American Lit: Exploration and Colonization Quiz

Answer: Edward Taylor

Edward Taylor was born ca. 1642 probably somewhere in Leicestershire County, England, and died in 1729 in Westfield, Massachusetts. He was the son of a yeoman farmer and taught school until he left England in 1668 to brave the "howling wilderness" of New England because, as a Puritan, he refused to sign a loyalty oath to the Church of England.

He attended Harvard for three years before leaving the Boston area to travel 100 miles west to serve as a new settlement's minister and physician. Practically no one ever knew of his great love for poetry, it would seem, and he wrote a significant number of works, most for his own personal pleasure.

This great bulk of poetry remained unknown until the 1930s when it was discovered in the Yale University Library, where it had been deposited by Taylor's grandson Ezra Stiles, a former president of the college.

Much of his poetry represents the Metaphysical style, which was quite popular in England during the seventeenth century. Imitating poets like John Donne, Taylor's poems often revolve around the use of a conceit. an elaborate extended metaphor that exercises creative thinking and association. Taylor's comparisons of himself to a spinning wheel and then a loom in his poem "Huswifery" are famous examples; he imagines himself as a tool to be used by God so that God may produce his work through Taylor.

Answer: Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus (1451 - 1506) dated this letter February 15, 1493, and addressed it to Luis de Santangel, a former merchant who was now a court official that supported Coumbus's proposal to find a western sea route to Asia and helped him secure financing from the king and queen of Spain.

In this very letter, Columbus explains, " . . . I thought that it must be the mainland, the province of Catayo [Cathay, aka China]." Of course, he had not sailed to Asia but had found a "New World." That he had not accomplished his original goal probably accounts somewhat for his decision to sell his discoveries to the Sovereigns of Spain as a paradise so that he might continue to receive financial support from them.

He describes in this letter a land where the trees "never lose their foliage", suggesting that the place existed in a perpetual spring.

He makes clear that there are "many harbors on the coast of the sea" and "very large tracts of cultivatable lands." As stated in the question, he mentions nightingales and honey; however, nightingales and honey bees did not exist in the Americas at the time of Columbus's discovery. Perhaps, he mentions these because of the heavenly associations Europeans connected with these.

In later letters, Columbus insists that he is close to discovering the Terrestrial Paradise [Eden] described in the book of Genesis.

Answer: Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca

Cabeza de Vaca (c. 1490 - 1558) published the first edition of "The Relation of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca" in 1542 to present an accurate presentation of the lives of the American Indians so that he might influence Spanish policy concerning the treatment of them. Cabeza de Vaca utterly despised the Spanish slave trade and was openly a source of constant agitation against the practice.

In his "Relation" he very famously exposes the hypocrisy of his countrymen, led by Diego de Alcatraz, who were supposed to be spreading Christianity but instead were stealing, murdering, and enslaving innocent people. By drawing attention to the faith the Spanish professed, he quite sarcastically remarks, ". . . the Christians lied . . . " and "robbed whomever they found and bestowed nothing on anyone." Following the second time de Vaca was arrested for his defense of the Indians, he was sent in chains back to Spain, where he was forbidden ever to return to the Americas and then sent on an expedition to Africa.

Answer: turtle

This Sky Woman was pregnant with twins--one referred to as the good mind, and the other, the bad mind. The bad twin, not willing to wait for birth, pushed its way out of his mother's arm pit, killing her in the process. The good mind, not content to live in the darkness of the world, created the sun, moon, and stars as well as waterways, plants, animals, and people. The bad mind, on the other hand, set about creating mountains and cliffs as well as monstrous creatures and reptiles. He also tried to make people but ended up making creatures more akin to apes instead. Eventually, the good mind, through trickery or cunning, defeats the bad mind, who then becomes the "Evil Spirit".

American Indian literature was originally orature, spoken narratives and lyrics passed on from one generation to another, as the Indians had no written variations of their languages. In fact, most American Indian literature was not recorded in a written form until the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This version, as there are around twenty-five different ones, of the Iroquois Creation Story was published in 1827 by David Cusick in his "Sketches of the Ancient History of the Six Nations". The "Six Nations" refers to the Iroquois family, which was composed of the Mohawk, Seneca, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Tuscarora nations. Cusick considered his writings a "History" and not a myth as they told of the progression of events that led to the establishment of the Iroquois Confederacy. Cusick was born around 1780 on the Oneida Reservation in New York.

Answer: Trickster

While the term "trickster" may have been used by scholars prior to 1898, that is the year the term first appeared in print in Franz Boas's introduction to a study of the Thompson River Indians. The character is usually male but often female, and it is not quite purely human or purely animal but rather a being who is an ancestor of both because it appears to come from a time "when we were all the same", or a time when there was little distinction between animal and human being. Nevertheless, Trickster often takes the form of a coyote or a hare or a jay or a spider or a raven, depending on the American Indian culture from which the tale originated, for Trickster is a cross-cultural archetype that appears in the stories of many different American Indian cultures.

In all the stories, Trickster is always a wandering, gluttonous, lustful, bawdy, obscene, deceitful, selfish, amoral character who is often quite destructive, yet Trickster is also a hero with godlike power who helped create the order of the world as it is.

The tales also were instrumental in teaching a culture's traditions and mores. For example, the particular Winnebago tale referred to in the question would have instructed young listeners that a male should be doing the courting rather than allowing himself to be courted by a female and that a chief should not marry off his son to a stranger.

Answer: Thomas Harriot

Thomas Harriot (1560-1621) published "A Brief and True Report" in 1588, and some have argued that the report was neither. In an attempt to encourage others to settle in the New World, Harriot wrote "[In] respect of troubling our inhabiting and planting, [the natives] are not to be feared, but . . . shall have cause both to fear and love us . . . ." He explains that the "natives" have "bows made of witch hazel", "arrows of reeds", shields "made of bark", and "armor made of sticks".

He claims that many of Indians regard the English as gods because of their technology and science and because of the spread of European diseases among the Indians who had no immunity to them.

In fact, he related how some opportunistic Indians would seek out the English and ask them to travel to their enemies and curse them with such illnesses. Of course, the settlement of Virginia was not as safe and secure as Harriot led his readers to believe.

The first attempt to settle Roanoke failed, and the settlers abandoned it.

The second attempt was also disastrous as many died, and the remaining settlers, fearing for their own health, abandoned the settlement yet again. Following the third attempt, the settlers mysteriously disappeared, and exactly what happened to them remains a mystery to this day.

Answer: John Smith

"The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles" was published in 1612. Originally, it was credited to Thomas Studley, the chief storekeeper of the colony of Jamestown. In 1624, when Smith republished the book, Smith himself as well as Robert Fenton and Edward Harrington were listed as authors in addition to Studley.

However, scholars doubt Studley or Harrington contributed much, if anything at all, for both Studley and Harrington died within a few months of Jamestown's establishment in 1607. No one knows anything about the Robert Fenton individual, so John Smith is generally given sole credit for the composition of this history.

While Smith is referred to in the third person throughout the history, this was typical of writers who were writing about themselves; furthermore, the text overly praises if not exaggerates Smith's accomplishments, something Smith himself would have been more likely to do.

As was mentioned in the question, Smith bragged about how he withstood the onslaught of 200 American Indians, "yet he was shot in his thigh a little, and had many arrows that stuck in his clothes but no great hurt". Later, when he finally surrenders, the number has grown to 300.

He talks of how the settlers all thought him dead and grieved greatly for him, but this was not likely as many hated him. Then he claims that Chief Powhattan's own daughter Pocahontas rescues him from certain death following his capture. Scholars now, however, believe that Smith more than likely misunderstood a ritual adoption ceremony in which the chief's biological child pretends to save the adopted child from an execution, which is a staged performance. The true significance of Smith's history is that it would go on to help establish the image of the American hero and it would serve as a source of inspiration for future American writers of fiction.

Answer: William Bradford

William Bradford (1590-1657) belonged to a smaller set of Puritans who referred to themselves as "Separatists". While the Puritans' main objective was to purify the Church of England of practices they believed to be corrupt or un-Biblical, the Separatists had no hope that the Church of England could ever be reformed from within. Thus, they set out to create their own churches, each one existing through an individual covenant with God. Eventually, many of the Separatists grew tired of the persecution and threats with which they were living and moved out of England to The Netherlands.

However, the Americas became more appealing to them as a location in which they could be free from European politics and wars and be free to practice their faith as they wished. Bradford and many others commissioned the "Mayflower" to take them to Virginia, but after a storm, as they claim, blew them off course, they landed in Massachusetts and created Plymouth. Bradford referred to his group as the "Pilgrims".

The Separatists had struggled against political and church forces that denied them the right to exist, so Bradford felt compelled to justify their faith and way of life. He composed "Of Plymouth Plantation" and presents a case that the Pilgrims were God's chosen people, and he compares their flight from Europe to the New World to the Hebrews' flight from Egypt to their Promised Land. He suggests that as the Hebrews wandered in the wilderness for forty years, so the Pilgrims would have to wander in their own wilderness for some time until God revealed to them their paradise. He argues that they have a right to settle in the New World because God has ordained this and destined them to succeed. Thus, God does things like kill off a sailor aboard the "Mayflower" because this sailor was cruel to the Pilgrims. While Bradford and a few other leaders did compose the "Mayflower Compact" to set up some form of government in the colony of Plymouth, for which they had no legal claim as they had been given a grant for land in Virginia only, democracy was not a priority nor a method of government Bradford liked. He wanted to maintain strict control of his people and was intolerant of any faith other than the Puritan one. As a Puritan, he accepted the belief that all people are essentially evil and that if given freedom, they would freely practice evil. He demonstrates this by telling of Thomas Morton, an individual who created through theft a colony of his own called Merrymount. Bradford condemns Morton for drinking, carousing with Indians, dancing around a maypole, practicing atheism, and writing "sundry rhymes and verses". John Endecott attempts to put an end to Morton's activities and chops down the maypole, but this is no deterrent to Morton. Eventually, however, the line is drawn when Morton, practicing free enterprise, sells guns and ammunition to some American Indians. Bradford complains until Miles Standish invades Merrymount, arrests Morton, and sends him back to England in chains. England's courts, however, cannot find Morton guilty of any crime worthy of imprisonment, and Morton eventually finds his way back to America.

Answer: John Winthrop

John Winthrop (1588-1649) preached his sermon "A Model of Christian Charity" to a captive audience on board the "Arbella" in 1629. Among these colonists were Simon Bradstreet, who would become a future Massachusetts Bay governor himself, and his wife Anne, who became one of America's famous poets. Winthrop borrowed his "city on a hill" simile for his American colony from Christ's Sermon on the Mount--Matthew 5:14-15, to be precise.

He wanted to suggest that their colony would be watched by all and that they had to be careful what example they created for the rest of the world. President Ronald Reagan would refer to these words himself in a famous speech of his own as he tried to suggest that the entire nation of America needed to shine as an example of democracy and free enterprise.

However, democracy and capitalism weren't really what Winthrop had in mind for the rest of the world to see. In his sermon, he argued that there was no equality for all because God's will was that some be poor and some rich. Winthrop argued that in their new colony there would be no separation of church and state and that the government would exist to ensure that all people are serving the Lord, finding salvation, helping one another, and loving one another.

He argued that all private matters would take a back seat to public ones. Such an attitude was not unique to Winthrop. Most Puritans had this mindset, as one can see also in William Bradford's "Of Plymouth Plantation".

Answer: Roger Williams

Roger Williams (ca. 1603-1683) was considered a dangerous man by William Bradford, John Winthrop, and many other Puritan leaders. Williams argued that no Massachusetts colony had any legal claim to land for no just compensation had been offered to any American Indian nation, that all churches in America should break from the national church or the Church of England, and that all civil authority in America should have no jurisdiction over the church, thus separating church and state.

He was to be arrested for treason and sedition, but he escaped into a blizzard to live for three and a half months with Narragansett Indians.

He eventually founded Providence, the future capital of Rhode Island. The government he created there fostered a kind of democracy and religious tolerance not practiced by the Puritan colonies. Williams also became known as an advocate for civilized treatment of the American Indians and for the abolition of slavery.

Answer: Anne Bradstreet

Anne Bradstreet, nee Dudley, (ca. 1612 - 1672) lived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony with her husband Simon, who later became a governor of that colony. Despite being in the wilderness of the New World and her constitution being permanently weakened by rheumatic fever, she risked pregnancy eight times, a dangerous situation in that setting even for a healthy woman, for women and children frequently died during pregnancy and birth.

She and her husband were of the Puritan faith, and this fact becomes obvious while reading her poem "Here Follow Some Verses upon the Burning of Our Home" in which she "blest His name that gave and took" while she watches her home destroyed by fire and learns from this the following lesson: "The world no longer let me love, / My hope and treasure lies above".

While much of her poetry demonstrates an amazing and powerful faith, others show that she is quite human and capable of anger and doubt. For example, her poem "On My Dear Grandchild Simon Bradstreet, Who Died on 16 November, 1669, Being But a Month, and One Day Old" compares Simon and two other grandchildren who had died in infancy to flowers "Cropped by th' Almighty's hand".

After she remarks that God has taken these children, she comments, "yet is He good", words that seem to convey a bitter tone. Later, she writes, "Let's SAY [emphasis added] he's merciful as well as just", suggesting that she may be providing lip service during her grief because she knows her duty is to be subservient to God, even if she does not really feel like doing so. She also wrote a number of romantic pieces about her passion and love for her husband. Sometimes, these too were uncharacteristic of Puritan writing. For example, in "To My Dear and Loving Husband", she writes, "Then while we live, in love let's so persevere / That when we live no more, we may live ever." Such words suggest that human love might be enough to guarantee immortality. As a Puritan, Anne Bradstreet never meant for any of her poetry to be published. Not only was it quite personal and reflective of her all too human feelings, but her Puritan belief was that people should not do things--such as achieve fame as a writer--to bring glory unto themselves. Nevertheless, her brother-in-law John Woodridge discovered her poetry and took it without her permission back to England, where it was published. Eventually, she was presented a copy of the book "The Tenth Muse, Lately Sprung up in America", the title given to her compilation of work, and she was tremendously embarrassed.

Answer: Mary Rowlandson

During June of 1675, Metacomet, referred to as King Philip by the American colonials, began a series of attacks on the English settlements that lasted for over a year. Metacomet began this onslaught in retaliation for the execution of three of his tribesmen in Plymouth; however, many of the Indians were also starving because of European encroachment.

This series of attacks was called King Phillip's War, and it resulted in the burning of 1200 homes, the killing of around 600 English settlers, and the deaths of around 3,000 American Indians.

The most famous victim of all of this was Mary Rowlandson (ca. 1636 - 1711), who published an account of her experiences in a book entitled "A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mary Rowlandson". During an attack on her town of Lancaster, she watched her home burned and the bloody deaths of her family and neighbors.

While carrying her own child in her arms, she herself was shot through the side by a bullet that pierced her child's abdomen and hand.

The child later died during their captivity. Through all of this she remains loyal and grateful to God, as was her duty as a Puritan, and frequently compares herself to Job. She believes she is being punished for not having kept the Sabbath holy as she should have and that God is trying to demonstrate his great power and love for her by keeping her alive during her captivity. She also believes that God is giving her what she has prayed for--affliction in her life--so that she might be broken and made more righteous. At one point she remarks, "as He [God] wounded me with one hand, so he healed me with the other." Later, she cannot understand how the Indians survive in the wilderness with no proper food, according to her English tastes, so she concludes "that God strengthened them to be a scourge to His people." Of course, her biased view causes her to see the English as "God's people" while the Indians are "bloody heathen".

Answer: Michael Wigglesworth

Michael Wigglesworth (1631 - 1705) became a minister in Malden, Massachusetts, in 1654, but because of a nervous disorder, he could perform all of his ministerial duties except preaching. He felt he was an unworthy individual because of his human depravity, and this sense of inferiority prevented him from not only feeling he could be an effective preacher but also caused him to reject an offer to be president of Harvard.

In 1662, he published "The Day of Doom or a Poetical Description of the Great and Last Judgment".

This poem of over 220 eight-lined stanzas presents a picture of a wrathful yet just God who judges, sentences, and punishes or rewards all people on the Day of Judgment. He divides people into categories of sheep and goats, those who followed Christ and those who didn't, and then describes all the different categories of sinners who are lumped into the larger category of goats. All of the individuals who rejected God and thus whom God rejects as well are cast into hell: "His wrath is great, whose burning heat / no flood of Tears can slake: / His word stands fast, that they be cast / into the burning Lake." Even those who meant to repent of their sins but died before they could do so are given no mercy.

Their hands and feet are bound in iron, and they are sentenced to burn "for ever. / Where day and night, without respite, / they wail, and cry, and howl / For tor'tring pain, which they sustain / in Body and in Soul." Remarkably, the poem was so popular and admired among religious individuals that it was often taught to children along with their catechism. Many elderly people during the early 1800s could still quote the poem from memory.

Answer: Cotton Mather

Cotton Mather (1663 - 1728) was the son of Increase Mather and the grandson of both John Cotton and Richard Mather, all three quite significant Puritan leaders. Cotton Mather was an important scientific influence during his time because of not only his support of small pox inoculation but also because of his research in plant hybridization. Of course, his greatest influence was felt in religious and political spheres. Mather very strongly pushed for a return to the Puritanism as it was practiced by the original Puritan colonists, and his ideas affected American culture on several different levels.

He is also infamous today for his role in the Salem witch trials. Certainly, many accused witches were executed based on the testimony of those who claimed they were visited by the ghosts of the living defendants. Cotton Mather deemed this kind of spectral evidence to be admissible in the legal proceedings to try the accused as witches.

While Mather claimed he was never present at any of the trials, a contemporary of his named Robert Calef wrote a book condemning the trials and provides evidence that Mather was present at some of the executions and that he pushed the executions forward when the crowds began expressing sympathy and hesitation by insisting that Satan could appear angelic when it suited his purpose. Furthermore, Mather and his close political ally William Stoughton remained the only two people never to repent publicly of their own involvement in these witch trials.

Answer: Preparatory Meditations

"Preparatory Meditations" is usually considered Edward Taylor's best work. Each poem in this collection was written as he was preparing for a sermon to be delivered on the Sunday set aside for the monthly communion (a ritual commemorating the Last Supper of Christ). Taylor never published any of these poems, for they were meant for his own personal pleasure, a method of communicating with God, and an attempt to kindle his enthusiasm for the delivery of his sermons.

Some scholars have also argued that he was obsessed with trying to recapture a spiritual experience he once had during a communion service.

He wrote of this in a poem he called "The Experience" and explained how during communion he had become one with God and felt sensations he had never felt before or again afterwards.

While this extreme emotional response to his relationship with God was atypical of a Puritan, his "Meditations" were quite typical of Puritan belief. In "Meditation 22", he laments that whether he speaks or does not, he is at fault, for he cannot adequately praise God with his words, but if he doesn't try, he will be guilty of the sin of silence.

In "Meditation 42", he compares his sinful heart to a chest sealed with a rusted lock. Only God's grace can open this lock and set Taylor's pent up love for God free. However, God must then dress Taylor's love in garments worthy of one who approaches a king. In other words, God must do something to Taylor's love to make it able to serve God; Taylor cannot love God on his own.