Master Dibakar Poddar

March 28, 2019

The Beginnings: Early Explorers and Settlers: The Colonial Period

" Letters Home"
American Literature may be said to have made its humble beginning in 1493, when Columbus wrote his
famous letters to King Ferdinand os Spain. Other explorers and adventures, who followed, also wrote
letters to their friends and relatives at home, and these "Letters Home" mark the beginning of the written
record of the American adventure. 

In these letters, the writers speak of their di culties, of the danger they had to face, but also of the
wonders that were to be seen every where.

The "Pilgrims Fathers": Early Colonies

The rst successful English Colony in North America was founded in Jamestown in 1607. They came the
'Pilgrim Feathers' in the slip called the May ower , and founded the 'Plymouth Colony' in Massachusets.
Soon, there was a string of thirteen such Colonies all along the Atlantic sea-board.

William Bradford  outlines the plight of the "Pilgrim Fathers", landing at Polymouth in 1620 "Being thus
passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before in  their preparation ,they had now no
friends ........"

"The Colonial Period"

The period from 1607-1765 is known as Colonial period of American Literature, for during this period a
number of other colonies were founded all through the continent and they continued to ourish in isolation
and with little contact with each-other. There was little feeling of nationalism, and these early settlers
continued to look to Europe as their home. It was only about the middlle of the 18th Century, that, these
separate people became aware of each other, gradually began to come closer together, and the upshot
was the rise of nationalism and birth of the American nation.

Scanty Output: Causes

 During this colonial period , stretching over a period of one hundred and fty years, the literary output was
rather scanty. These early settlers had to wage a relentless war against Nature as well as aganist the 'Red-
Indians'. They were too busy taming nature, and dodging the arrows of Indians to have much time for the
reading and writing literature. Literature is a peace-time activity, and the 'founding-fathers' enjoyed little
leisure or peace during the early days in their new home.Moreover, they had their cultural roots in Europe,
they still regard it as their home, and turned for inspiration to the European men of letters. America had no
folk lore of its own; it had no epic, such as the 'Illiad' in Greece or 'Beowoulf' in England, which related an
heroic vanished past. Also, there was no wide American reading public, indeed, in the very early days there
were not even the means of printing books in the country.

Thus, the earliest American writers were really European writers living in America; and even though
 they might have left Europe a long time ago, their writing was clearlyin uenced by European writers,

and for the most part, was merely an information of European, and in particular English, literature.
The spirit of nationalism was totally lacking, but the literature of a people springs from this feeling of
nationalism. The did not feel the urge to create. This yrge was felt only after the declartion of
Independence, and then Literature in America took rapid strides forward, and came to its own by the
turn of the 18th Century. These early settlers were largely Puritans, who regaeded imaginative
literature- poetry, novel and drama- as a life and consequently it was discouraged and looked draw
upon.

Colonial Literature: Its worth and signi cance:

 However, all this does not mean that, there was no literarture in the colonial period, or that it is entirely
worthless, and that is a wsate of time to study it. It is wrong to say that the study of American Literature
should begin with the 18th century, and the literature of the colonial period should be ignored. On the
contrary, this early literature is of great worth and signi cance historically, though it may not be so very
signi cant as literature. This early Colonists were writing in a new setting and their writings give an account
not only of their hardship and suffering but also of their joy and pride in the greatness and glory of their
new environment.

Their accounts of travel, the description of the land, faithful reports of colonial life, throb with pride in
what they were doing. They re ect the aspirations and hopes, the trials and the set-backs, of those
who were ghting aganist the wilderness. It is in these early writings that we nd how the nation
grew. Colonial American Literature depicts the dangerous adventures, the hard works and di cult
decesions that went into the process of building a nation. In the pages of these early books we
discover the basic ingredients of the American character, courage, industry and optimism,. "The
hardship of living conditions, (The Red) Indian attacks, sickness and starvation, are from the
beginning re ected in the pages of Smith, Bradford and Winthrop. That despite innumerable dangers,
the colonists ourished is a tribute to their courage and tenacity. Their writings, terefore, from an
important part of American literary history. Hence it is only sensible that a student of American
literary history. Hence, it is only sensible that a student of american literary thought should trace it
from the very beginning".
The early colonial literature, "became a great reservior of material and inspiration for the 19th
century, for readers it still provides an understanding of those bedrock American experiences which
developed the national character and our peculiary American institution". To understand the
American literary tradition, we have to go back to early colonial literature. This has its revelance even
today for the student of American thought and literature.     

Chief characterstics: Puritan In uence

The early colonisers, particularly those who settled round New England, were largely Puritans, and
Puritanism exercised considerable in uence on the growth of American literature. It must be remebered
that the Puritan Milton wrote "to justify the ways of God to Man", and gave the world one of the greatest
epics. 

This urge to write for the greatness and glory of God produced, "a volumeinous literature composed
of sermons, diaries and biographies and poems of a religious nature. Further, it were these early
Puritans who founded the Havard College, as early as 1636, and also the rst printing press a few
years later in 1639. Thus they sowed the seeds which later ourished and bore fruits.
 Religious writing also assumed the form of 1. diary and 2. auto-biography. Winthrop's journal,
Samuel Sewall's diary, the travel journal of Mrs.Sarah Kemble Knight are among the treasured diaries
of this period. Temporal concerns, like food and drink, social life, births, marriages, deaths, nd there
way into these day-to day records which recreate for the modern reader a vivid picture of 17th and
18th century American life.
Spiritual auto-biographies are closely allied to the diaries and they, too, from a large part of this early
literature. Jonathan Edward's 'Personal Narratives'  is the best of the species. Benjami Frankline's
'Autobiography', John Woolman's 'Journals' are two other great literary works in this tradition.

Its Revelance To-Day

These early settelers were Puritans, but they were also explores and adventures, snd so they also produced
a large body of the literature of the travel and adventure. we get numerous accounts of their di culties and
dangers, as well as of the renless strugle against heavy odds which they had to wage. These accounts also
reveal their joy, as well as their pride in their new enviornment.

This literature of travel and exploration forms interesting reading even to-day. It gives us a peep into
the very soul of these early settlers. The greatest work of this type is Cotton Mather's monomental
work "Magnalia Christi American", published in 1702. It describes the Golden Era of Puritanism
before its decline.

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