American Literature: Prose

D

Political Writing

By the mid-1700s American prose was first and foremost political. Many 18th-century thinkers believed in the ability of reason to control human destiny and improve the human condition, an enormous change from the belief in predestination that broadly speaking characterized the 17th century. In America as well as in Western Europe, the 18th century was known as the Age of Enlightenment. In the American colonies Enlightenment thought was expressed chiefly through political discourse. American thinkers asserted a growing belief in the supremacy of reason over church doctrine; they also emphasized the importance of the individual and freedom over and above established authorities and institutions. America's great Enlightenment writers—Franklin, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson—also played major roles in the American Revolution.

Franklin began his literary career as a publisher but made his greatest contribution to American literature as a writer. In his writing Franklin advocated hard work as the key to success. His views come across clearly in the maxims, proverbs, and homespun wisdom that filled his Poor Richard's Almanack, which was published annually from 1733 to 1758 under the pen name Richard Saunders. Franklin’s almanac sayings were collected in The Way to Wealth (1757) in the form of a speech by a character named Father Abraham. It is one of Franklin’s great statements on the self-made man. Like much of Franklin's writing, the work reached an enormous audience through translations into European languages. Franklin’s Autobiography was first published in full in 1868, 78 years after his death; it is considered an American classic because of its portrait of Franklin and American life during his time.

Thomas Paine became a leading figure in the cause of American independence with the pamphlet Common Sense (1776). This enormously popular political document asserted that the American colonies received no advantage from Great Britain and that every consideration of common sense called for them to establish an independent republican government. Written in a straightforward style using the language of the common person, Common Sense was published six months before the Declaration of Independence was adopted. At that point, most colonists still believed that their grievances with Great Britain could be settled peaceably. Paine profoundly shook this belief, insisting that there was no turning back and making his readers feel that each person had the power and responsibility to participate in the cause of revolution.

Although it lacked the searing rhetoric of Common Sense, the Declaration of Independence was a crucial achievement in both politics and American prose. It was structured in the form of an assertion that was then proven through specific examples. The declaration was written by a committee made up of Franklin, Jefferson, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston, though Jefferson was ultimately responsible for most of the phrasing. The declaration and the Constitution of the United States (1787) were key statements of American freedom, but as collaborative documents they necessitated compromises to satisfy all of their authors. One of the most significant compromises was the absence of any mention of slavery. Slavery was antithetical to the ideals of the American Revolution, but for the sake of unity with the Southern colonies, whose economy was rooted in slavery, no protest was made against it as a social evil.

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A final flurry of political writing at the close of the century arose from the debate over ratification of the Constitution. Federalists supported the strong central government outlined in the Constitution, while an anti-Federalist faction opposed it. A series of essays supporting ratification was published in 1787 and 1788 and circulated in pamphlets. The essays, later published as The Federalist, were written by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay.

E

Voices Outside the Mainstream

While the debate on individual rights and government powers went on, some whose rights were not under debate spoke up. From 1774 to 1783 Abigail Adams conducted an extensive correspondence with her husband, John Adams, while they were separated during the Revolution and its aftermath. These letters, which were published as Familiar Letters of John Adams and His Wife, Abigail (1876), describe in detail everyday life in the young nation. Remarkably, in letters written during the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, she asked that women's rights and status be considered as part of this statement of human rights. Her requests were not radical by today's standards, but they constituted bold steps for her day. Judith Sargent Murray, a Boston writer, vigorously argued against the notion that women were not equipped for work in the public sphere. Her essay “On the Equality of the Sexes” was published in 1790 in the Massachusetts Magazine.

Slave narratives recorded another side of life in America. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself (1789) has long been considered a primary African American text. The title alone made a significant statement: Equiano reclaimed the priority of his African identity (Olaudah Equiano) and subordinated the slave name (Gustavus Vassa) he was given by his captors. Scholars today are unsure as to Equiano’s birthplace and life history, and the text may be an early example of the autobiographical slave narrative or possibly a blend of experience and fiction. Either way, the work was highly influential as slavery became a prominent topic of political discussion in the 19th century.

Conversion to Christianity provided a focus for several early American autobiographies, including Equiano's and the first-known Native American autobiography in English. “A Short Narrative of My Life” was written in 1768 by Samson Occum, a member of the Mohegan tribe who became a Presbyterian minister. The work was not published in its entirety until 1982.

F

The First American Fiction

American fiction became formally established only after the American Revolution. The Power of Sympathy (1789), a tragic love story by William Hill Brown, is generally considered the first American novel. Charles Brockden Brown is among the best-remembered novelists of the period. His Wieland; or, The Transformation (1798) is a cleverly plotted horror story that emphasizes dark, supernatural visions. Other notable novels of the time include Susanna Rowson's Charlotte Temple (1791), a tragic romance that involves a young woman’s journey from England to the colonies during the Revolution; Gilbert Imlay's The Emigrants (1793), the story of an English family whose life improves in America; and Hannah Foster's The Coquette (1797), a novel in the form of letters.

IV

Nationhood: The 1800s

In the early 1800s America faced a difficult challenge: how to create its own culture. The religious and political writers of the 17th and 18th centuries offered some guidance. Cotton Mather, for example, had argued for the uniqueness of America's mission. But none of those writers could satisfy the growing American appetite for prose fiction focused on American issues and grown from American imaginations. Calls for an American literature began during the Revolution and became more frequent and urgent as independence was assured.

Over the course of the 19th century the country progressed from an agricultural economy concentrated on the Eastern seaboard to an industrialized nation that spanned the continent. With the dramatic changes in the nation came dramatic changes in its literature. When the century opened, only a handful of novels had been written, but by mid-century American fiction rivaled the best in the world. Biography and history remained strong; religious writing, on the other hand, had substantially declined in importance.

A

Manifestations of Nationhood

Among the first manifestations of nationhood was the recognition that America had its own language and that American English differed from British English. Pioneering lexicographer Noah Webster led a call for uniquely American traditions in language and literature, and he undertook the massive project of developing an American dictionary. He had already advocated changes in American spellings of English words in such writings as Dissertations on the English Language (1789). Webster published his first dictionary in 1806. The first edition of his major work, American Dictionary of the English Language, came out in 1828. What made this work radical was his insistence on defining words based not only on traditional English usage but also on American variations in usage, called Americanisms, and his inclusion of at least 5000 new words not previously recognized by English dictionaries.

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