II.

Beginnings: The 1500s and 1600s

When European explorers first saw North America, Native American cultures had rich, established literatures. Legends, folktales, and other forms of literature were preserved in oral form and passed down from one generation to the next through ceremonies and other community gatherings, as well as within family groups and other informal settings. Much of this literature disappeared with the destruction of Native American cultures that followed white settlement of the continent. Among the richest set of Native American stories that survive are creation myths, descriptions of the beginnings of the universe and the world and of the origin of humankind. In Native American cultures, these myths served purposes similar to those served in Judeo-Christian cultures by the stories in the biblical book of Genesis. The creation myths of Native American cultures share with the Genesis accounts a concern with relationships among the divine, the human, and the world of animals and plants; the reasons behind those relationships; and the saga of the universe before the advent of humanity.

Long before settlers arrived in America, explorers reported on their voyages to the continent. Through the 1600s American literature grew from exploration narratives to include histories of settlement—both natural histories of the land and social histories of the people. Religious writings expressed the values and beliefs of American colonists.

A.

Exploration Narratives

The earliest literature about America consists of impressions of America recorded by European explorers after they returned home. Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci provided some of the earliest European descriptions of the American continent in letters and maps from an expedition in 1499 and 1500; these had appeared in print by 1505. In 1507 German geographer and cartographer Martin Waldseemüller published Cosmographiae introductio, a collection of documents that included letters written by Italian-Spanish navigator Christopher Columbus to his sponsors, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. Such texts were circulated among explorers and high-ranking political officials who made decisions about funding further expeditions.

The first works published in English about America also recorded discoveries and solicited support for new voyages. Before 1600 Sir Walter Raleigh, Richard Hakluyt, Thomas Harriot, and John White had published accounts of discoveries. Although Raleigh's narratives focused on the land now called Venezuela, he became a key figure in the history of the British in North America when he founded the first English colony in America, the Roanoke Colony, in 1585 under the sponsorship of Queen Elizabeth I, on an island off the coast of what is now North Carolina.

In support of Raleigh, Thomas Harriot wrote A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia (1588), primarily to encourage the queen's continued support of the Roanoke Colony, whose first settlement had just failed. Harriot's text included descriptions of the native population as well as observations of plant and animal life near the colony. Richard Hakluyt never traveled to America, but his writing was instrumental in encouraging the queen to invest more money in voyages of exploration. He collected diaries, letters, ships’ logs, and commercial reports, mostly from his English compatriots but also from Portuguese, Spanish, and French voyages. Hakluyt published these writings in Diverse Voyages Touching the Discovery of America (1582) and Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation (1589-1590). In these compilations, Hakluyt made grand statements about British imperialism and for the first time claimed America as properly belonging to England.

A later compilation by Hakluyt included The Fifth Voyage of M. John White into the West Indies and Parts of America called Virginia, in the Year 1590 (1593), which had been written by John White. White’s work centered on a great mystery. He had led a group of colonists who founded a second colony on Roanoke Island, and after the birth of the first British child in the Americas, White’s granddaughter Virginia Dare, he returned to England for supplies. Upon his return to Roanoke, all signs of the colony were gone. The fate of the colony remains a mystery to this day.

B.

Histories

The writings of Captain John Smith, an explorer whose travels took him up and down the eastern seaboard of America, represent a shift from exploration narrative toward early history. Exploration narratives typically record the thrills and terrors of encountering the unknown, and early histories of America also capture this sense of novelty. Early histories, however, were written primarily by settlers rather than by explorers. They generally sought religious explanations—finding them chiefly in what they believed to be God’s will—for the dangers and challenges of colonial life. Although Smith still wrote to gain funding for further voyages, he had begun to record his observations as a historian in A Description of New England (1616).

William Bradford, the first governor of the Plymouth Colony, wrote his History of Plymouth Plantation from 1630 to 1647, although it was not published until 1856. Earlier accounts published in England—Good News from New England (1624) by Edward Winslow and Mourt's Relation (1622) by an unknown author—provided extensive source material for Bradford when he recalled the earliest years of his colony. John Winthrop, who served as governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1630 to 1649, kept extensive journals that were published nearly 200 years later as History of New England from 1630 to 1649 (1825-1826). Another important historian of early America was Thomas Morton, whose New English Canaan (1634-1635) used humor in portraying what he considered to be the overbearing and intolerant qualities of the Puritans.

C.

Religious Writings

Histories of early America, especially in New England, were filled with references to the Bible and to God's will. Nearly all events could be explained from this religious perspective: Storms and sicknesses might represent God's wrath; a bountiful harvest might signify God's blessing. Given the Puritans’ sense of a direct relationship with God, it is not surprising that sermons and other religious writings dominated literature in America in the 1600s. John Cotton, Thomas Hooker, Roger Williams, and John Winthrop were among the most prominent theologians in the first generation of settlers. They were followed by the Mather family—Richard Mather, his son Increase Mather, and Increase's son Cotton Mather—in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Religious writings recorded strenuous debates about church doctrine, such as the role of free-will and good works in an individual’s salvation, although certain issues discussed by the theologians went beyond religion. Williams’s A Key into the Language of America (1643), for example, was remarkable for its efforts to understand America's indigenous peoples.

Other contact between natives and settlers was less friendly. Increase Mather wrote a history of the first sustained conflict between Native Americans and colonial settlers, known as King Philip's War (after a Wampanoag chief, Metacomet, whom the colonists called Philip). In A Brief History of the War with the Indians in New England (1676), Mather urged his community to reform so that God would not subject them to more trials of that sort.

Mather was also instrumental in bringing to press The Sovereignty and Goodness of God … A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mary Rowlandson (1682). This work is a firsthand account by a colonist who was taken captive by Narragansett Indians during King Philip’s War. It presents a dramatic tale of suffering and of Rowlandson's efforts to make sense of that suffering. Her story became the model for a new genre of early American literature: captivity narratives. Such accounts became staples of American prose and eventually provided material for American fiction. While still religious in tone and purpose, captivity narratives emphasized the experiences of individuals rather than the progress of nations. They also incorporated many of the fundamentals of fiction, making use of sympathetic characters, dramatic action and setting, and vividly portrayed sources of evil in stereotypic renditions of Indian savagery.

The Salem witch trials of 1692 constituted another dark period in early American history, as accusations of witchcraft in a Massachusetts town resulted in the execution of 14 women and 6 men. Cotton Mather’s Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcraft and Possessions (1689), although written before the Salem trials, indicated a growing interest in the occult on the part of religious leaders. Mather’s The Wonders of the Invisible World (1693) documented the events of the witch trials. Robert Calef's More Wonders of the Invisible World (1700) offered a biting response to Mather and the hysteria of religious leaders involved in the Salem witch-hunt. As a result of his interest in witchcraft and of Calef's scathing accusations, Cotton Mather tends to be remembered as a witch-hunter, although his own writings suggest a relatively moderate stance on the subject.