LiteratureBy Mark Canada
Professor,University of North Carolina at Pembroke
Benjamin Franklin once noted that the business of making a nation restricted literary activity in Colonial America.Franklin seemed to think that people needed a stable government and economy before they could make great advances in cultural pursuits such as literature,music,and painting.Indeed,between the settlement of Jamestown,Virginia,in 1607 and the treaty ending the American Revolution in 1783,Americans did lag behind their English contemporaries in the production of epic poetry,drama,and fiction.Still,Colonial America did produce an impressive body of literature,much of it in the form of nonfiction prose,such as autobiography and sermon.
Some central themes emerge from this literature.Because of the nature of their endeavor,for example,Captain John Smith and other chroniclers of settlement in the 17th century often addressed the subjects of will and work,the relationship between humans and nature,and the differences between European and Native American cultures.In this same century,Puritans such as Anne Bradstreet and John Winthrop wrote about their spiritual feelings and quests,Bradstreet in very personal poems and a journal,Winthrop in both a famous public sermon and an intimate journal.This tradition continued into the following century,when Puritan Jonathan Edwards and non-Puritans such as Phillis Wheatley and John Woolman reflected on their faith in poems and journals.Other writers,including Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson,produced more public literature designed to entertain people or further their political aims.In its emphasis on human potential and reason,much of this literature reflects the prevailing sentiments of its era,often called the Enlightenment or the Age of Reason.
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