Unit One: Early American Writing

In the years of Europeans first visiting the Americas, there were already natives. Native Americans were full of culture that I'd truly love to know more about. Unfortunately for me (and everyone else), the natives of our land had no written language. This means that when they contracted European diseases and many died off, much of their literature (in oral tradition) died off with them. But there are some documentations of this time. Explorers like Christopher Columbus kept journals describing their voyages to the Americas.. There were also the Puritans, some of the first settlers of the Americas. There hard religion and little tolerance for fun was supposed to grant them access to heaven. I, personally, think this attitude toward life is ridiculous. Life is to be enjoyed in any way possible. Disagreeing with my philosophy, many puritans wrote about a god who was waiting to send them to the burning pits of Hell. Not only did He wait, He waited anxiously. He was excited to send people to Hell. I think it was this picture of God that made the Puritans so strict. And, of course, many years later, there were the writers of the American Revolution. Notably, Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. He borrowed some ideas from other thinkers of the time, but described natural law exquisitely. Of course, another important document written during the times was the United States Constitution. It's probably the most important piece of literature our country has.