The first permanent settlement was established in the New World in 1607 at Jamestown, Virginia. It was followed thirteen years later by a settlement at Plymouth, Massachusetts. The Pilgrims coming to Plymouth were devout Puritans. They were labeled Separatists because after failed attempts at reformation, they had broken away from the Church of England. They were of a culture all their own. Their personal, social, and political lives were all God-centered. With the Colonial Period, as with any other, the best clues of its history were left in its literature.

Puritans wrote to provide spiritual insight and instruction according to biblical guidelines (Thompson 11). Their writing was simple and straight to the point

It was time for freedom. Americans had suffered from British oppression for too long. Freedom was the belief most supported. They talked about it, wrote about it, and fought for it (Hodgins 50). The people were outraged at the actions of the King. He had betrayed his people. Their territory and population had grown immensely. As the British government began to reduce their growth, it imposed ridiculous taxes, tariffs, and duties, making the colonists pay for everything. The final straw was the passing of the Intolerable Acts and the army being sent to enforce them. This action started the wheels of revolution turning (Commager 14).

If question had arisen about the aforementioned theories, they would have been easily proven by the literature from the two periods. For example, Anne Bradstreet's poem "Upon the Burning of Our House" was a clear illustration of typical Puritan thought. It reads, "And to my God my heart did cry/To strengthen me in my distress" (Thompson 15). Like any true Puritan, her thoughts immediately turn to God without question. Within the same poem, she also wrote "I blest his name that gave and took, That laid my goods now in the dust/Yea, so it was, and so 'twas just./It was His own, it was not mine..." (Thompson 15). She recognized God's supreme knowledge. She knew that he had prepared a place for her in heaven. She wrote, "Thou hast an house on high erect, Framed by that mighty Architect,/ With glory richly furnished, Stands permanent though this be fled." The belief in heaven often took a back seat to the preaching of hell fire and damnation. Jonathan Edwards's sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God had vivid descriptions of the torment which humans would endure if they did not heed to God's calling. He said that humans were only kept out of the fire by the mere pleasure of a merciful God (Doren 61). He had chosen to let them live because of his wonderfulness. However, "the supreme and powerful authority of God was not to be questioned" (Harrison 34), nor was anything else for that matter.

Doren, Carl Van, ed. Cambridge History of American Literature. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1969.

The Americans, A History-Annotated Teacher's Edition. Evanston: McDougal, Littell, and Co., 1992.

During a time when revolution was at hand, there were also other events happening at the same. However, they were often overshadowed by political problems. Many of the traits or beliefs were still evident in the writing. The principles of hard work, frugality, education, self-improvement, and self-reliance carried over (Thompson 8). With a few modifications of these guidelines and some additions such as an interest in science, gave people the ethics that would prevail for sometime. Just as the Puritans before them, Americans in the late half of the eighteenth century wrote to understand and explain their new lives. Their beliefs showed through in their styles. They held these ideas because America was no longer a wilderness

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Approximate Word count = 2018
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)