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Influenced by British writers.
Colonial American literature is characterized by the narrative, which was used extensively during this period.
Religion is prominent in colonial American literature and can be found mostly in Puritan writings.
In the 18th Century, the Enlightenment shifted American literature from a religious foundation to scientific reasoning. -
Merchant ship, called Mayflower, set sail from Plymouth with 102 passengers (Protestant Separatists) that did not want to workshop the Church of England which they believed was corrupt. -
The utilitarian writings of the 17th century included biographies, treatises,
accounts of voyages, and sermons, and they were avowedly written to explain colonizing opportunities to Englishmen by Englishmen. -
Protest on both a tax on tea and the monopoly of the East India Company. -
The colonies won political independence and went on to form the United States of America.
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Movement responsible for creating the climate necessary for ending the transatlantic slave trade and chattel slavery.
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Worldview that values the individual over the group, the subjective over the objective, and a person’s emotional experience over reason.
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In 1848 the population was 15.000 people. By 1852 the population was more than 250.000. Some of the new arrivals traveled by sea to the port of San Francisco.
In 1862 Congress granted land and money to the Union Pacific Railroad Company to build a railroad west from the Mississippi towards the Pacific.
Thanks to the Homestead Act, a law which offered free farms, any head of each family could claim one. -
War between the United States and 11 Southern states that seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America.
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Era in which attempts were made to redress the inequities of slavery and to solve the problems arising from the readmission to the Union of the 11 states that had seceded at or before the outbreak of war.
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The main American inventions were typewriters, telephones and machines for sewing, grinding, screwing, printing, drilling, pumping and hammering. -
American goverment needed more land for new homestead, so it forced the Amerindians in going to ‘reservations’ -areas of dry or rocky lands that
white people were not likely to want. -
One of the most relevant population movement in the history of the world. (All intending immigrants were examined at Ellis Island).
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Body of literature written by Americans of African descent, who engaged in a creative dialogue with American letters.