Prompt one (23 August 2017) What are the most important ideas in John Smith’s diary? Why do you think Bradford was preferred of the two men? John Smith and William Bradford were two powerful men in the New World during the 16th century. Both of men were from the Europe, and when they wrote, they wrote from experience they had in America. William Bradford and John Smith wrote totally different styles and different purposes. John Smiths motive was to bring people to the new world. When John Smith came back to the colony after going back for supply he knew for them to survive they would have to go look for food or some local people to maybe trade with. The first study Smith went on, was down the river, but he and his man run into a group
"William Bradford 1590-1657." The Norton Anthology of American Literature Volume A: Beginnings to 1820. . 8th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. 121-122. Print.
The Norton Anthology introduces each historical figure with a brief summary. Both sources explain how Smith was a soldier fighting in various battles, but Barbour goes on to explain, in the section entitled ‘Adventurer,’ how he searched for adventure and ‘was ever restless’ until he was taking part in the fight against the Turks (20). In General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles we are thrown immediately into the life of Smith and The Virginia Company in the New World. The background information that Barbour provides shows how Smith became the great adventurer that he was. It was interesting to read about the trials Smith went through as a youngster looking to join the army. He was cheated by four men, was robbed of everything he owned when he started out, and was taken in and helped along the way by strangers until he earned enough money to continue his journey (Barbour 18). Smith learned of the Mediterranean trade under La Roche (Barbour 22), and worked under Lieutenant Colonel Khissl, Chief of Artillery at Graz, as a soldier in the Holy...
Crèvecoeur, J. Hector St. John de. Letters from an American Farmer and Sketches of Eighteenth-Century America. Ed. Albert E. Stone. New York: Penguin, 1981.
William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation differs from William Byrd’s The History of the Dividing Line in the cases of purpose, tone, and style. The main purpose of Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation is to show how the colonists in Plymouth colony were struggling and dying due to the lack of food, and how the Native Americans in the area came and helped them. Natives like Squanto “directed them how to set their corn, where to take fish and to procure other commodities” (Bradford, 33). The lessons taught by the Natives saved the colonists and they formed a mutual friendship, as evidenced by the first Thanksgiving. Bradford was trying to show how the colonists were suffering and dying, but survived with the help of the Natives. Byrd, on the other hand, showed that the Virginians
Jaune Quick-to-see Smith is an instrumental and influential modern day artist due to her Native American Background, her medium, and her vision. Her piece Indian Country Today is one that represents who she is as an artist as well as where she came from and where she hopes her people will go. Throughout her life, Quick-to-see Smith overcame racism and oppression from within her community and from outside of it, while connecting with her familial artistic past to become the artist she is today. Her work Indian Country Today is an influential piece stemming from her people’s history, current situation within the United States, as well as her hopes for the future of her people. This piece is dramatic and captivating, creating a sense of unity within the Native American community while acknowledging that these nations continue to be unrecognized by the larger American community, something Quick-to-see Smith feels needs to be remedied.
Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford gives us an insight into the endurance of the early settlers and the kind of pain they went through in order build the foundation of our great nation. They embarked on the new world and developed a colony from the ground up. However, there troubles started long before they even stepped foot on the land. With a strong hold on their religious beliefs, they continued their voyage to the new world even though there were questions about the safety of the vessel. They managed to work hard on the ship and make it to the new world, tired and hungry, only to learn that there was no rest to be found, but even more work.
During the early settlement of North America persons of varied backgrounds came to the New World. Both families and Individuals from Western Europe or the central coast of Western Africa made the arduous journey across the Atlantic. Some hoped to find easy riches or religious purity. While others were torn from their families to provide slave labor for a blossoming economy. The motives for uprooting and moving over the Atlantic are as broad and diverse as the colonies that took shape upon the arrival of these new settlers. Although there were fundamental and cultural differences between the early colonies it is important to note that these differences were to be put aside when they were faced with a common foe. The role of colonial newspapers and the sharing of information coupled with the role of the Crown’s taxation policies lead to an underlying connection between New England, the Middle Colonies and the Southern Colonies. These connections are what allowed the original 13 colonies to overcome their differences and unite to win the American Revolution.
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is a representation of the new prospect of upward mobility in colonial America during the 18th century and the development of the Age of Reason, which assisted in the conception of the idea of the “American Dream”; a dream that includes fundamentally social ideals such as democracy, equality, and material prosperity. Furthermore, Franklin’s autobiography exemplifies a significant shift in focus from religion to enlightenment and reason. Additionally, there were forces specific to Benjamin Franklin's Philadelphia, that played an important role in his perspectives and the changes that occurred within colonial America during the 18th century.
I admire Winston. Winston's attempt to fight the party is admirable because he was focused on something larger than himself. One thing that Winston did to fight the party was to rent a room in prole territory and do forbidden intimate actions with Julia.
John Dickinson, Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies, 1767, 1768, in Skemp, Benjamin and William Franklin, 160.
When the first settlers arrived in the Americas during the 15th century, some of the first literature they produced were descriptions of their new life far from the English mother country. The Puritans settlers specifically, owing to their emphasis on education. William Bradford, governor of the Plymouth Colony in what would become Massachusetts, is a well-known writer of these types of colonial “chronicles”. In his work Of Plymouth Plantation, Bradford provides a chilling description of the colony’s first winter. He describes the colony’s perilous position when he writes “Being thus passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before in their preparation (as may be remembered by that which went before), they had now no friends to welcome them nor inns to entertain or refresh their weather-beaten bodies; no houses or much less town to repair to, to seek for succor.”
In “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson,” Mary Rowlandson, a Puritan mother from Lancaster, Massachusetts, recounts the invasion of her town by Indians in 1676 during “King Philip’s War,” when the Indians attempted to regain their tribal lands. She describes the period of time where she is held under captivity by the Indians, and the dire circumstances under which she lives. During these terrible weeks, Mary Rowlandson deals with the death of her youngest child, the absence of her Christian family and friends, the terrible conditions that she must survive, and her struggle to maintain her faith in God. She also learns how to cope with the Indians amongst whom she lives, which causes her attitude towards them to undergo several changes. At first, she is utterly appalled by their lifestyle and actions, but as time passes she grows dependent upon them, and by the end of her captivity, she almost admires their ability to survive the harshest times with a very minimal amount of possessions and resources. Despite her growing awe of the Indian lifestyle, her attitude towards them always maintains a view that they are the “enemy.”
In “ A Description of New England ”, Smith starts by describing the pleasure and content that risking your life for getting your own piece of land brings to men. On the other hand, Bradford reminds us how harsh and difficult the trip to the New World was for the p...
A great day to add to my diary. I've got a new job after that stupid
In “A Description of New England,” John Smith documents his time in New England while trying to persuade several audiences to travel or to fund a third expedition to the New World with him as a leader. More specifically, Smith uses certain details to entice readers of two vastly different audiences: the poor and idle, the rich and generous, and evangelists. Smith’s main motive for writing “A Description of New England” is to persuade others to allow him to have a chance to go back to the New World as a leader, since he was previously unsuccessful. Smith’s use of exaggeration further convinces his various audiences that he can easily help them gain fortune from the New World.