1. Colonization to Independence

2. A New World & Its Indigenous People
When Europeans arrived in what they believed was a “new” world, they were met by an indigenous people who had lived in the land for centuries.
Settlers in Virginia & Massachusetts were alternately assisted and threatened by these native people.
The culture of the natives was examined curiously by the settlers, but rarely appreciated.

3. Why leave Great Britian?
Personal Freedom
Financial Success

4. A Daily Chronicle
The early settlers believed it was important to make a record of all of their failures and triumphs. Today we can read a day-by-day and month-by-month account of their struggles for survival.
Journals of John Smith – encounter with indigenous tribes
Journals of William Bradford – building of a new society
Journals of Sarah Kemble Knight – travel & living conditions

5. A struggling heart Poems by Anne Bradstreet
Sermons by Jonathan Edwards

6. Love of freedom & conflict
By the 18th Century, love of freedom had brought the colonists into conflict with England. Many new patriots fanned the flame for freedom with their writings.
Thomas Paine – called for independence in his pamphlet Common Sense
Patrick Henry – declared his anthem “Give me liberty or give me death!”
Abigail Adams – letters provide a feminine viewpoint of the war
Thomas Jefferson – declared the resolve of a new nation in the
Declaration of Independence
Benjamin Franklin – spelled out the way to personal success

7. New world; New Mix of Writers
Phillis Wheatley – a slave writing about her soul in poems and essays
J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur – a French farmer defined the term American.

8. John Smith
American literature begins with John Smith’s book A True Relation of Virginia (1607).
Here he records the events related to the founding of Jamestown, Virginia.
The Generall Historie of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles (1624) followed later.

9. William Bradford
The History of Plymouth Plantation (1656) relates some of the well-known historical episodes such as
Pilgrim’s Landing on Plymouth Rock
The First Winter in the “wilderness”
The Meetings and Negotiations with the Indians, Samoset & Squanto

10. Why Study?
The following lessons will enable us to consider the purposes and events relating to both accounts of early American, assess their historical significance, and compare and contrast Smith and Bradford’s personal philosophies.
In order to understand and appreciate the struggle and hardship of the first members of our nation.