Colonial American literature

Indian tradition

The literature of America is not composed only by colonists' writing. The native Indian oral tradition was very rich even before the arrival of Europeans. Poems were in the form of songs transmitted orally and varied a lot according to the specific tribe and most of Indian poetry requires the knowledge of Indian culture and traditions. Poems were chanted accompanied by musical instruments, often for magical practice of medicine men. Indians did not know European poetic forms so their poems are classified according to their purpose: praise of gods, rites of iniciation, seasonal celebration, chronicles, mourning over the dead, celebration of heroes, about nature or calling the tribe to war. Women could also compose poems since Indian cultural life was not limited only to men. In the native oral poem They Came from the East the European settlement is seen not as victory but as invasion and disaster brought on land and the people.

The very first piece of writing from America was The Journal of the First Voyage of Christopher Columbus (1492) about sighting the new land,  exploration and the conquest. The natives were so different from Europeans that they were considered savages, almost nonhuman and that they should not decide on their territory. Invaders were convinced of their superiority and did not learn anything about the native's culture. The approach of French and Portuguese was different as they often married the natives and accepted their traditions. As a result, many mixed families were willing to accept Christianity without enforcing and the French even supported the Indians in the King Phillip's War against England.

Literature of the first colonists

Europeans imagined America as utopia so the first state was named Virginia = innocent land, and many other places were named after British cities. Yet the climate was humid with many swamps and danger of malaria so not many settlers were willing to come. Working conditions were too severe for Europeans so they brought from Africa first slaves to work on plantations. Rich owners produced sermons, autobiographies, diaries and report of the voyage with geographical descriptions. Especially Elizabethan dramatics were influenced by the image of utopian new continent.

In 1607 the first permanent settlement, the Jamestown, was established. The earliest chronicles and stories were written a sailor and adventurer, captain JOHN SMITH, considered to be the first American writer. He warns about dangers in Virginia, lack of food, diseases and conflicts with Indians. His principal work The General History of Virginia, New England and Summer Isles (1624) contains the first truly American story of his experience with the Indian tribe and how he was saves from death by an Indian princess Pocahontas. However, in reality it was not such a romantic story since she was older and in the end marries another Englishman. Then settlers started to cooperate with tribes and offered them protection for food.

In 1620 the ship called Mayflower transported the English Puritans known as Pilgrims to New England. In the beginning colonists wrote chronicles about how are they were doing, their survival in wilderness, problems they were facing, geographical information and periplus (sailing-around) = description of voyage which influenced Poe, Twain and Melville. WILLIAM BRADFORD, the first governor of the Plymouth Colony, wrote History of Plymouth Plantation.

Puritans presented themselves as New Israelites who found their promised land in America. They did not support art, drama was banned as corrupted and they wrote in plain style which was didactic and used metaphors and allegories only from the Old Testament, inspired by Genesis and Exodus. The only accepted reading was the Bible, chronicles and sermons. Literature was not for not meant for entertainment but to cultivate. The first book published in America in 1640 was Bay Psalm Book which was a collection of 7 parts of Bible from the Old Testament that was compatible with their teachings.

According to the Puritans, each man is either predetermined to be saves or damned and no human could not change the course of events. The only hope was obtaining grace which could not be earned but granted. Puritans lived in constant fear of hell and believed in predetermination. Unfortunately, their belief is still in society such as denying of homosexuality, naked body and relationships with somebody younger than 21 years. Even today, contemporary Puritans believe they were chosen by God as an example to the whole world. They created closed community with strict rules and preaching.

Another popular genre supported by Puritans Indian captivity narrative describes how people got captured by Indians and how they got saved by God. It was the first example of adventure stories about how to survive in wilderness. When French-Indian war started, the Indians were no more seen as helpers but devils despised by Puritans since they were not Christians and lived in wilderness. Puritans considered nature corrupted and evil and there is no positive comment of nature in their literature. This genre combines diaries with religious visions and a bit of adventure. Their capture is seen as a test by God.

MARY ROWLANDSON was constantly referring and comparing her fate to biblical Book of Job (Satan bet with God that Job would lose his faith if something bad happened to him. Therefore, God took everything from him as a trial but Job did not lose his faith. God rewarded him but with new family.). She believed everything with Indians is God´s plan so she should learn from it. Even when her own child died she thought she was just punished for skipping church. In her story The Sovereignty and Goodness of God she describes the King Phillips's War when Indians attacked their settlement in 1675. She calls Indians savages and even devils and refuses to see them as human beings.

ROGER WILLIAMS was exiled from both the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colony because he was interested in Indian culture and he even lived with Indians. His opus is Key to the Language of America.

Puritan poetry

ANNE BRADSTREET published the very first book in American written by a female author, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650), and for that she was admired by European feminists. However, her topics are rather plain; she wrote about common everyday life, her family and what she did during the day. Still, she was sometimes critical of Puritan society that denied women an active role in the culture. She was admired for combining household tasks with spiritual level, writing spiritual poetry.

EDWARD TAYLOR was a very educated man who wrote a collection Preparatory Meditations that is still appreciated. He turned from spiritual to meditative poetry inspired by John Donn and he never published her work because of fear he would be excommunicated.

MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH’s The Day of Doom was published in 1662 it was a bestseller in colonies of the period, a perfect example of plain style with constant allusions to the Bible. Although, this kind of work could not work in Milton´s England after Shakespeare since nobody would take it seriously, Puritans loved it. In stanza 2 it is said that everybody thinks nothing will happened and even those with potential to be good ignore the threat of Hell.  Puritans wanted the day of doom to come as only the right ones would survive. Stanza 6: Christ is dread and will judge people. Doom is supposed to be selection of good and bad people; both living and dead will be summoned with graves opening and the dead coming out.

Animals will also die because world will be torn but they cannot be send to hell nor heaven since they have no souls – they are amoral so cannot be judged and they are going to be just killed. The whole nature will be destroyed as well; it had no value for Puritans. Stanza 8: Puritans had strict rules and if you don’t follow you will be threatened and it does not matter where you come from, there is only one God. Stanza 11: Suicide is not a solution when even the dead are coming back from graves. Stanza 13: There is no hiding place. Puritans did not defend even those who did not meet Christianity (Indians as pagans in stanza 157, their own fault they did not know about God) or anabaptized children since they had original sin of Adam and Eve who ate the fruit of knowledge and became responsible for their doings.

Puritans needed to scare the colonist in the vivid explanations of horrors of Hell. People will burn but not to ashes – just a bit, then recover partly and again with the pain and grief without relieve eternally. Sinner lie in hot iron spikes, all kinds of torture and divided into groups in addition they are watching and listening shrieks of others. The saved one should not pity sinners, they should be happy to see them suffering with no grief (very unchristian) and should celebrated they managed to Heaven. And Christ is taking the good ones to see how enemies are suffering but even Inquisition would not go so far of at least not so publicly.

COTTON MATHER was a Puritan who was collecting all books published in Britain and owned the biggest library in America. He actually read them but never lent them to anybody since he only said how many corruptive things they contained. He wrote Magnalia Christi Americana about religious development in America. He was also associated with Salem witchcraft trials (1692) but he did not agree with executions.

The constant life in fear could not last very long, new immigrant were not all Puritans so they were not willing to lead Puritan way of life. The second generation of immigrants turned away from Puritan heritage and Salem trials mark the end of the strongest religious movement in America, though Puritan thinking is still partly present. The last attempt to keep Puritans as ruling religion was JONATHAN EDWARDS, famous for sermon work Sinners in the Hands of Angry God. He was the last supporter of original sin, eternal damnation and predetermination.