1. Early American Writing
Worksheet Questions and Answers

2. 1. What are the years of the period?

3. 2. What two groups were the earliest writers in America?
Explorers and Early Settlers

4. 3. What did the earliest writers chronicle?
How Europeans and Native Americans viewed one another and the North American land

5. 4. What was the first colony in America? When was it established?
Jamestown; 1607

6. 5. What war led to the colonies’ desire for independence? Why?
French and Indian War; Britain tried to tax the colonies to pay for the cost of the war

7. English Protestants who wanted to “purify” the Church of England
6. Who were the Puritans?
English Protestants who wanted to “purify” the Church of England

8. 7. What did the Puritans believe?
They were chosen by God to create a new order in America

9. 8. What is the Enlightenment? What did its members believe?
1700’s thinking movement in Europe; They questioned who should hold power in the government

10. 9. What American writers were influenced by the Enlightenment?
Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson

11. 10. What is the Great Awakening? Who was its most famous writer?
Religious wave of enthusiasm; Jonathan Edwards

12. 11. Define oral tradition.
Storytelling to pass down group history, legends, and myths generation to generation

13. 12. What do the Native American writings concern?
Creation stories, migration of people, deeds of great leaders, fairy tales, lyrics, chants, songs, visions

14. Journals, diaries, letters; What they see, dangers, challenges
13. What type of literature did the early explorers write? What are they documenting?
Journals, diaries, letters; What they see, dangers, challenges

15. 14. Who were two early explorers?
Christopher Columbus; Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca; Samuel de Champlain

16. 15. What did the Puritans believe about writing?
It was a tool to help readers understand the Bible and guide them in their daily lives

17. 16. What types of writing did the Puritans do?
Sermons, “plain” histories, treatises, some poetry

18. 17. List two Puritan poets. What purpose did their poetry serve?
Anne Bradstreet, Edward Taylor; Explore the relationship between the individual and God

19. Pamphlets and Propaganda
18. What form did political writing take during the American Revolution?
Pamphlets and Propaganda

20. 19. What was Common Sense? What did it do?
A pamphlet; It propelled the colonists to revolution

21. 20. What is natural law?
The idea that people are born with rights and freedoms that government must protect

22. 21. List two famous documents from the Revolution.
Declaration of Independence; Constitution of the United States

23. 22. What subject did Wheatley’s writings concern?
Natural rights of African-Americans and it pointed out the discrepancy between colonists’ “cry for freedom” and their enslavement of fellow human beings