Colonial Prose

The movement

• The Colonial period spans from around the beginning of the 1600s to the end of the 1700s.
• It was usually written by men and women who came and remained in American colonies and wrote about the American experiences.
• They usually came to whichever part of the continent they found, bearing their culture from England: class, religion, and generation.
• New comers were mainly looking for economical opportunities, land, and cheap labour. Although there were many fleeing from religious persecution.

Characteristics

• They also wrote about their spiritual feelings and experiences, remembering that many migrated for religious purposes.
• The works they wrote were to be enjoyed by the reader as adventure tales of lands they would never visit in reality; or as fantastic tales to persuade people to come and settle in the New World.
• These works by new explorers contained how to navigate the New World, documenting experiences which proved practical to those who planned to follow.
• There were differences between northern and southern literature from the beginning: the south had huge plantations and used black slaves to grow tobacco; in the north, Puritan settlers were creating a society based on strict Christian beliefs.
• In the north, they avoided frills and extras in their lives, and this showed in their style of literature which was also plain.
• Some writing highlighted the differences between European and Native American cultures.
• There was an underlying sense that it was the “white-man’s” moral duty to civilize other nations, and it was for “the uncivilised’s” own good.
• Many indigenous people were moved from their homeland by Western European leaders and merchants, to fill the shortage of labour in the new colonies.
• Although some wrote for entertainment, others wrote for political reasons, especially the years before the American Revolution, they articulated their worries about British rule, and their natural rights in life; whilst others expressed concern about how a powerful centralised government could be dangerous for individual liberties.

Puritanism

• This period is generally considered to span from 1620, when the Mayflower set sail, until 1750. Those aboard the ship became known as the pilgrims.
• Puritans believe in ‘Predestination’ which is the belief that God decides where you go in the afterlife, independent of how you have behaved during your lifetime. You have no control over events, as God knows everything, he already knows if you are going to heaven or hell.
• Puritan religion states: God will reward good behaviour and punish bad; humans are innately sinful (tainted by Adam and Eve), and only hard work and self-discipline will get you rewarded; Providence: God plays a part in everything and guides the universe.
• They support a hard-work ethic.
• Puritan literature was aimed at maintaining God’s word through the Bible.
• A lot of Puritans were literate, unusual for the time, and this allowed for a wider variety of writers as women could also read and write.
• Education and pamphlets helped to make religion more accessible and relevant for a person’s every day-to-day life.
• Pilgrims and Puritans wrote poetry, sermons, diaries, and autobiographies.
• Their writing tended to be historical, religious, or didactic.
• Imaginative literature and theatre plays were widely banned for being immoral.
• The Puritans were extremely strict in their laws and everyone had to obey them. The laws of society and religion were one and the same, and severe punishment fell upon those who broke them.
• Not everyone wanted to live under such a strict regime, they felt it limited the soul’s growth. Over time, Puritan beliefs started to relax in comparison to their beginnings, but then came the Salem Witch Trials. At first they were seen as an attack from hell, people eventually realised their mistake.
• Later Puritan writers started to incorporate more complex language into their writing.
• For Puritans, science was admired as the study of God’s material creation.