American Literature to 1820 -- (NAAL, Volume A) -- Short Paper Assignment

Option #1: Read one (1) of the historical and literary-historical background sections listed below, and then write one page, word-processed and double-spaced, summarizing what you consider to be the most important information found in one of these sections.  For this summary, you do not have to cover everything; instead, focus on those parts that you consider most essential or interesting.

• Literature to 1700 – pages 3-18
• American Literature 1700-1820 – pages 425-435

Option #2: Read one (1) writer not listed on the course reading schedule (see list below), 5-10 pages, and then write one page, word-processed and double-spaced, briefly summarizing and then mostly reacting to, analyzing, or evaluating the selection.  Perhaps highlight what you consider to be significant about the selection, or make connections between your chosen writer and one or more of the writers on the course reading schedule.

• Stories of the Beginning of the World – Native Americans
• Christopher Columbus – Spanish Explorer
• Bartolome de las Casas – Spanish Explorer
• Bernal Diaz del Castillo – Spanish Explorer
• Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca – Spanish Explorer
• Garcilaso de la Vega – Spanish Explorer
• Thomas Harriot – English Explorer
• Samuel de Champlain – French Explorer
• John Smith – English Explorer (famous for the Pocahontas story)
• Native American Trickster Tales – I recommend the Winnebago selections
   
• William Bradford – Pilgrim Governor
• Thomas Morton – Pilgrim “Troublemaker”
• Roger Williams – Puritan “Troublemaker”
• Jacob Steendam – Poetry
• Adriaen Van Der Donck – Travel Narrative
• Michael Wigglesworth – “Doomsday” Puritan Poetry
• Francis Daniel Pastorious – Travel Information
• Samuel Sewall – Diary from a Judge of the Salem Witchcraft Trials
• Cotton Mather – A Famous Puritan Preacher
   
• Sarah Kemble Knight – A Journal of a Single Woman’s Travels from Boston to New York
• William Byrd – I recommend the “Secret Diary” of this Virginia Plantation Owner
• Jonathan Edwards – Famous for the Religious “Great Awakening”
• John Woolman – The Diary of a Quaker Standing Up Against Slavery
• James Grainger – Poetry
• Moses Bon Saam – A Speech by a Former Slave
• J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur – Essays About America by a Frenchman
• John Adams & Abigail Adams – Letters Between Husband and Wife
• Annis Boudinot Stockton – Poetry
• Thomas Paine – Famous Pre-Revolutionary War Essays
• Thomas Jefferson – I would recommend either the Autobiography (on the Declaration) or the Queries
• The Federalist – Famous Pre-Revolutionary War Essays
• Judith Sargent Murray – An Early Feminist?
• Royall Tyler – An Early American Play
• Sarah Wentworth Morton – Poetry
• Briton Hammon – A Narrative by a Former Slave
• Charles Brockden Brown – A Chapter from an Early American Novel

Extra Credit Option: Write two (2) papers as described above, instead of just one.

Short Paper Due on Monday, September 29, 2003