Puritans and the Age of Reason

I am still waiting for the textbook to arrive, but my professor posted links to the material on his website so here is the review of my first assignment. Hope you enjoy.

The poems we read by Anne Bradstreet have a very personal subject matter; they often focus on her family and her religion. She addresses her own writing in "The Author to Her Book" and dedicated a peom to her "Dear and Loving Husband." Another of her poems gives an account of how she felt after the burning of her house. She considered the event to be an act of God rather than a horrible tragedy and maintained a positive attitude. Bradstreet states that her hope and treasure lies outside of the material world.

Edward Taylor's "Meditation 96" also has religion as its base. At the end of the poem he says that he, like Bradstreet, desires to "lodge" in the love of the Lord. Taylor also wrote about the rewards of attending church--the experience is compared to riding in a coach which brings one closer to Heaven. Johnathan Edwards also placed a great importance on church attendance and warns of straying from God in his long and graphic speech "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God."

Benjamin Franklin wrote about the Indians in North America and how they were considered savages by the white men. When they entered a white village they were surrounded and stared at as though they were some other species, mysterious and not to be trusted. His account illustrates other ways in which the natives were treated as subordinates and thus takes racism as it's primary theme.

Another author from this section who wrote about racism is Phyllis Wheatley. "On being brought from AFRICA to AMERICA" contains the idea that "Their [black people's] colour is a diabolic die." But it is an interesting piece in that Wheatley's account of slavery is not the negative one many people might expect. Rather, it is quite a pleasant one. Her owners were like family to her and taught her how to read. Wheatley's story is a rare exception in that she was not subjected to the rigorous labor that most other slaves during her time suffered. She also writes a few lines about religion and gives thanks to God for delivering her from her "Pagan land."

In summary, because many of the works from this week's reading were written by Puritans, the majority of them center on religion and faith in God. However, there are other themes as well: Bradstreet's love for her family and Franklin and Wheatley's accounts of racism. These works seem to represent the major issues from the time period during which they were produced. Freedom of religion was a hot topic as the Puritans/Separatists founded the colonies and racism was introduced along with the unfamiliar people in the new world.