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The beginnings of American Literature
The history of American literature begins with the arrival of English-speaking Europeans in what would become the United States. At first American literature was naturally a colonial literature, by authors who were Englishmen and who thought and wrote as such. The writings included biographies, treatises, accounts of voyages, sermons and poems -
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American Colonies
The 13 British colonies were established during the 17th and early 18th centuries, in what is now a part of the eastern United States. The people who went to the colonies went because they wanted freedom of religion, they saw an economic opportunity or they were sent agains their will (slaves, convicts, political prisoners) -
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Colonies and literature
Colonial American literature is characterized by the narrative, which was used extensively during this period. Most of the literary works are letters, journals, biographies and memoirs.The prominence of religion is another caracteristic of the colonial American literature. -
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Slavery in America
It started when the privateer The white Lion brought 20 African slaves ashore in the British colony of Jamestown, Virginia. Between the 16th and 19th centuries, an estimated total of 12 million Africans were forcibly transported to the Americas. In the 17th and 18th centuries, enslaved Africans worked mainly on the tobacco, rice and indigo plantations of the southern coast. -
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The Enlightment in American literature
In the 18th century, the Enlightenment showed a great shift in colonial American literature from a religious foundation to scientific reasoning applied to human nature, society, culture and political awareness. Rational thought and science were the new themes. -
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African American literature
The first African American writers tried to show that the proposition “all men are created equal” in the Declaration of Independence demanded that black Americans be granted the same human rights as white Americans. Also, the fugitive slave narrative dominated the literary landscape of antebellum black America. -
Boston Tea Party
The Townshend Acts had raised such a storm of colonial protest and noncompliance. In this incident, 342 chests of tea belonging to the British East India Company were thrown from ships by American patriots. -
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American Revolution
It was a conflict in which 13 of Great Britain ’s North American colonies won political independence and went on to form the United States of America. -
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Abolitionism
It is the movement responsible for creating the emotional climate necessary for ending the transatlantic slave trade and chattel slavery. The slave system aroused little protest until the 18th century, when rationalist thinkers of the Enlightenment began to criticize it for its violation of the rights of man. -
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The Romantic Period
It was a movement which values the individual over the group, the subjective over the objective, and a person’s emotional experience over reason. It also values the wildness of nature over human-made order. -
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Civil war
It was a conflict between the Union (northern states) and the Confederacy(southern states). The main cause of this war was the status of slavery and the southern states wanting to secede due to this controversy . -
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Years of growth
By 1884 six major lines had crossed the continent to link the Mississippi valley with the Pacific Coast, reducing the time that it took to travel across the United States from weeks to days.
Thanks to the Homestead act, many families claimed a free farm in the great Plains. But they found many problems: it was hard to get materials, the land had never been ploughed, there was lack of water and some years there were destructive plagues of insects. -
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The Amerindians’ Land and their last stand
Amerindians life was affected by the Americans. American soldiers found gold in a place sacred to the Amerindians. Also, the buffalo was starting to disappear due to the Americans' hunting.
The American Government forced the Amerindians to live in "reservations". In 1890, Amerindians attempted to left their reservation, but soldiers stopped them. Most of the native Americans were dead or badly wounded. -
Reconstruction
Lincoln was assessinated. He was succeded by his Vice President, Andrew Johnson. He introduced plans to reunite the South with the rest of the nation. However, this states passed the "Black Codes", laws that kept blacks in an inferior position. In 1866, the Congress introduced the 14th Amendment, which gave blacks the full rights of citizenship. -
Abolition of slavery
The 13th Amendment, adopted on December 18, 1865, officialy abolished slavery in the United States. -
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Inventors and Industries
The production of coal and iron, which were the most important industrial raw materials in the nineteenth century, grew really fast.
In 1913, Henry Ford started to use assembly-line methods to make automobiles. -
The Statue of Liberty
In 1886, the Statue of Liberty was given by French people to mark the hundredth anniversary of the War of Independence. -
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The golden Door
Since the first colony was created, people from other lands have made new homes there. Most of them went from Europe. Jews, who were persecuted in Europe, were allowed a place to live and they let children grow up as Americans. Many Americans were worried about the large number of immigrants.
In the 1920s, the Congress Congress passed laws to limit immigration. The most effective one was the Heed-Johnson Immigration Act of 1924. -
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The Indian Citizenship Act and the Indian Reorganization Act
In 1924, the Congress passed the Indian Citizenship Act, recognizing Amerindians as full citizens of the United Stares and giving them the right to vote.
In 1934, the Indian Reorganization Act allowed them to have control of their reservations