American Self Reliance

Early American literature is defined by independence, freedom, and a sense of individuality conquering different kinds of difficulties, from culture, society, nature, and many other forms. Many of these authors we have studied this semester have provided a view into how American culture today was formed and has evolved and changed from settlers and explorers, to our revolutionary founders, and even compared to present day. This list of authors and works, and the excerpts provided give a robust view of the evolution of self-reliance in early American and how these writers exemplified and affected the progress of America through building community bonds and shared successes while maintaining individual identities. These works display how individuals and groups in early America pushed aside existing issues and conflicts in the greater interest of American society and community achievement and the overcoming of perilous mistakes and challenges imposed and self-imposed.
The first English inhabitants of America, the Puritans, were driven to these shores by self-reliance and a thirst for freedom. The puritan communities were reliant upon faith and community to survive new and harsh realities in Americas, and their successes were driven by strong assertive leaders that worked to ensure survival and order in a largely undiscovered, unfamiliar, and often dangerous world. The leadership of John Winthrop is a great example, and his ideas of community, build upon the idea "that every man might have need of other, and from hence they might all be knit more nearly together in the bonds of brotherly affection." (Norton 148) reflect the concept of self-reliance that we are familiar with during the history of America. This observation of balance...

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... Margaret Fuller took on these issues in The Great Lawsuit and shows instances where "male and female represent the two sides of the great radical dualism" (1656) and that circumstance and situation dictate roles in society and not just gender roles. One of her quotes from this work captures this in the frame of natural occurrence rather that societal occurrence "Nature provides exceptions to every rule. She sends women to battle, and sets Hercules spinning" (1656). The idea that nature only saw its own intent, and relied upon humanity to react places a primal and instinctual spin on gender roles. The idea that society spun these social norms from tradition rather than true disadvantage was a driving assertion of these writers, such as Lydia Maria Child and Caroline Kirkland, who participated in American events in a much different way that expectation allowed for.