American Literature: Beginnings to 1865

  • Period: Jan 1, 1451 to Jan 1, 1506

    Christopher Columbus

  • Feb 15, 1493

    Letter Regarding Columbus's First Voyage

    Optimism
  • Jul 7, 1503

    Letter Regarding Columbus's Fourth Voyage

    Disaster
  • Period: Jan 1, 1580 to

    John Smith

  • Period: to

    John Winthrop

  • Period: to

    William Bradford

  • William Bradford Joings Scrooby Separatists

  • Scrooby Separatists Left England for the Netherlands

  • Bradford Joins Scrooby Community in the Netherlands

  • Period: to

    Anne Bradstreet

  • Plymouth Plantation Settled

    Pilgrims, Puritans and William Bradford
  • Period: to

    Severe Economic Depression in Europe

  • John Winthrop Settled Massachusetts Bay

    Not far north of Plymouth; better financed than Plymouth
  • Period: to

    Mary Rowlandson

  • Period: to

    Cotton Mather

  • Period: to

    Jonathan Edwards

  • Period: to

    Benjamin Franklin

  • Period: to

    John Woolman

  • William Bradford's "History" Manuscript First Published