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Literature 3A: American Literature Summary
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This is a summary of all lectures and readings of the course literature 3A given at Leiden University.
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LITERATURE 3A; American Literature 1620-1865WEEK 1
Puritan history
1517 (-1648) Beginning of Reformation (Marten Luther)
1534 Henry VIII breaks with Rome
1608 “Pilgrims”, led by William Bredford, flee to Holland (in 1909 to Leiden)
1620 Pilgrims’ departure for New England on Mayflower: foundation Plymouth Colony
1629 Charles I dissolves parliament
1630 Start of Puritan Exodus, led by John Winthrop: foundation Massachusetts Bay Colony
1630-1642 Great Migration (ca. 20.000 colonists, mostly Puritans)
1637-1638 Anne Hutchinson (“antinomian”) crisis
1662 Half-way Covenent
1692 Salem witchcraft trials, Salem, Mass.
In the 1580s there was a split in the Puritan movement in England.
- Separatists: radical minority, 1609 – 1620 Pilgrims settled in Leiden, 1620 to America -> Mayflower ->
Plymouth Colony, founded in 1620 -> William Bradford
- non-separatists: 1630 – 1642 Puritan exodus, to America on the Arbella -> Massachusetts Bay Colony,
founded in 1630 -> John Winthrop: “Errand into the wilderness” “City upon a hill”, Anne Bradstreet
Puritan theology
Calvinism: 3 doctrines -> Puritanism is a form of Calvinism
- Original sin -> In Adam’s fall, we sinneth all. The sin of Adam has doomed all humanity -> humans become
mortal and sinful. Pain and sin are brought into the world. Humans are innately sinful, we inherited the sin
from Adam.
- Saving grace and election -> God has chosen some to be saved, to be chosen to go to heaven and others
are chosen to be doomed.
- Predestination -> Everything is predestined. There is nothing you can do to save yourself. God has chosen
way before you are born.
Sola Fide; Salvation by faith alone -> all you can do is have faith. If you have faith it is more likely that you belong to
the elect, because God knew you were going to be a good Christian. Have trust in him.
Providential theory of history: theory that events unfold according to a grand, divine scheme. Critic Pamela
Lougheed defines “providence” as “God’s provision of all material goods, opportunities, circumstances, and even
human actions so that history may ultimately be fulfilled in accord with God’s plan of salcation for the elect.”
(Lougheed 307n.4).
American Puritans’ migration to New England: “errand into the wilderness”.
Puritans compared themselves to the Egyptians with Moses. The exodus to the promised/chosen lands. For them
America was the chosen land and their Exodus to this New England. America -> “A city upon a hill” (Windthrop).
“All eyes are upon us”. They are chosen to found God’s kingdom to accommodate Christ’s second coming. They
need to be an example of good Christians. America still has this idea; they are an example for the rest of the world.
They are a special nation.
Puritan authors
- William Bradford (1590-1657), Of Plymouth Plantation (written 1630-1650; first pub. 1865).
- Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672), The Tenth Muse, Lately Sprung up in America (pub. In Eng. 1650). Married at
16. Emigrated to New England in 1630. She belonged to the social elite. Quite well-educated. She is the
first published American poet, which is weird because she is a woman.
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, - Edward Taylor (c. 1642-1729), Preparatory Meditations (first pub. Posthumously in 1939). He was a
Puritan minister.
- Michael Wigglesworth (1631-1705), The Day of Doom (1662).
- John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress (1678).
Puritan view of (religious) poetry: “A Verse may find him who a Sermon flies” (George Herbert).
WEEK 2
- Puritan ideal -> Balance between spiritual calling and worldly calling. This is what orthodox puritans
strived for.
- Spiritual calling -> Calling to serve God. Other-worldliness.
- Worldly calling -> You can best serve God by working hard in this world. Orthodox Puritans tried to
balance the two callings: Be in the world but not of the world. Doctrine of “weaned affections”
In the 1660s the religious zeal – intensity of faith – dropped significantly. They (mostly men) became more
concerned with worldly things -> they prospered by hard work. Fewer people underwent conversion. Church
membership in New England required a conversion experience and public testimony. Only people who were
conversed could work in politics. In the 1662s partial/half membership was granted to children of full members of
the church (Halfway Covenant). There was a change in theology/doctrine. They became more lenient in
predestination. Some believed that if you do good deeds it is a sign of your choseness. There was a possibility to
earn God’s Grace (Arminianism). Orthodox view this as a decline in religious experience. Around 1700, women
worked in politics, because they were the ones that conversed more.
The Great Awakening 1734-1745
The intensity of faith started to increase again. This was a reaction to the decline that was happening. 1000 upon
1000 people were converted. The Great Awakening is the awakening of a new kind of Calvanism -> Return to the
old doctrines (original sin, election, predestination). This Great Awakening started in Northampton. The
Connecticut River Valley was the center of the Great Awakening. Jonathan Edwards became the great
preacher/leader of the Great Awakening. Jonathan Edwards succeeded his grandfather Solomon Stoddard as
minister in Northampton, Western Mass., 1729 (at age 26).
Split in American Protestantism (Spiritual <-> Worldly calling)
Great Awakening Enlightenment
Rise of evangelical Protestantism Rise of more rational forms of Protestantism (e.g Deism,
Return to Calvinist doctrine Unitarianism
Emphasis on Religious feeling (Locke) Emphasis on reason (ratio)
Spiritual calling Worldly calling
Jonathan Edwards Benjamin Franklin
JONATHAN EDWARDS 1703-1758
- Leader of the Great Awakening
- Return to old doctrines (original sin, election, predestination)
- But also influenced by Enlightenment thinkers (esp. John Locke)
- Experience religion (feel, taste, etc.)
- Search for spiritual perfection (pursuit of holiness)
Personal Narrative – Jonathan Edwards
He is in pursuit of Holiness. It is about his conversion experience and his contemplations. At first, he thinks that
predestination is horrible. Suddenly he is convinced by it. He doesn’t know where this comes from.
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, “My heart as it were, panted after this to lie low before GOD, and in the dust; that I might be nothing, and
that Gog might be all; that I might become as a little child.” (362)
-> human helplessness. God is all, I am nothing. So, back to orthodox Calvinism. He is influenced by Enlightenment
thinkers, especially John Locke -> theory of knowledge. How do we know things? -> We can only know things if we
have sense experience of it (if we can see, hear, smell, feel, taste it). Edwards says: I can apply this in religion. You
can only be converted if you can feel it -> experience religion.
Genre -> Spiritual autobiography. Derives from the St. Augustine’s Confessions (ca. 400 AD) and the Puritan
conversion narrative.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 1706-1790
- Homo universalis (printer, scientist, man of letters, diplomat, founding father)
- Founding Father
- Worldly calling
- Search for moral perfection
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
From the Declaration of Independence (1776)
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Part 1: written in 1771 and posthumously published in French in 1791.
Part 2: written in c. 1784.
Parts 3 and 4: written between 1788-1790.
1818: published without last section
1868: published in it’s entirety.
Franklin begins his autobiography as a letter to his son. He was raised from humble origins, but made it higher up.
He calls himself an example (fit to be imitated).
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, Rhetorical Strategy
He is starting his autobiography as a letter to his son. He is trying to connect to the reader. He is trying to be
humble by doing this:
“Dear Son, …. Having emerg’d from the Poverty and Obscurity in which I was born and bred, to a State of
Affluence and some Degree of Reputation in the World, … the conducting Means I made use of … my
Posterity may like to know, as they may find some of them suitable to their own Situations, and therefore
fit to be imitated.” (481/467)
Franklin starts part 2 of his autobiography with two letters from friends of him who encourage him to continue his
autobiography. They say that it (the virtues) is not only profitable to his son, but also the American youth. This
strategy is called justification. It is not his own idea to start writing, but other people say he has to.
He is the prototype of the American dream. He rose from poverty and humble beginnings and rose to wealth.
Franklin and religion
“This obscure Family of ours was early in the Reformation, and continu’d Protestants thro’ the Reign of
Queen Mary.” In England Franklin’s father and Uncle Benjamin supported “Ministers that had been outed
for Nonconformity” and came “unto New England, about 1682 … where they expected to enjoy their
Mode of Religion with Freedom” (484/470).
Original sin versus “Errata”
[Break with brother, running away:] “It was not fair of me to take this Advantage. And this I therefore
reckon one of the first Errata of my Life” (493/480).
“I by degrees [forgot] my Engagements with Miss Read …. This was another of the great Errata of my Life,
which I should wish to correct if I were to live it over again” (508/495). He eventually marries her: “Thus I
corrected that great erratum as well as I could” (525/513)
Franklin’s religious upbringing and principles
“I had been religiously educated as a Presbyterian [i.e., Calvinist] and tho' some of the dogmas of that
persuasion, such as the eternal decrees of God, election, reprobation, etc., appeared to me unintelligible,
others doubtful, and I early absented myself from the public assemblies of the sect, Sunday being my
studying day, I never was without some religious principles. I never doubted, for instance, the existence of
the Deity; that He made the world, and governed it by His providence; that the most acceptable service of
God was the doing good to man; that our souls are immortal; and that all crime will be punished, and
virtue rewarded, either here or hereafter. These I esteemed the essentials of every religion; and, being to
be found in all the religions we had in our country, I respected them all …” (533/522).
Rejection of Calvanist dogma
“[The doctrines of our sect] were all to me very dry, uninteresting, and unedifying, since not a single moral
Principle was inculcated or enforc’d, their Aim seeming to be rather to make us Presbyterians than good
Citizens” (533/522).
“It was about this time that I conceiv’d the bold and arduous Project of arriving at moral Perfection. …
[T]ho’ I never arrived at the Perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I
was by the Endeavor made a better and a happier Man …” (534/522, 540/528).
Franklin’s list of virtues
1. Temperance: Eat not to dullness. Drink not to elevation.
2. Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling conversation.
3. Order: Let all your things have their places. Let each part of your business have its time.
4. Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.
5. Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself: i.e., Waste nothing.
6. Industry: Lose no time. Be always employed in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit. Think innocently and justly; and if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. Justice: Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
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