History of American LiteratureHalleck, Reuben Post
History
History of American Literature
Halleck, Reuben Post
American literature -- History and criticism
Point out some of the fantastic prose expressions of Cotton Mather. Compare
his narrative of Captain Phips with the work of Smith, Bradford, and
Winthrop, on the one hand, and of Beverly and Byrd, on the other.
Compare the theology in Edwards's "Rose of Sharon" selection (p. 54) with
that in Wigglesworth's _Day of Doom._ Why may this selection from Edwards
be called a "poetic exposition of the divine love"? What is his view of the
freedom of the will?
CHAPTER II
THE EMERGENCE OF A NATION
PROGRESS TOWARD NATIONALITY.--The French and Indian War, which began in
1754, served its purpose in making the colonists feel that they were one
people. At this time most of them were living on the seacoast from Georgia
to Maine, and had not yet even crossed the great Appalachian range of
mountains. The chief men of one colony knew little of the leaders in the
other colonies. This war made George Washington known outside of Virginia.
There was not much interchange of literature between the two leading
colonies, Virginia and Massachusetts. Prior to this time, the other
colonies had not produced much that had literary value. No national
literature could be written until the colonists were welded together.
The French and Indian War, which decided whether France or England was to
be supreme in America, exposed the colonists to a common danger. They
fought side by side against the French and Indians, and learned that the
defeat of one was the defeat of all. After a desperate struggle France
lost, and the Anglo-Saxon race was dominant on the new continent. By the
treaty of Paris, signed in 1763, England became the possessor of Canada and
the land east of the Mississippi River.
THE REVOLUTION.--All of the colonies had been under English rule, although
they had in large part managed in one way or another to govern
themselves. At the close of the French and Indian War, the colonists had
not thought of breaking away from England, although they had learned the
lesson of union against a common foe. George III. came to the throne in
1760. By temperament he was unusually adapted to play his part in
changing the New World's history. He was determined to rule according to
his own personal inclinations. He dominated his cabinet and controlled
Parliament by bribery. He decided that the American colonies should feel
the weight of his authority, and in 1763 his prime minister, George
Grenville, undertook to execute measures in restraint of colonial trade.
Numbers of commodities, like tobacco, for instance, could not be traded
with France or Spain or Holland, but must be sent to England. If there
was any profit to be made in selling goods to foreign nations, England
would make that profit. He also planned to tax the colonists and to
quarter British troops among them. These measures aroused the colonies
to armed resistance and led to the Revolutionary War, which began in
1775.
Freneau (p. 96), a poet of the Revolution, thus expresses in verse some of
these events:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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