A: Of Plymouth Plantation - William Bradford

Thesis In an excerpt from William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation, the Puritans maintain their reverence and trust if God and each other though they experience hardship in the voyage to the Americas and their initial arrival and dealings with the Indians. Passage Chapter X SHOWING .HOW THEY SOUGHT OUT A PLACE Of HABITATION; AND WHAT BEFELL THEM THEREABOUT Being thus arrived at Cape Cod the 11th of November , and necessity called them to look out a place for habitation (as well as the master’s and mariners’ importunity); they having brought a large shallop with them out of England, stowed in quarters in the ship, they now got her out and set their carpenters to work to trim her up; but being much bruised and shattered in the ship with foul weather, they saw she would be long in mending. Whereupon a few of them tendered themselves to go by land and discover those nearest places, whilst the shallop was in mending; and the rather because as they went into that harbor there seemed to be an opening some two or three leagues off, which the master judged to be a river. It was conceived there might be some danger in the attempt, yet seeing them resolute, they were permitted to go, being sixteen of them well armed under the conduct of Captain Standish, having such instructions given them as was thought meet. They set forth the 15th of November; and when they had marched about the space of a mile by the seaside, they espied five or six persons with a dog coming towards them, who were savages; but they fled from them and ran up into the woods, and the English followed them, partly to see if they could speak with them, and partly to discover if there might not be more of them lying in ambush. But the Indians seeing themselves thus followed, they again forsook the woods and ran away on the sands as hard as they could, so as they could not come near them but followed them by the track of their feet sundry miles and saw that they had come the same way. So, night coming on, they made their rendezvous and set out their sentinels, and rested in quiet that night; and the next morning followed their track till they had headed a great creek and so left the sands, and turned another way into the woods. But they still followed them by guess, hoping to find their dwellings; but they soon lost both them and themselves, falling into such thickets as were ready to tear their clothes and armor in pieces; but were most distressed for want of drink. But at length they found water and refreshed themselves, being the first New England water they drunk of, and was now in great thirst as pleasant unto them as wine or beer had been in foretimes. Afterwards they directed their course to come to the other shore, for they knew it was a neck of land they were to cross over, and so at length got to the seaside and marched to this supposed river, and by the way found a pond of clear, fresh water, and shortly after a good quantity of clear ground where the Indians had formerly set corn, and some of their graves. And proceeding further they saw new stubble where corn had been set the same year; also they found where lately a house had been, where some planks and a great kettle was remaining, and heaps of sand newly paddled with their hands. Which, they digging up, found in them divers fair Indian baskets filled with corn, and some in ears, fair and good, of divers colors, which seemed to them a very goodly sight (having never seen any such before). This was near the place of that supposed river they came to seek, unto which they went and found it to open itself into two arms with a high cliff of sand in the entrance but more like to be creeks of salt water than any fresh, for aught they saw; and that there was good harborage for their shallop, leaving it further to be discovered by their shallop, when she was ready. So, their time limited them being expired, they returned to the ship lest they should be in fear of their safety; and took with them part of the corn and buried up the rest. And so, like the men from Eshcol, carried with them the fruits of the land and showed their brethren; of which, and their return, they were marvelously glad and their hearts encouraged. After this, the shallop being got ready, they set out again for the better discovery of this place, and the master of the ship desired to go himself. So there went some thirty men but found it to be no harbor for ships but only for boats. There was also found two of their houses covered with mats, and sundry of their implements in them, but the people were run away and could not be seen. Also there was found more of their corn and of their beans of various colors; the corn and beans they brought away , purposing to give them full satisfaction when they should meet with any of them as, about some six months afterward they did, to their good content." ------------------------------------------------ Bradford, William. "Of Plymouth Plantation." Georgetown College. English Department. 22 Aug 2009. ------------------------------------------------ Reflection This passage from Of Plymouth Plantation shows how the Puritans have a strong will to survive, even though whatever happens, it will have "pleased God" in their view. When the Puritans first arrive, they have nearly full equality with each other because they can only be differentiated by their skills and abilities. The Pilgrims also have nearly total freedom because they have almost nothing in their new location. When the Indians are first sighted, neither group knows anything about the other, and the Puritans are curious and follow them until they lose their trail. The Puritans do, however, find a way to survive in that they find and steal some of the Indians' corn. They feel that it is right to take resources because they believe themselves to be devoted to and chosen by God. Extension This political cartoon states through images that the United States of America is being bogged down with immigrants to the "land of opportunity." For example, The statue of liberty is being swamped by people and has a scared look on it's face. This applies to the diary Of Plymouth Plantation because the Puritans are also coming to a new "land of opportunity," but are not really doing so because of the natives living there. Furthermore, Lady Liberty's arm is crumbling off. This represents how the Puritans are, in reality, creating a chaos in the "New World," which already has inhabitants. Of Plymouth Plantation is similar to this cartoon in that while the Puritans think they are doing good, they are really displacing and altering a previously existing land. Diary Entry Having finally disembarked from that wretched ship, as I have come to think of it in the last few weeks of the journey, I found that we had come out of the frying pan and into the fire. With Winter's onset soon, I volunteered to go investigate the surrounding areas. When we had come about to the other end of the cape, we spotted six savages and a dog watching us from the trees. They ran as soon as we noticed them, and we decided immediately to give chase. They were elusive, these Indians, but we tracked them through the trees and onto the beach, where they took off at a run. After we camped the night, we followed the tracks until we found an insurmountable tangle of plants that ripped our clothes and skin. We had to turn in another direction; and we found where the Indians must have been recently, as the area showed signs of habitation. It pleased God for us to find, buried under the ground, baskets of corn, and we took many ears of corn back to the Mayflower and re-buried the rest. The others are grateful in the extreme, as we can now plant some corn for farming and eat the rest to avoid starvation.

B: Anne Bradstreet

Reflection on "To My Dear and Loving Husband" "To My Dear and Loving Husband" stands out to me of the three poems we studied because of the fact that 'love poems' like this one were not common during the Puritan era. The only references to God are in the beginning and end, enclosing the real meaning of the poem inside. The inner part of the poem compares the husband's love to "whole mines of gold" and "all the riches of the East." This shows how the speaker is taking an insubstantial idea, "love," and making it a corporeal object worth more to her than "whole mines of gold" and "all the riches that the East doth hold." In my opinion, the poem is in actuality a plea for the attention and affection of the speaker's husband, showing insecurity and passion in the same motion. Diary Entry To My Dear Husband, Now that our eight children have finally left their nest, and I am all alone. I've been waiting for you to come home. I do not wish to rush your return; I merely hope that it pleases God for you to have a swift and safe journey back to me. With love, Anne

C: Edward Taylor (1646-1729)

Thesis: In the poem “Huswifery,” Edward Taylor uses conceit, rhyme, and imagery of a spinning wheel to compare the path of spirituality to making a fine garment from scratch in both the difficulty of creation and the glory of the end result.

D: Jonathan Edwards - 1741 "Sinners at the Hands of an Angry God"

Imagery Table Imagery Collage Reflection:

E: The Slave Narrative

Olidah Equiano's account of the Middle Passage answers my essential question by... Extension Race is sometimes used to camouflage the true issue of a debate. For example, the shown political cartoon depicts an elephant (representing Republicans) winning a chess match against a donkey (representing Democrats), which pulls out the "race card" out onto the board and declares itself the winner. This detail implies that Democrats cannon win a debate without obscuring the issue at hand by a non sequitur such as racism. Another detail is that the Democrat only manages to escape a loss—he was in check—by “pulling the race card” out of his shirt. This detail says that the Democrats always have "one trick up their sleeve," so to speak, and that they will "cheat" in a debate by calling the opposition racist. All-in-all, the political cartoon is saying that the Democrats cannot hold their own in politics without cheap tricks.

Diaries

A - William Bradford Having finally disembarked from that wretched ship, as I have come to think of it in the last few weeks of the journey, I found that we had come out of the frying pan and into the fire. With Winter's onset soon, I volunteered to go investigate the surrounding areas. When we had come about to the other end of the cape, we spotted six savages and a dog watching us from the trees. They ran as soon as we noticed them, and we decided immediately to give chase. They were elusive, these Indians, but we tracked them through the trees and onto the beach, where they took off at a run. After we camped the night, we followed the tracks until we found an insurmountable tangle of plants that ripped our clothes and skin. We had to turn in another direction; and we found where the Indians must have been recently, as the area showed signs of habitation. It pleased God for us to find, buried under the ground, baskets of corn, and we took many ears of corn back to the Mayflower and re-buried the rest. The others are grateful in the extreme, as we can now plant some corn for farming and eat the rest to avoid starvation. B - Anne Bradstreet To My Dear Husband, Now that our eight children have finally left their nest, and I am all alone. I've been waiting for you to come home. I do not wish to rush your return; I merely hope that it pleases God for you to have a swift and safe journey back to me. With love, Anne