work were continuously stressed.
• Many of the Puritan works were written in poetry form. Anne
Bradstreet’s poetry, the “Bay Psalm Book” and Pastor Edward Taylor’s
“Preparatory Mediations” are good example of the religious text of
the era. It was the type of writing that led to the Puritanism and
Great Awakening movements. Non-Puritan writers also used religion
to show the religious tension between the colonial settlers and Native
Americans.
GENRES of the PERIOD
The writing of the period varied greatly in terms of quality and
subject, but less so in terms of genre. For the sake of classification, in
fact, all of the literature of the period can be broken down into just ten
genres:

1. Travel writing 6. newspaper

2. Historical writing 7. poetry
3. Religious writing 8. drama
4. Philosophy 9. humor
5. Natural science 10. fiction
AUTH0RS/WRITERS of the PERIOD

Captain John Smith (January 1580 – June 1631)

Admiral of New England, was an English soldier, explorer, and

author. He was considered an important part of the first permanent
English settlement in North America. He was the leader of the Virginia
colony between September 1608 and August 1609, and led the
exploration along the rivers of Virginia and Chesapeake Bay.
Smith’s books and maps are extremely important in the further
colonization of the New World . He gave the name New England to that
region and encouraged people to migrate with the comment , “Here
every man may be master and owner of his owne labour and land. If he
have nothing but his hands, he may by industrie quickly grow rich.”
• William Bradford (March 1590 – May 1657)

English Separatist leader of settlers at Plymouth Colony in

Massachusetts. He served as governor for over 30 years after the
previous governor, John Carver died. His journal (1620-1647) was
published as Of Plymouth Plantation. Bradford is credited as the civil
authority to designate what popular American literature now views as Thanksgiving
in the United States.
Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672)

Anne Bradstreet came to the Massachusetts Bay colony with her

husband and her parents in 1630. The Bradstreet settled in the frontier
village of Andover, where Anne, under difficult conditions that tried her
faith, maintained a household and raised eight children. She had to
defend her right to compose verses, for many Puritans, who did not
disapprove poetry itself, wondered if a woman should write it. Yet her
first book, The Tenth Muse Lately Spring up In America, was published
in England in 1650 and was a great success.
William Byrd (1674-1744)

The New England Puritans wrote so much and so vividly that they
tend to dominate early American literature. Americans settlers were
Puritans. In the Southern colonies, especially , other English settlers
had founded prosperous plantations and communities with a style of
life unlike that of New England.
William Byrd was one of the most brilliant of the Southern
landowning aristocracy. These Southern gentry modelled themselves
on the English upper classes, taking pride in stately homes furnished
with fine china, paintings, and books. Though hardworking and
religious, they were not afraid of some of the worldly pleasure that the
Puritans shuned.