Religion: The Use Of Religion In Early American Literature

transformed the modern world: the taking of land, wealth, and labor from indigenous peoples, leading to their near extermination, and the transatlantic slave trade, which created a racial underclass” (Loewen 1). That quote shows all the horrible things Columbus did to the natives. “And his motives were complex. Columbus was seeking adventure, glory, and wealth. At the same time, he believed he was doing God's work. With his Bible, he could convert the citizens of China and Japan” (Gibbon), meaning Columbus only cared about getting rich and having glory, and he doing God’s work by he could convert people to Christianity.

Associated with their attention to the spiritual needs of conversion, the priests endeavored to eliminate ‘heathen’ practices among those Indians that they baptized.[x] The non-Christian people of the Americas were not simply to be converted; they were to be civilized, taught, humanized, purified and reformed. The Indians to be converted were strangers speaking in many unfamiliar tongues. In most cases, when the Friars first encountered them, they had been only recently conquered and subjugated, and even if not actively hostile they were likely to retain covert antagonisms. In their experience all Spaniards were exploitative.

Europeans attempted to forcefully assimilate the native Americans to Christianity. Spanish missionaries preached the words of God to the Native Peoples who listened out of fear.(Doc.2A) The Europeans viewed them as a barbarous people without the knowledge of God refusing to acknowledge their religions.(Doc.4B)Partly due to the fact the Natives were not Christian the Europeans felt justified in enslaving them.

Through Puritan writers, literature is influenced by religious ideologies and philosophies. Puritans writers, beginning in about 1560, put most of their focus into making their work God centered. They believed in the “Elect” and that Jesus died only for these few people. Writers usually wrote in 1st

1. Discuss fully the consequences of contact between Europeans and Native Americans in the years after Columbus’ discovery of the New World.  How did Christian perspectives shape European attitudes towards the natives? Why was the outcome of contact doomed from the start?

For several decades histories of Native-American encounters with the European have been recorded and taught. The majority of these narratives have downplayed the importance of religion, most often understanding it as a veil for underlying political and economic motivations. In his book The Huron Wendat Feast of the Dead, Erik Seeman addresses this absence by recognizing the influence that religious exchange had for the Wendat and French people in colonial New France. He sheds light on the impact of religiously rooted beliefs and motivations of both the Jesuit missionaries and the Wendat people.

They saw themselves as acting in the best interests of these people, bringing them Christianity and civilization. This attitude destroyed traditional beliefs and social values, however, and had a negative effect on colonized populations.” European explorers such as the Conquistadors wanted to convert the indigenous people to Christianity and by doing this they destroyed the culture of the native americans. If you did not convert you were killed and if you chose to convert then you lost touch with your original religion and traditions. Due to the uncompromising behavior of the conquerors religions, traditions and social values of the indians have been lost. European explorers viewed themselves as superior to the indigenous people and by thinking this way they ended up eradicating the diversity of

How did the the multiple views evolved from 1760- 1860 and past Puritan views create diversity in literature? Focus Questions In 1850, America valued

Colonial times in America expressed strong religious beliefs. Many were devoted to God and those who weren’t would feel a pressure to. In order to persuade the public into committing to God, speakers would use pathos to impose the fear of God in the individual. To appeal to the community’s fears, Edwards would often exemplify how one’s life hangs in the hands of God, “[God] holds you over the pit hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you and is dreadfully provoked.” (Edwards 50-51). The rhetorical impact of using such metaphor provides the individual a chance to envision his irrelevance, as an inferior creature, in God’s agenda. The life of a sinner is in severe danger, thus frightening the public

For more than 300 years, since the days of Christopher Columbus and the Spanish Government, an attempt of genocide of the Native American Indian has existed. From mass brutal murders and destruction by Spanish and American armies, to self-annihilation through suicide, homicide, and alcohol induced deaths brought about because of failed internal colonialism and white racial framing. Early Explores used Indigenous inhabitants upon first arriving to the America’s to survive the New World and once they adapted, internal colonialism began with attempts to convert the Indians to Christianity, repressing their values and way of life, forcing them into slavery, and nearly exterminating an entire culture from existence.

As people mature, their beliefs evolve; as a child it is easy to be guided by adults, to believe in adults. As adults, people have their own beliefs. It is the period in the middle that is the hardest. As children begin to grow, they begin to push limits and question authority. The modernist period in American literature is comparable to those teenage years. In the early stages of American literature, America looked to her mother England for guidance. The very traditional literature that resulted had a strong emphasis on religion, family, and country. In early literature it was scandalous to question God; the family was only to be portrayed as a supportive, loving community; and

The greed for gold and the race for El Dorado were the main inducements of the Spaniards who, at the peril of their lives, crossed the ocean in unfit vessels in a mad pursuit after the gold and all other precious property of the Indians” (Peace 479). The royal rulers of Spain made it a rule that nothing would jeopardize their ability to rob the land from the native people of Latin America. The missionary process, “had to be encouraged, but the missionaries could not be permitted to dominate the colony at the cost of royal rule” (Gibson 76). The European governments established missionaries to cleanse their minds of any guilt aroused by the slaughtering of innocent men, women, and children. When European “ships arrived in the 16th century to colonize the land and exploit its natural resources, they killed indigenous people and brought black slaves from Africa. Millions of indigenous people were slain and their cultures completely destroyed by the process of colonization” (Ribero). The overall devastations caused by the Christianization of the native inhabitants created a blend of cultures within the indigenous civilizations which gradually isolated old native ways into a small population of oppressed people. The Christianized people became a symbol of loyalty to the European powers and were left alone simply on their religious status. This long term mission of total religious replacement caused very strong and advanced

Across the history of genocide, conflicting ideologies was one of the top driving forces of why a certain group of people were targeted and wiped out. When Columbus and other conquistadors ventured into the New World in search of land to colonize and people to convert to Christianity, they saw the natives as barbaric and uncivilized, people who needed to be educated about the ways of God. In Columbus’s journal, he explicitly said that since the natives seem to have no religion, it would be easy to convert them to Christianity and to properly educate them of the “correctness” of European ways and the “wrongs” of native ways. The natives seem to believe in a God and know that there is a heaven, so Columbus was convinced that “if the work was

The French Jesuits and Spanish Franciscans both had different approaches in presenting Jesus to the Natives. The French Jesuits gradually exposed the Native Americans to their religion by seeking out and speaking to them on their own land, blending their ideologies, and relating to their beliefs. Alternately, the Spanish Franciscans forcibly Christianized the Natives by invasively displaying images of Jesus and other Catholic figures to them. According to Blum and Harvey, “Throughout Central, South, and North America, conquistadores and Franciscan priests marched with swords, crosses, and images of Christ in tow. They destroyed indigenous icons and replaced them with images of Jesus” (31). The Spanish Catholics were one of the first examples of Jesus being used as a justification of violent acts on minorities. The Native American’s reaction to encountering Jesus brought on the age of iconoclasm. Blum and Harvey explain for every Native that was convinced to like Jesus, there were those who despised the image of Jesus (37). To these Native Americans iconography and Jesus became a symbol for Catholic intrusion and even caused violent uprisings resulting in the destruction of Christian symbols. On the contrary, during the West African slave trade, Jesus was associated with death and a new life but later helped establish their own forms of Christianity. According to Blum and Harvey, “Their faith brought democracy to a land of tyranny, justice to a land of misery, and dreams to a land of nightmares” (43). At this time, their faith in Jesus helped these slaves endure their

Faith has played an incredibly large role throughout all of American history. This is shown especially in early America when the Puritans settled in North America. Writing in this time period shows just how prominent faith is in this time period, as much of it directly alludes to the Bible. Throughout the time period writing and beliefs evolved. This is highly noticeable when comparing American poet Anne Bradstreet, and clergyman Jonathan Edwards. Bradstreet’s works include poems such as “To My Dear and Loving Husband”, and “Upon the Burning of Our House, July 10th, 1666” and while Edwards wrote many sermons, the most famous is “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”. These works differ in many ways, but many comparisons and contrasts can be made in regards to writing style and beliefs presented in these works.