Characteristics of Exploration Literature

Characteristics of Exploration Literature:

• Explorers were first & foremost navigators, not writers.

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• Explorers had a specific audience in mind; they were reporting back to the main land
• The American Dream is evident
• Indians are always considered inferior
• Reports were not always accurate Verazzano: Verazzano’s Voyage
• North Carolina up to Canada
• Wrote to the King of France who funded the voyage; N. C. cedar trees
• “The complexion of these people is black, not much different from that of the Ethiopians; their hair is black and thick, and not very long, it is worn tied back upon the head in the form of a little tail.
• “Our sailors in the boat seeing a great fire made up, and their companion placed very near it, full of fear, as is usual in all cases of novelty, imagined that the natives were about to roast him for food. ”
• “By searching around we discovered in the grass a very cold woman and a young girl of about eighteen or twenty, who had concealed themselves for the same reason; the old woman carried two infants on her shoulders, and behind her neck a little boy eight years of age; when we came up to them they began to shriek and make signs to the men who had fed to the woods. “We found them fairer than the others…”

American Dream: Resources that the land has & space. Champlain: Voyages of Samuel de Champlain : The Voyages of 1604-1607  Est. Quebec; compares in his writing “We saw eighteen or twenty savages, who came to the shore and began to dance. ” “We did not wish them harm, although it was in our power to avenge ourselves. ”  “As for weapons, they have only pikes, clubs, bows and arrows.

It would seem from their appearance that they have a good disposition, better than those of the north, but they are all in face of no great worth. Even a slight intercourse with them gives you at once a knowledge of them. They are great thieves and, if they cannot lay hold of any thing with their hands, they try to do so with their feet, as we have oftentimes learned by experience. I am of opinion of that, if they had any thing to exchange with us, they would not give themselves to thieving.  “It is necessary to be on one’s guard against this people, and live in a start of distrust of them, yet without letting them perceive it. ”  Single-Minded, descriptive of the natives John Smith: The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles .Started traveling at 16 yrs old; Captured in Turkey and sold as a slave; thinks much of himself, he spent most of the voyage in chains in the boat on the way to Jamestown.  7 out of 105; He was a leader; 35 were gentlemen, Smith was a leader, 38 stayed alive. Wrote in 3rd Person; adventure; New England (he named it)  “Smith little dreaming of that accident, being got to the marshes at the river’s head, twenty miles in the desert, had his two men slain (as is supposed) sleeping by the canoe, while himself by fowling sought them victual: who finding he was beset with 200 salvages, two of them he slew, still defending himself with the aid of a salvage his guide, whom he bound to his arm with his garters, and used him as a buckler.

Yet he was shot in his thigh a little, and had many arrows that stuck in his clothes but no great hurt, till at last they took him prisoner. ” “From Penobscot to Sagadahoc. This coast is mountainous, and isles of huge rocks, but overgrown for the most part, with most sorts of excellent good woods, for building houses, boats, barks or ships, with an incredible abundance of most sorts of fish, much fowl, and sundry sorts of good fruits for man’s use.  “And surely by reason of those sandy cliffs, and cliffs of rocks, both which we saw so planted with gardens and corn fields, and so well inhabited with a goodly, strong, and well proportioned people, besides the greatness of the timber growing on them, the greatness of the fish, and the moderate temper of the air (for of five and forty not a man was sick, but two that were many years diseased before they went, not withstanding our bad lodging and accidental diet) who can but approve this a most excellent place, both for health and fertility.

And of all the four parts of the world I have yet seen not inhabited, could I have but means to transport a colony, I would rather live here than anywhere; and if it did not maintain itself, were we but once indifferently well fitted, let us starve. ” “So freely hath God and his Majesty bestowed those lessings on them [that] will attempt to obtain them, as here every man may be master of his own labor and land, or the greatest part (if his Majesty’s royal meaning be not abused) and if he have nothing but his hands, he may set up his trade; and by industry quickly grown rich, spending but half that time well which in England we abuse in idleness, worse, or as ill…”  “.. here man, woman and child, with a small hook and line, by angling many take divers sorts of excellence fish at their pleasures; and it is not pretty sport to pull up two pence, six pence, and twelve pence as fast as you can haul and veer a line; he is a very bad fisher [that] cannot kill in one day with his hook and line one, two, or three hundred cods, if they be sold there for ten shillings a hundred, though in England they will give more than twenty, may not both servant, master and merchant be well content with this gain?

If a man work but three days in seven, he may get more than he can spend unless he will be exceedingly excessive. ”  “Thus though all men be not fishers, yet all men whatsoever may in other matters do as well, for necessary doth in these cases so rule a commonwealth, and each in their several functions, as their labors in their qualities may be as profitable because there is a necessary mutual use of all.  My purpose is not persuade children from their parents, men from their wives, not servants from their masters, only such as with free constant may be spared: but that each parish, or village, in city, or country, that will but apparel their fatherless children of thirteen or fourteen years of age, or young married people that have small wealth to live on, here by their labor may live exceeding well. ”

Pg: 48: How we owe our God Reasons for settling Jamestown: o Gold o God o Glory  American Dream: Middle-Class Utopia William Bradford: Of Plymouth Plantation, Book 1 Orphan when very young, very religious (16 yrs old); self-taught; 1621 elected Governor, served 33 years total; wife fell overboard and died; very humble.  Pilgram: Israelites following Moses; “God’s chosen”  “What could now sustain them but the Spirit of God and His grace? May not and ought not the children of these fathers rightly say: “Our fathers were Englishmen which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this wilderness; but they cried unto to Lord, and He heard their voice and looked on their adversity,” etc. ”

Obstacles faced by Pilgrams: o The ocean (sea sickness) The crew of the Mayflower ? “There was a proud and very profane young man, one of the seamen, of a lusty, able body, which made him the more haughty; he would always be contemning the poor people in their sickness and cursing them daily with grievous execrations; and did not let to tell them that he hoped to help to cast hald of them overboard before they came to their journey’s end, and to curse and swear most bitterly.

But it pleased God before they came half seas over to smite this young man with a grievous disease, of which he died in a desperate manner, and so was himself that first that was thrown overboard. o The wilderness (winter upon arrival) ? “But here I cannot but stay and make a pause, and stand half amazed at this poor people’s present condition; and so I think will the reader, too, when he well considers that same. Being this passed that vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before in their preparation (as may be remembered by that which went before), they had now no friends to welcome them nor inns to entertain or refresh their weather-beaten bodies; no houses or much less towns to repair to, to seek for succour.

It is recorded in Scripture as a mercy to the Apostle and his shipwrecked company, that the barbarians, when they met with them (as after will appear) were readier to fill their sides full of arrows than otherwise. ” o Indians (attack on beach; savages take tools, etc. ) o Non-Puritans o Self-Doubt ? “And for the season it was winter, and they that know the winters of that country know them to be sharp and violent, and subject to cruel and fierce storms, dangerous to travel to known places, much more to search an unknown coast. Besides, what could they see but a hideous and esolate wilderness, full of wild beasts and wild men-and what multitudes there might be of them they knew not. ”  Mayflower Compact o Plain style- Puritan trait .Puritanism: o Main Class Movement; got their name from their enemies

Puritans Beliefs: o God is omnipotent and good o Individuals are either saved or damned @ birth o The Bible is God’s direct communication to man and should be read daily o No hierarchy should govern the church o Biblical scholars, saw themselves as God’s chosen people o Affliction and Adversity were necessary Puritan Characteristics o Emphasized Education o Introspection was a Puritan trait (journals) o Wrote in “plain style” (American style comes from) o Only Biblical forms of literature- non fiction. Anne Bradstreet: The Flesh and Spirit o Introspection (Puritan trait) o “One Flesh was called, who had her eye on wordly, wealth and vanity; The other called Spirit, who did rear her thoughts unto a higher sphere” o “Dost dream of things beyond the moon, and dost thou hope to dwell there soon? afterlife; she had doubts) o “Come, come, I’ll show unto thy sense industry hath its recompense. What canst desire but thou mayst see true substance in variety? Dost honor like? Acquire the same, as some of their immortal fame; and trophies to thy name erect which wearing time shall ne’er deject. For riches dost thou long full sore? Behold enough of precious store. Earth hath more silver, pearls, and gold than eyes can see or hands can hold. Affect’st thou pleasure?

Take thy fill, Earth hath enough of what you will, then let not go, what thou mayst find, for things unknown, only in mind. ” ( What not have things that you can feel instead of just hoping? ) o “This City pure is not for thee, for things unclean there shall not be. If I of heaven may have my fill, take thou the world, and all that will. ” (Reaffirms her faith)  To My Dear and Loving Husband o Sex was meant to only have kids  A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment o Breaking of Stereotypes Mary Rowlandson: A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration

A captivity narrative is a psychological drama that includes: o A Loss of freedom (being caught) o Self- Realization (hardships) o Redemption (gets away from the Indians) o “The Lord hereby would make us the more to acknowledge his hand, and to see that our help is always in him. ” o “ I then remembered how careless I had been of Gods holy time, how many Sabbaths I had lost and misspent, and how evily I had walked in God’s sight; which lay so close unto my Spirit, that it was easier for me to see his presence for ever.

Yet the Lord still shewed mercy to me, and upheld me; and as he wounded me with one hand, so he healed me with the other. ” o “Yet I can say, that in all my sorrows and afflictions, God did not leave me to have my impatience work towards himself, as if his wayes were unrighteous. But I knew that he laid upon me less that I deserved. ” o “Before I knew what affliction meant, I was ready sometimes to wish for it.

When I lived in prosperity, having the comforts of the World about me, my relations by me, my Heart chearfull, and taking little care for any thing; and yet seeing many, whom I preferred before my self, under many tryals and afflictions, in sickness, weakness, poverty, losses, crosses, and cares of the World, I should be sometime jealous least I should have my portion in this life…” (jealously) o “Affliction I wanted, and affliction I had, full measure (I thought) pressed down and running over; yet I see, when God calls a Person to any thing, and through never so many difficulties, yet he is fully able to carry them through and make them see, and say they have been gainers thereby. And I hope I can say in some measure, As David did, It is good for me that I have been afflicted.

”  Crosscurrents  Settler’s views of Indians have envolved: o Manageable Child-like o Friendly (Bradford) o Threat o Enemy  Spectral Evidence ( John Winthrop) o The Trial of Margaret Jones: “Her behavior at her trial was very intemperate, lying notoriously and railing upon the jury and witnesses, and in the like distemper she died. The same day and hour she was executed, there was a very tempest at Connecticut, which blew down many trees. ” o Mary Towne Easty: “I petition to your Honors not for my own life, for I know I must die and my appointed time is set, but (the Lord knows it is) that if it be possible, no more innocent blood may be shed, which undoubtedly cannot be avoided in the way and course you go in….

The Lord above, who is the searcher of all hearts, knows that as I shall answer it at the tribunal seat that I know not the least thing of witchcraft--therefore I cannot, I dare not, belie my own Soul. I beg your Honors not to deny this my humble petition from a poor dying innocent person, and I question not but that the Lord will give a blessing to your endeavors. ” Cotton Mather .The Wonders of the Invisible World o Characteristics of Puritanism that supported Salem witch trials:

• Affliction is necessary and good
• Watchdog mentality (neighbors)
• No Fiction was allowed (drama)

God’s chosen people vs. Satan o Lasting effects of Salem Witch Trails:

• Hastened the Demise of Puritan Dominance
• Accused is Innocent until proven guilty

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