LibGuides: American Literature Colonial to 1800: Read the Lit

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Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, 1706-1757 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin was written by Benjamin Franklin from 1771 to 1790; however, Franklin himself appears to have called the work his Memoirs. Although it had a torturous publication history after Franklin's death, this work has become one of the most famous and influential examples of autobiography ever written.
I, the Song : Classical Poetry of Native North Americans I, the Song is an introduction to the rich and complex classical North American poetry that grew out of and reflects Indian life before the European invasion. No generalization can hold true for all the classical poems of North American Indians. They spring from thirty thousand years of experience, five hundred languages and dialects, and ten linguistic groups and general cultures. But the poems from these different cultures and languages belong to poetry unified by similar experiences and shared continent. Built on early transcriptions of Native American "songs" and arranged by subject, these poems are informed by additional context that enables readers to appreciate more fully their imagery, their cultural basis, and the moment that produced them. They let us look at our continent through the eyes of a wide range of people: poets, hunters, farmers, holy men and women, and children. This poetry achieved its vividness, clarity, and intense emotional powers partly because the singers made their poems for active use as well as beauty, and also because they made them for singing or chanting rather than isolated reading. Most striking, classical North American Indian poetry brings us flashes of timeless vision and absolute perception: a gull's wing red over the dawn; snow-capped peaks in the moonlight; a death song. Flowing beneath them is a powerful current: the urge to achieve a selfless attention to the universe and a determination to see and delight in the universe on its own terms.
Reading the Voice : Native American Oral Poetry on the Page "This is a book about poetry: about its sacred underpinnings, its broad presence in everyday life, and its necessity to the human community. Reading the Voice examines poetry's abiding importance among Native Americans from ancient times to the present. It also seeks connections between an ancient tribal way of making and diffusing poetry and more recent print-oriented or electronic means." "Drawing on years of experience with Seneca and Navajo singers and storytellers, Paul Zoibrod offers an introductory framework for appreciating what can be called America's first literature and for reevaluating the Western literary heritage. He states, "I consider this work a tentative first step in reconciling mainstream America with the deep poetic roots of an unwritten aboriginal past, and perhaps even with the deeper European roots of its own poetic traditions." To do so effectively, however, readers must first reexamine assumptions about what poetry and literature really are." "Those who come to Native American "literature" in print must do so conscious of the dynamic sounds of speech and song by "reading the voice," instead of merely looking at a silent sheet of paper full of alphabetical symbols. By doing otherwise we stand to miss much that is essential to the verbal art of indigenous peoples whom print cultures approach from an alien perspective."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Unchained Voices: An Anthology of Black Authors in the English-Speaking World of the Eighteenth Century In Unchained Voices, Vincent Carretta has assembled the most comprehensive anthology ever published of writings by eighteenth-century people of African descent, enabling many of these authors to be heard for the first time in two centuries. Their writings reflect the surprisingly diverse experiences of blacks on both sides of the Atlantic-America, Britain, the West Indies, and Africa-between 1760 and 1798. Letters, poems, captivity narratives, petitions, criminal autobiographies, economic treatises, travel accounts, and antislavery arguments were produced during a time of various and changing political and religious loyalties. Although the theme of liberation from physical or spiritual captivity runs throughout the collection, freedom also clearly led to hardship and disappointment for a number of these authors. Briton Hammon, James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, John Marrant, Ignatius Sancho, Ottobah Cugoano, and Olaudah Equiano told their stories as Afro-Britons who recognized the sovereignty of George III; Johnson Green, Belinda, Benjamin Banneker, and Venture Smith spoke and wrote as African Americans n the United States; Phillis Wheatley, initially an Afro-British poet, later chose an African American identity; Francis Williams and George Liele wrote in Jamaica; David George and Boston King, having served with the British forces in the American Revolution and later lived in Canada, composed their narratives as British subjects in the newly established settlement in Sierra Leone, Africa. In his introduction, Carretta reconstructs the historical and cultural context of the works, emphasizing the constraints of the eighteenth-century genres under which these authors wrote. The texts and annotations are based on extensive research in both published and manuscript holdings of archives in the United States and the United Kingdom. Appropriate for undergraduates as well as for scholars, Unchained Voices gives a clear sense of the major literary and cultural issues at the heart of African literature written in English.
The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton; John Jay; James Madison Perhaps the most essential distillation of the Founders' vision of America, The Federalist Papers consist of a series of 85 essays in favor of the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. Attributed to Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison, the essays tackle an array of topics that are just as relevant today as they were more than 200 years ago, including human rights, republican governance, the proper scope and jurisdiction of a federal government, and much more.
Three Gothic Novels by Charles Brockden Brown Novels Included: WIELAND: OR THE TRANSFORMATION -- ARTHUR MERVYN: OR MEMOIRS OF THE YEAR 1793 -- EDGAR HUNTLY: OR MEMOIRS OF A SLEEP-WALKER
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, written in 1789, details its writer's life in slavery, his time spent serving on galleys, the eventual attainment of his own freedom and later success in business. Including a look at how slavery stood in West Africa, the book received favorable reviews and was one of the first slave narratives to be read widely.
The Poems of Phillis Wheatley : With Letters and a Memoir by Phillis Wheatley Born in Africa in 1753, Phillis Wheatley was kidnapped at the age of seven and sold into slavery. At nineteen, she became the first black American poet to publish a book, Poems on Various Subjects: Religious and Moral, on which this volume is based. Wheatley's poetry created a sensation throughout the English-speaking world, and the young poet read her work in aristocratic drawing rooms on both sides of the Atlantic. The London Chronicle went so far as to declare her "perhaps one of the greatest instances of pure, unassisted genius that the world ever produced." Wheatley's elegies and odes offer fascinating glimpses into the origins of African-American literary traditions. Most of the poems express the effects of her religious and classical New England education, consisting of elegies for the departed and odes to Christian salvation. This edition of Wheatley's historic works includes letters and a biographical note written by one of the poet's descendants. Includes a selection from the Common Core State Standards Initiative: "On Being Brought from Africa to America."
Common Sense by Thomas Paine When Thomas Paine first anonymously published his series of pamphlets titles Common Sense they became an overnight success. First released in 1776 at the height of the American Revolution the treatise denounced British rule and is thought to have been so popular as to have influenced the path of the revolution itself. In the words of Historian Gordon S. Wood Common Sense was, "the most incendiary and popular pamphlet of the entire revolutionary era."
The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine Written in a fit of pique brought about by Edmund Burke's blistering attack of the French Revolution, Paine's The Rights of Man has come to be regarded as one of the most important works in the realm of Western political philosophy. In it, Paine contends that some rights that are granted through natural law, rather than by governments or constitutions. A must-read for those interested in politics, philosophy, and the intersection of the two.

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American Poetry - The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries This groundbreaking Library of America volume offers a fresh look at early American poetry, charting its evolution over a span of almost two centuries, from the first years of English settlement in the New World to the death of George Washington. Gathering the work of more than 100 poets--including many poems never previously anthologized and some published here for the first time--it is the most comprehensive collection of its kind ever assembled, a celebration of the rich, varied, and often surprising beginnings of American poetry.
Benjamin Franklin Autobiography, Poor Richard, and Later Writings : Letters From London, 1757-1775, Paris, 1776-1785, Philadelphia, 1785-1790, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1733-1758 by Benjamin Franklin This Library of America collection of Franklin's works begins with letters sent from London (1757-1775) describing the events and diplomacy preceding the Revolutionary War. The volume also contains political satires, bagatelles, pamphlets, and letters written in Paris (1776-1785), where he represented the revolutionary United States at the court of Louis XVI, as well as his speeches given in the Constitutional Convention and other works written in Philadelphia (1785-1790), including his last published article, a searing satire against slavery.
The Collected Works of Phillis Wheatley by Phillis Wheatley Contains the complete works of the first African-American to publish a book of poetry.
Collected Writings : Common Sense, The Crisis, and Other Pamphlets, Articles, and Letters by Thomas Paine Thomas Paine was the impassioned democratic voice of the Age of Revolution, and this volume brings together his best-known works: Common Sense, The American Crisis, Rights of Man, The Age of Reason, along with a selection of letters, articles and pamphlets that emphasizes Paine's American years.
Eulogy on King Philip by William Apess Excerpt from Eulogy on King Philip: As Pronounced at the Odeon, in Federal Street, Boston I DO not arise to spread before you the fame of a noted warrior, whose natural abilities shone like those of the great and mighty phillip of Greece, or of alex ander the Great, or like those of washington, whose virtues and patriotism are engraven on the hearts of my audience Neither do I approve of war as being the best method of bowing the haughty tyrant, man, and civilizing the world. No, far from me be such a thought. But it is to bring before you beings, made by the god of Nature, and in whose hearts and heads he has planted sympathies that shall live forever in the memory of the world, whose brilliant talents shone in the display of natural things, so that the most culti vated, whose powers shone with equal lustre, were not able to prepare mantles to cover the burning elements of an uncivilized world. What, then, shall we cease to mention the mighty of the earth, the noble work of (iron? About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself by Olaudah Equiano It is accompanied by an introduction, maps, illustrations, and annotations. "Contexts" provides essential public writings on the autobiography, general and historical background, related travel and scientific literature, other eighteenth-century works by authors of African ancestry, and works debating the slave trade."Criticism" includes six contemporary reviews and nine modern essays on the narrative by Paul Edwards, Charles T. Davis, Houston A. Baker, Jr., Angelo Costanzo, Catherine Obianju Acholonu, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Geraldine Murphy, Adam Potkay, and Robert J. Allison. A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are included.
John Adams : Revolutionary Writings 1755-1775 by John Adams Propelled by the power of his pen and the clarity of his judgment, an ambitious young provincial lawyer named John Adams became a major figure in the American Revolution. This first of two volumes gathering his essential writings to 1783 includes the complete newspaper exchange between "Novanglus" (Adams) and "Massachusettensis" (Loyalist Daniel Leonard), as well as extensive diary excerpts and characteristically frank personal letters-many to his "dearest friend" Abigail-that convey the excitement and danger of the mounting crisis with Britain, from the Stamp Act riots of 1765, to the Boston Massacre and Tea Party, to the First Continental Congress, where Adams became a leader of the patriot cause.
John Adams: Revolutionary Writings 1775-1783 by John Adams It includes the highly influential pamphlet Thoughts on Government (1776); the "Report of a Constitution for Massachusetts," (1780) Adams's blueprint for what remains the world's oldest working political charter, and dozens of his characteristically frank and revealing personal letters, many to his "dearest friend" Abigail, extensive diary excerpts, and selected passages from his unfinished autobiography recalling his life during this period.
Jonathan Edwards: Writings from the Great Awakening by Jonathan Edwards Jonathan Edwards For five months during the winter and spring of 1734-35 the frontier town of Northampton, Massachusetts, experienced a surge in religious conversions, something that had occurred several times before in its eighty-year history.
My Dearest Friend : Letters of Abigail and John Adams by Abigail Adams In 1762, John Adams penned a flirtatious note to 17 year-old Abigail Smith. In 1801 Abigail wrote to wish her husband a safe journey home after serving as president of the nation he helped create. This book contains these letters that span nearly 40 years.
Of Plymouth Plantation, 1620-1647 by William Bradford Modern Library College Editions William Bradford's "Of Plymouth Plantation" is a remarkable work by a man who himself was something of a marvel. It remains one of the most readable seventeenth-century American books, attractive to us as much for its artfulness as for its high seriousness, the work of a good storyteller with intelligence and wit. Edited, with an Introduction, by Francis Murphy.
On Our Own Ground : The Complete Writings of William Apess, a Pequot by William Apess Makes available in a superb scholarly edition not only the first published autobiography by a native American (1829 originally), but also a range of historical, political, and personal writings. -- New York Times Book Review