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"The World on the Turtle's Back" by Iriquois
This legend has been passed on from person to person through the Natives oral tradition. The story is how they believed the world started. It is similar to the Christian Bible. It wasn't written down for many years because they told it with extravagant performances. In the 1800s, David Cusick put it into print.
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Unit 1: Early America Literature
The first America literature was written by the Native Americans. Later the English came which brought a different writing style. The English Puritans were also part of early American literature. -
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Native Americans
Native American often didn't actually write down their stories. They had a literacy tradition know as the oral tradition which was telling all the stories from person to person. Their stories were passed from generation to generation. A lot of literature of the Natives were destroyed when the English came. They also had different beliefs from the Puritans. They believed that they didn't own the land but that they were caretakers of the land. They valued keeping the land how they found it. -
Puritans Arrive
The Puritans arriving made things hard for the Native Americans. The Puritans brought many diseases with them which ended up killing a lot of the Natives. Both groups of people learned things from the other like culture, writing style, and storytelling.
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Puritans
The Puritans came over and changed the writing style of America. They wrote in plain style which is a way of writing that is very simple and very clear. They had many beliefs that also affected the New World. They believed that a priest or religious person ruled in the name of God. Success was a sign of God's approval of them. They believed all people are sinful and are going to go to hell unless they were saved by God. They valued what God thought of them. -
The First American Person Died from Witchcraft
Before the Salem Witch Trials, the US only had one other problem with witchcraft. This was in Charlestown, Massachusetts when a woman was accused of witchcraft. Her name was Margaret Jones and she died from the accusations. This was the start of many deaths in the Massachusetts Bay area.
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Unit 2: The Crucible
The Crucible is set in 1692 but was written in 1953. It is one of the best known American dramas. American dramas are tragedies or comedies. The Crucible is a tragedy that shows the hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials. The Crucible follows the traditional tragedy with the main character having a downfall. The play makes one feel a lot of emotions for what is going on and the main character. -
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
It was not written till the 1950s but it took place in 1692. It shows how the way a person can say something in a certain way can affect someone's whole life and can even lead to death. The people of that time valued being close to God. They believed any interactions with the Devil was punishable by death.
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The Last Person Died from the Salem Witch Trials
The last person to die from the Salem Witch Trials was Giles Corey. He was killed different than everyone else. He wouldn't answer to his charges so they tried to get him to confess by putting rocks on him. He ending up dying form the rocks. His last words were "more weight". He didn't confess so his family would get all of his things. Picture link -
"Sinner in the Hands of an Angry God" by Jonathan Edwards
Jonathan Edwards gave this sermon to a group of people in Enfield, Connecticut. It is about how God has control over everything and his wrath determines when he drops a person into hell. In the sermon, Edward explains how one needs to change and rebirth completely for God to accept them. He makes them believe that God has no heart and is just waiting to put one in hell.
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The French and Indian War
The French allied with several different Native American tribes to try and get England out of North America. England allied with the very powerful Iroquois tribe after a couple of defeats. The very costly and long war ended in 1763. In the end, England got all of the land east of the Mississippi River.
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The United States Is Born
In 1776, the colonist declared themselves to be "free and independent" from Britain. The Declaration of Independence written by Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson declared the colonist independent from Britain. Later they wrote the Constitution which was approved in 1788. The United States of America was officially born.
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Unit 3: American Romanticism and Transcendentalists
The American Romanticism period started because of the growth in industry and all of the new opportunities. Since there were many people coming to the US, there were new cultures and ideas which influenced the Romantic period. The people of this period valued nature, emotion, the common man, imagination, and individualism. There was another group of people known as the Transcendentalists which were also part of the Romanticism period. Their main focus was nature and the truth nature held. -
Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase was a big step for America. Andrew Jackson brought it from France. It nearly doubled the size of the US. It started manifest destiny which is the term the US used to say that it was their God-given right to get the land from the east coast to the west coast.
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Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was a compromise over what states should be free and what states should be a slave state. It made everything in the western territory free but allowed slavery in the Arkansas territory and Louisiana.
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"Walden, or Life in the Woods" by Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau was a Transcendentalists who believed that nature was the teacher of life. He wanted to escape life so he lived in the wood. He says he went to the woods to learn from nature and live a simple life. He believed that one has to move on to a new adventure when there is a routine.
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“The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
It was written in 1879. Although it was written in after the main time Romantic period, it was still part of the Romantic period. It has a huge focus on nature. The lone travel creates a sense of individualism and the common man. It fits a lot of the characteristics of a Romanticism poem.
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“The Narrative of Life of Frederick Douglass” by Frederick Douglass
“Narrative of Life of Frederick Douglass” was released in 1845 but it is part of the Realism period. It shows what Frederick Douglass actually went through. Both the good and the bad were shown in the narrative. Frederick Douglass never sugarcoated anything in this story.
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Unit 4: Romanticism to Realism
The start of the Civil War changed America forever. The horrors and bad of the war did fit the Romantic period. The America spirit was no longer happy it was serious and real. The people of the Realism period valued real life and what actually happens. They believed the good and the bad should be shown. -
Fort Sumter, the First Shots of the Civil War
The North and South were very divided. One wanted slavery and the other thought it was unethical. In the spring of 1861, the first shots of the Civil War took place. This was just the start of a very long and hard war.
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The End of the Civil War
Both the North and South had enough of the fighting. General Lee surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox Courthouse in April. After four long years of fighting, the Union had won the Civil War. Many people had died and the US was broken.
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“I Hear America Singing” by Walt Whitman
In the poem, “I Hear America Singing”, Whitman describes different jobs and what they do in that certain job. He describes how all the jobs work together to make America work. His work is part of the Realism period because he describes how people all have to work to make America work.
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Unit 5: Of Mice and Men
Of Mice and Men was published in 1937. This novel is mostly Realism, Modernism, and has some naturalism. Realism is telling how it really is. John Steinbeck valued telling the real problems of trying to find work especially with a person with mental illness. He believed in telling the truth and showing the problems in America. Modernism focuses on the "American Dream" and focuses on their inner voice. Steinbeck focuses on the "American Dream" and the struggle for it in his novel. -
The Stock Market Crash
The stock market crashed in October 1929. It is also known as Black Tuesday. This was the main problem that leads to the Great Depression. It made everyone have almost no money.
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The Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl started in the 1930s. It was caused by a huge drought from the fields being farmed so much. The winds started to pick up the dry dirt from the Great Plains. This caused many people to have destroyed farms and need to find jobs somewhere else.
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"To a Mouse" by Robert Burns
"To a Mouse" was written in 1785. The author of Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck was inspired by this poem for his story. This poem influenced a well known American classic.
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Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
This novel is set during the Great Depression. It is about two men trying to get work and make money. They had dreams to have their own farms and animals. Those dreams were impossible because of the time they were living in. Most of this novel is Realism because it shows the true problems of the Great Depression. It also has naturalism because Steinbeck describes nature in detail. It also has Modernism too.
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