William Bradford, Anne Bradstreet, and Edward Taylor expressed multiple similarities within their writing themes, as well as, their lives. They were all Puritan immigrants, which upon settling in America, were associated with highly respected positions within the original colonies. “William Bradford epitomizes the spirit of determination and self-sacrifice…” (Baym 72), therefore, he was elected as governor of Plymouth in 1620. Anne Bradstreet’s husband, also was elected as the Bay Colony governor, which in turn, added to her daily duties and responsibilities at home, resulting in her questioning her faith and the word of Scriptures (Baym 110). Lastly, Edward Taylor played an important role in his community for, which he resided for 58 years. …show more content…
Many of their writings were centered on the Northeastern original colonies within the United States, as well as, their Puritan religious convictions. For example, Edward Taylor left his family in 1668, “rather than compromise his religious principles as a Puritan, he preferred exile…” (Baym 143). In addition, they believed in education, hard work, order within the community, and a society centered on God. William Bradford was committed to the Puritan way. He self-educated himself and became skilled in different languages, with Hebrew being studied most (Baym 143). Lastly, Puritans believed that all man were inherently evil, only being rewarded by God for living an honorable life. However, a difference noted by Anne Bradstreet is that she wrote from the “wondrous works” she saw. She wrote “that I see, the vast frame of the heaven and the earth, the order of all things, night and day, summer and winter, spring and autumn, the daily providing for this great household upon the earth, the preserving and directing of all to its proper end” (Baym 110). To summarize, all three writers themes were influenced by their Puritan way of life, as well as, their religious
Poems from the time of the Puritans usually were based on their religion. Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor both portrayed a Puritanical message in their poems. Edward did so more so than Anne. They both conveyed different types of love. Anne wrote about her husband and how much she loved him. While Edward wrote about his love for God and how he wanted God to use him for His glory.
In Of Plymouth Plantation, by William Bradford, the colonists face trials of many kinds. From ships sinking, to being blown off course, and landing in the winter, they were put in an awful position. Yet, they got through it by, “Showing herein their true love for their friends and brethren; a rare example and worth to be remembered.” They survive by these men who stayed strong. “And yet the Lord so upheld these persons as in this general calamity
Religion was a very important aspect of everyday life, and majority the travelers to the new world had strong beliefs. This powerful faith is shown by puritans, William Bradford and Mary Rowlandson. These two characters in both of their stories showed their strong relationship with God. They tended to be more dependent on God to show them the way, instead of them making their own decisions. Every little thing that would happen they believed was apart of God's plan, and it had some sort of significance. This helped them get through hardships and over obstacles, because they believed God was doing what was best for them. Others were more independent and believed in logic and reason, one person being the slave Equiano. Equiano didn’t have a strong
The author John Smith, a pilgrim who arrived to the Americas, wrote a description of the new land in his book “ A Description of New England ”. In this book Smith shows a wonderful world of vast food and pleasure. Also, William Bradford another pilgrim who arrived to Plymouth on the coast of Massachusetts, wrote a book called “ Of Plymouth Plantation ” in which he describes what really happened, how the pilgrims actually lived. The purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast both authors and their books. John Smith wrote about the wonderful place the New World was, on the other hand, William Bradford wrote about the realities and difficulties of the New World.
In Of Plymouth Plantation, William Bradford writes of multiple acts of God’s divine providence acting on the Pilgrims during their journey to Virginia and the subsequent founding of Plymouth Plantation. Bradford’s portrayal of events he labels providence, such as the death of the lusty seaman, the finding of the corn seeds by the exploring party, and the repulse of the Native American attack, shows his belief that God acted through natural events and reveals aspects of Puritan theology and thinking.
In the New World Bradford and Morton were both important men of our history. The stories of both great men give us an insight into the way religion and influence affected Puritan life.
The poems, journals, and sermons by William Bradford, John Winthrop, Anne Bradstreet and Jonathan Edwards displayed these characteristics: the love of something, the courage to do something, the belief in something, and the ability to stand strong and stable in their beliefs. In “Of Plymouth Plantation” the people traveling to find the people on the ship had the love and desire to seek God in everything they did. They believed in God so much they were putting not only their health but lives in jeopardy by traveling so far. “Thus his curses light on his own head, and it was an astonishment to all his fellows for they noted it to be the just hand of God upon him.” Even though they under came harsh conditions they were determined to find a safe
In of Plymouth Plantation William Bradford talks about how the Puritans left England to relish in their own religion beliefs and how things should be handled. While doing so they went through tough
Similarly, William Bradford typified most of the first settlers of New England. He was the son of an English farmer and began to read the Bible daily. As a boy he quickly became a Puritan for study and discussion. This took much courage because Puritans in England were usually thrown in prison. Bradford’s parents were even against this. Because many were against Puritanism, they fled to Holland, including Bradford. Doing badly in Holland, Bradford soon traveled to America.
Edward Taylor, he was a true colonial writer and one of the state of the art Minister's. He accomplished a great deal of things in his life, he had many children, and wrote many many volumes on topics only he really enjoyed. Edward Taylor was born near the lovely town of Leicestershire, England and he was a very educated individual, and believe it or not but this man was a Puritan. His theology was a bear resemblance to that of his Boston contemporary Michael Wigglesworth rather than Solomon Stoddard, a minister at Northampton. Taylor was a strict Congregationalist, he opposed the Plan of Union between Congregational and Presbyterian churches. Little do we know of Taylor's early life, the date and exact place of his birth are uncertain, he did leave England only because he felt unable to hew to the Act of Uniformity. When he left England he went to America in 1668 where he chased the career path of becoming a member of the Ministry.
Taylor use the ideal of perfectionism and the denial of sin to exaggerate his view of having a loving relationship with God in order to reach heaven. Moreover, Edward Taylor uses his abilities to make conceits to which he constantly refers to in his poems and makes them interesting and mentally appealing literary works. Nevertheless, Taylor never shared his work with publishers because his main purpose was to genuinely express his feeling to towards the valuable relationships he procreated. Equally important, Jonathan Edwards wrote most of his work during the time period of the Great Awakening. Edward’s writing was meant to preach about everlasting life in order to help lost Puritans establish a loving relationship with God. He did so by often depicting God as a stern, harsh, and sometimes furious character who wanted to bring them back to his glory but was also not shy from condemning the Puritans to hell. Edward’s audience was broad in spectrum and he had to appeal to a growing populations of Puritans while still being effective and motivating. Today, the Puritan religion is completely extinct from religious practice. Although its’ member have completely diminished, the legacy left behind by many of it’s
I am Ana Campos and I am the president of the History Club. I am so honored to be with you today and to have the chance to introduce our guest speaker, William Bradford. He was the founder and governor of the Plymouth Colony, the first British Colony in the United States. He was part of the Separatists Puritans that boarded the Mayflower to settle in Virginia. He has a great appreciation of what it takes to truly achieve the Mayflower Compact. Besides that, he was born in England, 1590 and affiliated himself to the Separatist Puritans while he was a teenager. He was also a writer and wrote one of the first histories of the European settlements in America, his journal "Of Plymouth Plantation" during from 1620 to 1657. His wife Dorothy May, died
William was born in 1590 and died in 1657. He had 4 children. One of his best world was the plymouth plantation and talked plymouth and the rising up of plymouth and covered the period of 1620 1657. Also the of plymouth plantation was a detailed history in manuscript form about the founding of the plymouth colony and the lives of the colonists from 1621 to 1646. Bradford's journal is described as a retrospective account of his recollections and observations. What he wrote about was the daily life of the colony and the struggles people went through. Bradford wrote about religion in this book and he did as one of the best. Anne bradstreet was born on march 20, 1612. And she died on september 16, 1672. She had no children. She also was was the most prominent of early English poets of North America and first female writer in the British North American colonies to be published. She was a puritan figure in american literature. One of her fist poetry was the tenth muse lately sprung up in america published in 1650. Anne and William both wrote about faith and religion they both were the best at there work. Bradstreet's education gave her advantages that allowed her to write with authority about politics, history, medicine, and theology. She also had a personal library of books and she had 800 books many were destroyed when her home got burned down. She rejects her anger and she put it in her writing of the upon the burning of our house july 10th 1666. What i think she got her house burned down because what she wrote about and people didn't like it and her house got burned down because of
Colonial literature was the tree that served as the foundation for the many branches of American literature, in which each branch consists of differentiating genres that appeal to various audiences across the nation. Colonial literature reflects the theological ideas that affect the attitude and actions of man as he strolls through the journey of life. The Puritan writers behind these theological ideas were St. John Crèvecoeur, John Smith, William Bradford, Edwards, Anne Bradstreet, Samuel Sewall, and Byrd. These authors depicted similar structures of style such as narrative, expository, simple, figurative, and direct along with similar structures of theme such as the theme of hard work and the importance of God in everyday life. These Puritan writers were responsible for the uniqueness of the era of Colonial Literature as it consisted of myths/stories, political ideas, and religious beliefs. These theologians were also the driving force behind the influence that Colonial Literature had on American Literature. Their philosophies, which originated from Colonial Literature had affected both religion and politics, which would later be recognized for the improvements that have been made on these ideas from American Literature.
Two Puritan authors, Anne Bradstreet and Jonathon Edwards each wrote a poem and a sermon in the 16th and 17th century unraveling their puritan life and beliefs. A Puritan lives by God and if he or she does something against Gods will, they feel as if they need to be punished. They had a firm relationship with God. Although Bradstreet and Edwards were both Puritan, they had a slightly different tone in their poem and sermon on their beliefs.