son's New England's Plantation (1630), "a description of the commodities and discommodities of that country"; William Wood's New England's Prospect (1634), "a true, lively and experimental" account of the geography, climate, products, and natives of that region; Edward Johnson's Wonder-Working Providence of Zion's Saviour in New England (1654); Daniel Gookin's Historical Collections of the Indians in New England (1674), a plea for the salvation of the Indians; Sermons of Thomas Hooker, Thomas Shepard, John Cotton; John Eliot's Translation of the Bible into the Algonquin language (1661-'63), a monument to the industry, learning, and missionary zeal of the great "Apostle to the Indians"; Thomas Prince's History of New England (1736). In addition to these works one other at least is richly deserving of mention that quaint and curious little volume known as The New England Primer, a medley of religious knowledge in verse and prose on which children were brought up for more than a hundred years. Rhymed alphabet, lists of words to be spelled, catechism, lullabies, versified religious instruction, Biblical quotations, are contained in The New England Primer, Time cuts down all, Uriah's beauteous Wife Xerxes the great did die Zaccheus he Did climb the Tree B aptly called the "Little A PAGE FROM THE NEW ENGLAND PRIMER Bible of New England." It is estimated that two million copies of this book were printed and sold during the eighteenth century; the few copies now in existence represent forty editions. (See the fac-simile reprint of The New England Primer, made by Ginn and Company from an original owned by G. A. Plimpton, Esq., of New York.) William Bradford's History of English take New Amsterdam, 1664 PRINCIPAL THEMES: Adventure, History, Religion, Ethics Romantic adventure is more prominent in the Southern writers, Moral and Religious subjects in the Northern. In general, the writers reflect respectively the spirit of the Cavalier and the Puritan. SOME USEFUL BOOKS Historical.-Osgood's American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century, Fisher's The Colonial Era, Fiske's The Beginnings of New England and Old Virginia and her Neighbors (Houghton), Thwaites's The Colonies ("Epochs of American History" series), Lodge's English Colonies in America, Tyler's Narratives of Early Virginia, Eggleston's Beginners of a Nation, Tyler's Cradle of the Republic and England in America, Doyle's English Colonies in America, Cooke's Virginia (“American Commonwealths" series). Literary.-Tyler's History of American Literature from 1607 to 1765 (Putnam), Cairns's Early American Writers (Macmillan), Trent and Wells's Colonial Prose and Poetry (Crowell), Trent's Southern Writers (Macmillan), Stedman and Hutchinson's Library of American Literature (vols. I, II.) Representative selections from Colonial authors may be found in Cairns, Trent and Wells, Stedman and Hutchinson, Old South Leaflets (Boston), Maynard's Historical Readings (Merrill), Chronicles of the Pilgrims (Everyman's Library-Dutton), Trent's Southern Writers. Social.-Earle's Home Life in Colonial Days, Colonial Dames and Goodwives, Child Life in Colonial Days, Customs and Fashions (Macmillan), Fisher's Men, Women, and Manners of Colonial Times; Holliday's Wit and Humor of Colonial Days; Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter; Cooke's Virginia Comedians; Mary Johnston's To Have and to Hold; Chandler and Thames's Colonial Virginia. CHAPTER TWO REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 1765-1815 A Time of Transition The Beginnings of Nationality. Three thousand miles of ocean separated the American colonies from the home land; attachment to the soil of their adoption had grown through the years; the distance from England and the struggles to build up local governments had caused a sturdy self-reliance to develop in the souls of these transplanted Englishmen; little was needed now to change self-reliance into a desire for independence. The colonies stretched from Georgia to Maine along the Atlantic coast; westward the Alleghanies and the Mississippi were the barriers which the colonists had not passed; France owned Canada and the West. Each English colony was essentially independent of the others, and between those of the North and those of the South there was little communication. As yet nothing had happened to draw them together in action and purpose; no opportunity had been given them to feel and to test their united strength. This opportunity came at the outbreak of the French and Indian War in 1754, which was a contest between France and England for the possession of the North American continent. The victory of England meant the permanence of Anglo-Saxon civilization in North America; henceforth language and institutions were to be English. That war formed a crisis in colonial America. The colonies for the first time got together against a common foe, and in this union of effort we really find the beginnings of American nationality. In that conflict one man emerged from obscurity, young George Washington, of Virginia, who was [62] soon destined to play a conspicuous part in a mightier struggle for independence. The American Revolution.-What we know as the "Revolutionary War" was the result of certain legislation in Great Britain objectionable to the colonies and also of a developing sense of political freedom among them; the protest against political oppression was an occasion to express an already widespread and deep-seated desire to manage their own affairs. The colonists wanted to keep house for themselves. This sentiment had been considerably strengthened since the treaty of peace in 1763 brought to a close the French and Indian War, among the results of which may be mentioned the uniting of the colonists, the training of many of them to fight, the lessening of the need of protection against the French, and the removal of hostile rivals from most of the region east of the Mississippi. To the colonial imagination the future must have begun to seem big with promise. However that may be, the trend of events speedily made for separation from the mother country. The new king, who came to the throne in 1760 as George III, had no mind for conciliation with the American colonies, though he had been duly and eloquently warned by Burke and Pitt of the probable result of his obstinate policy of coercion. The colonies were forbidden to trade with any other nation except England, British troops were sent to America, taxes were imposed upon the colonists, who were not represented in the British Parliament, and in particular a Stamp Act was passed in 1765, requiring the colonists to use stamps on legal and business documents, newspapers, and pamphlets. The unreasonable attitude of the English government together with the growing desire of the colonists for liberty led to the inevitable conflict, the Revolution, from 1775 to 1783, resulting in our political freedom and the birth of a new nation. It should be remembered, however, that nationality was not won simply by the sword, but that back of Washington and his |