...Author William Bradford was a man who played several roles in colonial America: Pilgrim, governor, and historian. A native of Yorkshire, England, Bradford joined the Separatist movement while a teenager. After enduring religious persecution, he and other Pilgrims (a name Bradford gave his Separatist group) eventually immigrated to America on the Mayflower in 1620. As a leader of Plymouth Colony, Bradford served off and on as governor for thirty years. Bradford is best known for his two-book series Of Plymouth Plantation, written 1630-1650, documenting the early years of Plymouth Colony. Several poems and dialogues aimed at teaching younger generations characterized his later writing. Bradford’s writings are significant in American Literature...
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...Many Puritans, or Separatists, from England came to the Americas because they wanted religious freedom and the ability to express their views freely. Two important figures of the 16th and 17th century are William Bradford who wrote Of Plymouth Plantation and Jonathan Edwards who wrote Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Bradford’s piece is a Separatist’s interpretation of the Reformation in England and the early years of the newly founded Plymouth colony. Edward’s piece touches upon the topic of the seriousness of sin in his Puritan congregation. One common theme among the pieces, Of Plymouth Plantation and the Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, is that Puritan faith, beliefs, attitudes, and values is based on charity and hard work involving...
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...Rebekah Smith Professor Donald Mosseau ENG-350 19 May 2015 Puritans in America Pursuing religious freedom in order to believe in what they want to without persecution and finding refuge, the Puritans set up a system of standards in the new America. In 1630, approximately 20,000 Puritans immigrated to the new America from England in order to gain liberty to worship God as they desired (Morgan, 25). The Puritans first belief was predestination and that the bible was God's true law. The Separatists faction, who were the Pilgrims settled in the Plymouth Colony, had left the Church of England creating their own groups. The Separatists were the minority, and most Puritans, who later on settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, desired to rearrange the Church from within. Puritans pledged to their religion with alternating points of fervor. Certain Puritans in Massachusetts Bay attended church as a regular becoming a church member while others only attended church meetings without converting (Morgan, 79). Regardless of status, it was mandatory that everyone attended meetings. Governor William Bradford as a child was caught up in the fervor of the Protestant reform. He became a dedicated member of one of the numerous separatist churches which was the “left wing” of Puritanism (Bradford, 143). For thirty years, Bradford was the governor of the Plymouth colony. He helped stabilize and shape the political institutions of the first colony in New England...
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...Why the Pilgrims were God’s “Chosen People” William Bradford’s story “Of Plymouth Plantation,” talks about when the Pilgrims came to America on the Mayflower, and landed at Camp Cod. Bradford was one of these passengers and took notes and wrote down facts, people till this day can’t believe are true. He talks about struggles the Pilgrims faced and obstacles that they overcame. Through everything, God was showing them, or what they believed to be signs from God, that they were his “chosen people.” “When the faithful were brought low and then rescued from the brink of disaster, they felt utter reliance upon God” (Donegan). God was guiding the pilgrims and giving them hope, that everything will be okay. Nothing could have prepared them for the signs that God was giving them, to prove they were indeed his “chosen people.” Why were the Pilgrims the chosen people? No one knows, they only know the signs that were given by God, to support the fact that they were the “chosen people.” The Pilgrims were known as Separatists. The main reason for them leaving for North America was so they could have freedom of religion. They felt as if they would be able to chose their religion if they were somewhere else. “The separatist or Pilgrims was the more radical sect of Puritans which wanted to set up a new church separate from the Church of England, where they would practice the catholic religion as they thought it should be practiced” (“The Atlantic”). Some of the Pilgrims felt trapped in the...
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...Themes of Early American Literature Early American literature does a tremendous job of revealing the exact conditions and challenges that were faced by the explorers and later by the colonists of the New World. From early shipwrecks to the later years of small colonies barely surviving through dreadful winters, the literary works of the time period focus on some very recognizable themes. The theme of any given work – being simply the unifying subject or idea – is a very important element of any piece of writing. As one reviews some of this early literature, it becomes obvious that several themes appear repeatedly, and it is these subjects that were clearly very common among people from all over the New World. While a number of themes can be found in early American literature, the only dominant and recurring themes are exploration, hardship, and religion. It is these central ideas around which all early American writing is based. The first prominent theme that appeared in the literature of Christopher Columbus and the many great explorers that followed in his footsteps was that of exploration. With the mission to sail West across the Atlantic Ocean and report back with their findings, these explorers wrote down all of their noteworthy experiences in journals and narratives. So, it is only natural that the theme of exploration can be found in many of these literary works. For example, in Christopher Columbus’ Report of the First Voyage, he details the discovery of...
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...Puritans and Native Americans Examine some of the Puritan beliefs revealed by the works we have covered that led to tensions, conflicts, and concerns among the colonists and/or the Native Americans. Colonization in America by the Puritans occurred in 1620. Unlike the pilgrims who had arrived in America earlier and settled in Jamestown, the Puritans came to reform the church. All Puritans had strong religious beliefs and wanted America to be a place for liberation. According to the article God in America, 2010 “Puritans did not break with the Church of England, but instead sought to reform it.” Also from the text, “The reign of James I (1603–1625), however, brought about the Separatist movement that sent the Pilgrims first to the Netherlands and then to Plymouth” (Puritanism, 58). The Puritans would settle and form the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Today this part of America is referred to as the New England States. Life at the beginning was hard for the Puritans and many tensions/conflicts would arise with the local Native Americans. Many of these conflicts would be documented through literary works, such as, William Bradford, Mary Rowlandson, and St. John De Crevecoeur. Literary history has allowed society to gain an understanding of the conflicts between the Puritans and Native Americans. William Bradford was well known for his impact on the Plymouth colonies. In traveling to America he was a very religious man. “William Bradford was one of the greatest of colonial Americans...
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...Bennett Donahue Mr. McElrath English III Honors 05 September 2014 A Trustworthy Puritan Although De Vaca, Equiano, and Smith were all brave and courageous men, William Bradford, the puritan for the historical narrative “Of Plymouth Plantation,” reveals himself to be most reliable and trustworthy. Bradford demonstrates that he is a strong believer in God, and a selfless leader among men by using emotional diction, biblical allusions, and his religiously based figurative language in order to show his tremendous leadership and his unbreakable loyalty to God and his men. Right off the bat, there is Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca. Yes, long name, but with that long name comes a long, perilous voyage that gambled his life at numerous occasions. De Vaca’s ship would have been the last place on earth that you would have wanted to be. De Vaca portrays himself as the leader of the ship, which he very well was, but he talks in a selfish way as if he was the strongest member on the ship. He writes, “When night fell, only the navigator and I remained able to tend to the barge,” he seems to recall moments only when he was the strong one to survive, or how he was able to brave through the hardships that he met(De Vaca 74). Now, De Vaca was a religious man. He praised god and mentioned that the reason why his barge was still afloat was due to the grace of god. Although he does mention god, he doesn't write like William Bradford, for example he refrains from saying that the journey was for the glory of god...
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...freedom, the Puritans had to overcome many different obstacles. One of these obstacles was gaining and maintaining a peaceful relationship with the Indians in America. William Bradford, Mary Rowlandson, and the video Desperate Crossing all explore this relationship in a different way, but each provides great detail and insight into the social dynamic and tension of the two parties. In William Bradford’s book, Of Plymouth Plantation, the Puritan relationship with the Indians is an underlying issue, but is brought up now and again. Before the Puritans traveled to America, they believed that the Indians were nothing more than barbaric savages. Although they had never met or even seen the natives, they made inferences from what they had heard from other travelers. “The place they had thoughts on was some of those vast and undeveloped countries of America, which are fruitful and fit for habitation, being devoid of all civil inhabitants, where there are only savage and brutish men which range up and down, little otherwise than the wild beasts of the same.”(10) Not only did the Puritans think that the Indians were uncivil, but they believed that they were dangerous and intimidating. It was made clear that they thought the natives were no better than the wild animals roaming the untracked land. After the Puritans first arrived to America, they became even more wary of the natives. When the Indians felt threatened and showed their more violent side, the Puritans’ thoughts...
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...Dustin Isais Professor Shakir American Literature I 29 September 2013 The New [World] Testament It's quite clear based on the literature of the day that the exploration of and expansion into the New World was seen as the ultimate epic of Christendom for 17th century Europeans. The ideation of the New World being an exotic land inhabited by savage natives guarding precious metals and herbs permeates colonial literature without question. Further, letters and journals of explorers like Thomas Hariott and John Smith along with colonists such as William Bradford and John Winthrop illustrate the unsettling mentality these people brought with them into the Americas. The depiction is of a self-important people driven by a misconstrued ancient text and motivated to fulfill their purpose as the chosen people of the sacred Bible. The commonality throughout the literature of settlement and exploration is purely driven by European hermeneutics and the persistence on becoming the antitype of the types present in the Bible. The New World ideation begins with Thomas Harriot's propagandistic A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia.Harriot wrote optimistically and full of awe despite reocurring issues between the English and the natives of the New World. In fact, the escalating violence and rising tensions between the two is rarely mentioned. A misleading and cryptic sentence alluding to the less-than-peaceful circumstances reads, “And although some of our cmpany towards the...
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...Home Discover History Articles Notable Mayflower Descendants Pilgrim Biographies Commemorations Pilgrim Memorials Around the World The Society How to Join Society Information SMDPA News Newsletter JR PA Mayflower Newsletter For Teachers & Students Links Contact Membership Info Apply Now Eligibility & How To Join Proving Your Lineage Passenger List About the SMDPA Donate Contact Us Discover History Articles Comparing Plymouth and Jamestown Comparing Plymouth and Jamestown Written by Robert Jennings Heinsohn 1. Introduction Pilgrim families arrived in Holland in the spring of 1608 and in Plymouth in December 1620. In May 1607, 105 men arrived in Jamestown to establish the first permanent English settlement in North America. While the individuals in both settlements were English, the they were different in many important ways. To fully appreciate our Pilgrim heritage, it is important to understand the differences between Plymouth and Jamestown. This essay identifies major differences and explains how these differences affected the settlements during the first few decades of their arrival. 2. Royal Charters and Patents Sir Humphrey Gilbert c. 1539-1583 Early Efforts to Colonize North America Queen Elizabeth granted a patent (Royal Charter) to Sir Humphrey Gilbert (half brother of Sir Walter Ralegh) who led an expedition to Newfoundland in 1583 and claimed it for England. For the next thirty years he tried, but without success,...
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