Photo Journal

Witchcraft trials and the Puritans- by Jonathan Edwards (1692)

• Sarah Osborne and Sarah Good, along with Tituba were accused and therefore were sent to trial.
• The trial lasted 10 months.
• 150 people were accused during the witchcraft trials.
• 19 people were hanged, and Giles Corey was crushed to death under a pile of stones.
• Many historians believed that Salem experienced a mass hysteria.
• Unmarried, midwives, and independent people, or people who live alone, usually everyone from ages 40-60.
• Women were a potential threat due to father’s inheritance – can threat male power.
• The Crucible (1953) was a mix of the Salem trials and the Communists of U.S. government in the 1950s.
• Nathaniel Hawthorne’s great-great-grandfather was one of the three judges at the trial.
• The Puritans were a group of Protestants who tried to purify the church.
• The Puritans valued three things:

1. Self-reliance
2. Industriousness
3. Temperance and simplicity

• Certain people would be saved (elects) and the other were damned (the unregenerate).
• They would try to save themselves by looking at the inner lives
• Showed grace by outward appearance- Puritans were very strict on this.
• Mayflower Compact- Signed by the Puritans and prepared American constitutional democracy. (Views were undemocratic).
• The purpose of life was a journey to salvation
• The Puritans took the Bible literally.
• Their goal was to perfect their lives.
• Great amount of emphasis on education- Puritan ministers started Harvard University.
• The Age of Reason began in Europe by a group of philosophers and scientists.
• Rationalism- The belief that humans arrive at the truth by reason, rather than relying on the authority of the past, religious faith, and intuition.
• Famous rationalist was Sir Isaac Newton
• Rationalists believed God gave humanity the gift of reason- which allowed the mid of figuring thins out through logic, and the ability to think.
• The smallpox plague started from a ship that arrived to Boston (it was rat-infested and was filled with disease as well as goods) with Goods such as tea.
• Epidemic of the smallpox strikes Boston in 1791, affecting nearly half the population (about 6,000) people died.
• Puritan minister Cotton Mather found a cure to this through inoculation.
• Devises a vaccination
• 300 people took the vaccine and 6 died- not many people wanted to take the vaccine after knowing what it was made of.  
• The Bible was the model for Puritan belief.
• The first American literature were diaries and histories= First American literature (plain writing).

Jonathan Edwards

• Stern, zealous preacher
• At his teenage years he got accepted into Yale University (he was a bright kid and had an interest for education)
•  His sermons and teachings are known as the Great Awakening
• Known for his extremism as a pastor.
• Great Awakening purpose was to get Christians to confess to being born in God’s grace
• In 1750, his strictness eventually was too much for the people to bear and would be dismissed from his position as pastor.
• Became president of Princeton University for three months.
• Afterwards, he would die due to a smallpox inoculation.
• Also known as the last Puritan that stood between the two worlds that he did not fit in- the modern world and the Puritan world.

Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672)

• Was born in England
• Lived around the same time Shakespeare was still around
• Was Puritan
• Came to North America as a young teenage bride (back then, marriage took place in teenage years).
• Her father and husband both were governors of the colony
• Had eight children
• Without her knowing, her brother-in-law took her poems to England and got It published (at the time, women weren’t allowed to publish anything).
• The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America was a big success, and had fared better with critics and public than she expected.
• Later, even Cotton Mather praised her work.
• She became popular through her lifetime (mostly famous for her works and the ones her brother-in-law published).

Patrick Henry and Virginia Speech:

• Born and death: 1736-1799.
•  He delivered a thundering speech against the hated stamp act. It was one of the two famous speeches against the stamp act in American Colonial History.
•  He rose up to defend his resolution to take up arms.
• He persuaded the delegation. The Virginia Convention voted to arm its people against England.
• He is respectfully introducing his views on what action to take on regards to the conflict with Britain. The other members want the situation to peacefully end, but he wants to prepare for war of Britain does not meet the colonists demands.
• He builds Ethos in paragraph 1 by expressing a religious passion. He positions himself as a Christian fighting for God. The Biblical allusion to the motif of light is the equivalent of fighting for God’s truth.
• “An act of disloyalty towards the majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.”  Henry deals closely with God with the Earthly kings. The diction that he uses shows the authority of God over a king. He makes an appeal to ethos by making God seem more important than the earthly kings, as character and authority prevail over just authority.
• “listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts” this is an allusion to the Odyssey metamorphically comparing how the British are giving the colonies false hope to how Circe lures men into her island, giving them false hope transforming them into pigs.
• “Are we disposed to be the number of those who having eyes see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation.”  This is another allusion to the Bible, and it alludes to the verse of Ezekiel 12:2. This is an appeal to pathos and ethos.
• “…the lamp of expeience” comparison with lamp and that experience will light the way for the future.”…insidious smile with which our petition has been received…” appeal to pathos because it implies that the british are misleading. It angers the colonists because they are being fed false hope.
• “… snare…” image of a trap into joining Britain.
• “Darken our land” appeal to pathos since it talks about how it will be if Britain captures them.

How to Study Poetry

• Get some background information on an author
• Read the poem and look up any unknown words.
• When reading, remember the thought stops at the punctuation not at the end of the line.
• The last few lines are where the theme of the poem is found.

Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

• Came from a poor family
• Paine worked as a journalist in Philadelphia
• Wrote Common Sense.
• It is a 47-page pamphlet
• Sold half a million copies- surprising for that time
• He went to Europe and supported the French Revolution
• He composed The Rights of Man, which was a reply to Edmund Burke’s condemnation of the French revolt.
• Paine was tried for treason in England and was banned from the country.
• He lived in France most of his life.
• He was celebrated as a hero in the French revolution.
• He was imprisoned for being a citizen of England, the enemy of France at the time.
• He gained release by claiming that he was an American citizen in 1794.
• His last written work was The Age of Reason- published in two parts
• It was controversial in America because the Americans did not fully understand Paine’s ideas.
• They considered him an atheist.
• He returned to America in 1802 and was considered a virtual outcast for the rest of his life.
• He did not have the rights of an American citizen anymore.
• Died in New York, but his body did not “R.I.P.”
• William Cobbett dug up his body and removed it and transported it to England and used it to erect a memorial of The Rights of Man.
• The remains of Thomas Paine were last scene in 1844, dealt with by a furniture dealer.

Literary Devices and terms

• Aphorism- A general statement of truth. Example: "These are the times that try men's souls"
• Anecdote- A very brief story, told to illustrate a point or serve as an example of something. Example: The story about the tavern man who wanted peace in his day
• Polysyndeton- Repetition of conjunctions
• Syntax- The varying types of sentence structure in a literary work
• Anaphora- The repetition of a word or phrase. Example: “Were the back counties...were the Home Counties...were any one state"
• Allusion- A reference to another literary work. Example: "A peace which passeth all understanding" 
• Pathos- Appeal to emotion
• Ethos- Appeal to ethics
• Logos- Appeal to logic
• William Howe was the biggest enemy of the Tories
• Tories were people in the colonies who supported the British
• Paine had faith in the colony army even though they were severely outnumbered.
• Summer soldiers were soldiers that only fought in the summer.
• Sunshine patriots are soldiers who only fought when things were going well.

Poems

• To My Dear and Loving Husband
• Describes through pathos because of her showing love for her husband
• Challenges other women the love and connection between aa wife and a husband.
• Shows love forever, even after death.