Course Objectives and Grades: Intro to American Lit

Objectives

1. To increase your understanding, appreciation, and enjoyment of literature in general and early American Literature in particular;
2. Use the language and techniques of literary criticism when analyzing early American literature;
3. Develop an appreciation of the skill and creativity of diverse authors of early American literature;
4. Demonstrate an understanding of the history and development of American literature from the roughly 1400 to 1865 through historical, social, cultural, sexual and gendered contexts;
5. Draw justifiable inferences about other races and/or cultures without stereotyping or use of ethnocentric bias through the study of diverse authors of early British literature;
6. Develop awareness of the implications of race and/or culture when looking at moral problems and societal conflicts between pre-Colombian and antebellum eras in American as projected through early American Literature;
7. Develop knowledge and understanding of America primarily, along with some of England, France, Canada and perhaps Africa as a culturally diverse societies as expressed through early American literature;
8. Develop knowledge and understanding of other expressions of diversity such as class, gender, and/or religion in/through early American literature;
9. Listen to and understand individuals and respond respectfully to their points of view;
10. Enjoy reading and learning about the various incarnations of early American Literature and early America.

Grading

Let’s just say I hate grading, period. I like teaching, I like reading what you write, I like giving comments and suggestions on how to improve what you have written, but I hate putting a grade on your work. However, it’s something we are both stuck with. When I grade, my approach is to be as friendly as possible and give you the best grade that is reasonable given the work submitted. I also like to keep things simple.

Points

Literature Review 1: 100 pts
Literature Review 2: 100 pts
Tweets: 30 pts
Journals: 45 pts
Book Club Project: 50 pts
Final Exam: 50 pts
Daily Seminars: 125 pts

Should you choose not to come to class, your final grade will be lowered .1 for every absence after one week's worth. If you miss more than two weeks worth, you will very likely fail the course. If you miss no more than two classes, you will earn a 0.3 bonus if your grade is already at or above a 2.0 and you have fulfilled all course requirements.

Since a minimum of ‘C’ level work is required to transfer this class if you do not earn an AA before moving on to university, if I determine your writing to be of ‘D’ quality, that means you have a lot of work to do via revision to get the essay up to that level. If I determine your writing to be of ‘C-‘ quality, I’m saying I think your work is pretty close, but not quite there. If your work receives a ‘C’ I’m telling you that it could just squeak by. If your work receives a ‘C+’ or a ‘B-/C+’ I am saying that your work should succeed, but just barely and with little margin for error. For better or worse, the grading of writing is not entirely objective. However, neither is it entirely subjective. Your work will be evaluated and responded to by using particular guidelines that will be given with each assignment.

Department Grading Criteria

An "A" paper . . .

• Conveys immediately the person behind the words: an individual voice speaking clearly from the page;
• Has a title and lead that work together smoothly to indicate the direction, scope, and tone of the whole piece.
• Readers feel the writer's assurance and have no doubt about what is being communicated.
Offers an original and engaging focus; Is packed with information and pertinent detail. Carefully chosen examples have a "just right" feel to them. Vivid language, deft comparisons, and colorful images both please and inform;
• Organizes the material smoothly, logically. Readers do not stumble or hesitate over the sequence of facts or ideas;
Has varied sentences, with rhythm and emphasis appropriate to the meaning. Phrasing is often fluent, even graceful, and the sentences read well aloud;
• Offers accurte word choices, especially verbs, that are consistent, unambiguous, and sensitive to connotations;
• Has appropriate, helpful punctuation;
• Displays next to no errors in grammar, spelling, or punctuation.

An "A" paper is not necessarily flawless; there is no such thing in writing. But it reflects a writer who is in full control of the material and the language.

A “B” paper has many of the fine qualities of an “A” paper, but . . .

• the voice and tone are less apparent, though the writing is ultimately successful;
• the introduction fulfills its purpose, though readers may sense that it hasn’t delivered on its promise or that it could be more developed;
• the thesis is specific and controls the paper, though the writer may not explicitly connect the supporting evidence to the thesis;
• the information is integrated effectively, with only an occasional awkward passage;
• the analysis is effective, though it would benefit from a little more commentary and insight ;
• the writing exhibits clarity of expression, with only an occasional lapse into wordiness or cliché;
• diction is largely effective, though verbs may lack energy and action;
• syntax and mechanics are mostly successful: very few errors in grammar, spelling, or punctuation characterize the prose.

A “B” paper reflects a writer still developing mastery over his or her material and style.

A "C" paper has a number of these characteristics . . .

• a thesis controls the paper, though it may be awkwardly worded or vague; the focus may occasionally digress in such a way as to distract readers;
• organization is occasionally tangled or difficult to follow;
information is adequate, though the development may lack concrete detail or be too general, inappropriate, or repetitive;
• sentences have little structural variety, and phrases may often be awkwardly placed;
• diction may lapse into wordiness or clichés;
• some errors in grammar, spelling, or punctuation may distract the reader.

A "C" paper will do: it's adequate, but it gives readers the impression of fuzziness or of the writer’s lack of assurance. Readers must work to understand what they are reading.

A "D" paper has has a number of these characteristics . . .

• writer's haste, carelessness, lack of attention, or inability to craft direct or even simple sentences;
• is not adequate in the categories listed above for C, B or A papers;
• may make sense, but only when readers struggle to find that sense. The writer obviously has scant control of the material;
• displays multiple grammar and spelling errors and often a sloppy visual presentation as well.

A “D” paper compels readers to work unnecessarily hard to comprehend the essay.

An "F" paper . . .

is unacceptable because it contains plagiarized material, shows a complete misunderstanding of the assignment whatever its quality, or its prose fails to meet the basic communication requirements of standard written English.

Particular criteria and expectations will be provided with each assignment.

Book Club Selections

The Bondwoman’s Narrative: Hannah Crafts eloquently details the experiences of a light skinned female slave in the South in the decades preceding the Civil War, describing the story of "passing" as a young slave working on a wealthy North Carolina plantation who runs away in a bid for freedom up North. Discovered in the form as an unpublished manuscript by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. it is believed that this is the first slave narrative written by an African-American woman from only her perspective. During the most emotionally difficult parts of the story, where mistreatment, death, and extreme cruelty are revealed, the author provides soothing relief for the reader through her faith in a loving, protecting God. tells the story of Hannah Crafts, Her compelling story provides a fascinating view of American life in the mid-1800s and the literary conventions of the time. Written in the 1850s, this is a provocative literary landmark and a significant historical event.

The Coquette: A cautionary novel written at the end of the eighteenth century describes the seduction and betrayal of a beautiful young woman, in this instance the semi-fictional Eliza Wharton. The novel tells the fictionalized story of the seduction and death of Elizabeth Whitman, a poet from Hartford, Connecticut. Written as a series of letters–between the heroine and her friends and lovers—it describes her long, tortuous courtship by two men, neither of whom perfectly suits her. Eliza is no ingenuous sixteen-year-old; she is past adolescence, has opinions, and wants more from her life than the narrow path that has been allotted to her. She agrees to an engagement she does not want because "both nature and education had instilled into my mind an implicit obedience to the will and desires of my parents," but also because "I saw, from our first acquaintance, his declining health; and expected, that the event should prove as it has." After her fiancé’s death, Eliza wavers between Major Sanford, a charming but insincere man, and the Reverend Boyer, a bore who wants to marry her. When, in her mid-30s, Wharton finds herself suddenly abandoned when both men marry other women, she willfully enters into an adulterous relationship with Sanford and becomes pregnant. Alone and dejected, she dies in childbirth at a roadside inn. Eliza Wharton was one of the first women in American fiction to emerge as a real person facing a dilemma in her life. Her death was the required literary ending of her time, but her dynamic, frustrated personality and the questions she raises about women's place in society make this both a cautionary tale and a critique of the world that made them necessary.

Our Nig: Ignored by critics upon its publication and "lost" for more than one hundred years, Our Nig was rediscovered and reprinted in 1983 and is currently considered to be the first novel by an African-American published in the United States. The tale combines elements of nineteenth-century slave narratives and domestic novels and defies the social conventions of its time by portraying interracial marriage, child abandonment, cruel Northerners, and an African-American heroine who is full of energy, intelligence, and imagination, bowed only by prolonged and arduous toil. The story begins with six year-old Frado, deserted by her white mother after the death of her black father and left to live as a servant with the Bellmonts. While some Bellmont family members are sympathetic, Frado is treated like a slave by the mistress of the house and her daughter. By the time Frado is an adult she fulfills duties in "all departments - man, boy, housekeeper, domestic, etc." One by one, Frado's allies are taken from her, replaced finally by a man with whom "she opened her heart to the presence of love" - and who then deserts her.

Ruth Hall is essentially Fanny Fern's (Sara Willis Parton) semi-autobiography, pretty much taken directly from her own life and experiences. The fictionalized autobiography that can be divided into three phases: Ruth's happy marriage, impoverished widowhood, and rise to fame and financial independence as a newspaper columnist.Ruth Hall loses her husband and is forced to deal with less than kind in-laws. Ruth is a talented writer and supports herself and her two children by writing newspaper columns. The novel recounts her attempt to rise above social and gender discrimination and expected gender roles to become one of the most successful writers (female or male) of her time. Fanny Fern is an often overlooked but important author.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Uncle Tom is a pre-civil war black slave, routinely trodden on due to his non-human status. Even with the luxuries he is given, he is continually reminded that his status before the law is only property-he has no rights, no freedom. Yet he always manages to unconditionally love his owners: the Shelbys, the St. Claires, and finally even Simon Legree. And in the course being sold and purchased, he changes the lives of many people around him. One moving example of Tom's love is toward Cassie. Once a beautiful and sophisticated woman, she is mercilessly abused as a slave and stripped of all her dignity. Through Tom's witness and sacrifice, her deep bitterness and hatred are melted away so she can love and be loved again.

Typee: Although initially rejected as too fantastic to be true, Typee  established Melville's reputation as the literary discoverer of the South Seas. Two common sailors jump ship and are held in benign captivity by Polynesian natives. The story primarily recounts the exploits of Tom, a runaway sailor, on the South Seas island of Nukuheva, from his capture by the Typees, by reputation a "fierce and unrelenting tribe of savages," to his daring escape when he realizes they have no intention of ever letting him return to his former life. Through the narrator's eyes we see a literate (if romanticized) portrait of the people and their culture presented in vivid, even scientific, detail. Melville's racy style and irreverence toward Christian missionaries caused a scandal, and critics denounced the narrator's suggestion that the native life might be superior to that of modern civilization. Typee tells the story of South Seas customs, rituals and society, while providing a provocative critique of civilized Western life.

248 Schedule

Spring 2012 English 248: Introduction to American Literature before 1865

Preliminary Reading and Writing Calendar

Apr 2	Apr 3	Apr 4	Apr 5	Apr 6
Introduction and the writing process		Summarizing and annotating	Essay format.	Reading and annotating
Apr 9	Apr 10	Apr 11	Apr 12	Apr 13
Part One annotations due at start of class; introductions and conclusions.	Draft summary due for evaluation.		Response criteria/rhetorical Triangle	Draft due in class for response.
Apr 16	Apr 17	Apr 18	Apr 19	Apr 20
Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday	Micro-revision in class. Bring printed draft to class for review.	Essay One submitted for grading by midnight. Submit as attached file.	Essay Two Introduction.	Book Club Work Day
Apr 23	Apr 24	Apr 25	Apr 26	Apr 27
Part Two annotations due in class along with major detail summary posted in blog for one chapter	Video analysis and Rhetorical Triangle		In-class writing and revision	Book Club Work Day
Apr 30	May 1	May 2	May 3	May 4
In-class writing and revision and responses.	Micro-revision in class. Bring printed draft to class for review.	Essay Two Due for grading by midnight; submit as attached file.	Essay Three Introduction	Book Club Work Day
May 7	May 8	May 9	May 10	May 11
Portfolio Conferences	Book Club Work Day	Portfolio Submissions Due	Midterm Portfolio Readings	Book Club Work Day
May 14	May 15	May 16	May 17
Part Three Annotations due	In-class writing and revision		In-class writing and revision	Book Club Work Day
May 21	May 22	May 23	May 24	May 25
President's Day Holiday	Essay Three Microrevision		Argument Introduction	Book Club Work Day
May 28	May 29	May 30	May 31	Jun 1
IMemorial Day Holiday!	Research and Writing		Research and Write	Book Club Work Day
Jun 4	Jun 5	Jun 6	Jun 7	Jun 8
Argument draft due for in-class response	Micro-revision in class. Bring printed draft to class for review. Essay due for grading by midnmight		Portfolio Conferences: Bring revised essay three. Essay four returned	Book Club Work Day
June 11	June 12	June 13	June 14	June 15
Literature Review 2 Due	Book Club Work Day	Book Club Presentations	Book Club Presentations	Dead Day; No Classes, No Exams!
June 18	June 19	June 20	June 21	June 22
Finals.	Finals	Scheduled Final: 11:30 to 1:30	Faculty Work Day	Faculty Work Day

Book Club Information

Now that we have book clubs put together, it's time to get working on them. The goals are many, but primarily your book club will be responsible for a final presentation. In this presentation, you will be pitching your text to the executive board of the Arts and Entertainment Company (that's your teacher and the rest of the class) in the hope that your novel will be selected for a new TV series, movie, mini-series or something similar.

• For your final presentation, you will present your pitch to the rest of the class. We will be talking about this more in-depth, but for now you should know that these presentations will be the whole class period long and involve multi-media, audience participation, skits and plays or reenactments, but no lectures! Be creative and have some fun with it. Your goal with these presentations: make your audience see why this book is worth reading and why it's worthy of being developed for the big or small screen.
• At the end of the project, you will be asked to grade your fellow team members. Only I will see these grades. In grading, you will want to consider all of the elements of book club: attendance, participation, preparation, willingness to work as a team member, insight, etc.

Getting Started

One of the first things it is important to do is to decide upon a reading schedule and set up some discussions, either online (you can use the chat box (for real time/synchronous) or a forum (for asynchronous) in the blog or just share email address or whatever you want, such as the blog itself). I suggest getting the book read as soon as you can so the research and development of the final project can get going and isn't rushed.

Midterm Presentation

The mid-term report will be about the first half of the novel: what is the story about, who are the characters, are they compelling characters, what are the story's conflicts and/or themes, what is your assessment of the writer's style, what predictions do you make for the rest of the book, what themes seem to be emerging, and anything else you find of interest or importance in the text and your group discussions. All of these points MUST be addressed in about 12 minutes time total. As a group, you are responsible for creating/revising a/the wiki in the class space covering the above listed topics. Be sure that everyone’s name is on it and that everyone contributes. In addition, each group will give a 12-minute oral report covering the same points. Each member of the group must deliver a roughly equal portion of the oral report. I suggest that the person who delivers the oral material on a particular portion of the topic also be the person responsible for writing up that material. Some group member can then take all the written material and put it into a single document.

Things to Cover

The below is what your project is expected to address at a minimum. 

• Primary goal is to get others interested in the text. This goal might take something of a backseat with the mid-term presentation as you won't have much time to make your points;
• What the story is about: provide a faithful representation of the major elements of the action,
  perhaps as a plot summary;
• Who are the characters? Who are the essential/central and secondary characters and why are they of concern? Are they are compelling characters?
• What are the story's conflicts and/or themes and why might that matter then or now?;
• What is your assessment of the writer's style?
• What interesting information might compel somewhat to read the book?
• Discover what you believe to be “true” about the text and
  back that up with evidence.
• Provide some predictions about what might happen as the narrative progresses and the tale concludes. Build this on concrete elements within the text and not mere speculation;
• A "Works Cited" is required, and a page of links to other resources is also a good thing to include.

The Final Project

DO NOT PUT ALL YOUR EGGS IN ONE BASKET! USE A VARIETY OF "DELIVERABLES" TO GET YOUR POINT ACROSS

Your final project is to take the form of a "pitch" to turn your novel into a movie, television series or mini-series. You can make use of your audience in anyway reasonable, and take the class anywhere on campus you need in order to make your pitch. You may use podcasts, videos, brief lectures or what have you, but you must vary the mode of presentation over the course of the class. Do not expect your audience to simply sit and listen to a lecture from a PowerPoint or to listen to a 50 minute podcast or video. That won't work.

A few things you might do:

• Create or substantially revise, for the better, an entry on Wikepedia;
• Create a website regarding your work and share it with the classroom. This must be a solid repository of information, most of it original with documented sources;
• 
  Reader's Theater: Put on a dramatic production of some element of the text, one that highlights the major themes and conflicts of the text. Reader's theater does not require that you memorize your lines, but you should be able to read them with a minimum of prompting from the text. Costumes and some sort of set are also needed. This can happen in the class, or in some other locale that works for the class period;
• Video Project: Produce a video somewhat along the lines of a reader's theater.
• Develop some interactive presentation that has the rest of the class engage in some activity that leaves them better understanding the novel you worked with;
• PowerPoint presentation to class, just be sure it has both power and a point! An alternative to PowerPoint is Prezi, found at prezi.com;
• Dramatized interview with one or more of the characters;
• Puppet show with same/similar expectations of reader's theater;
• Game show that is staged to engage folks who have not read the text while giving them an understanding of the text;
• Got another idea? Run it by me and we'll see.

What you must do:

create/revise a wiki entry for the class blog containing the basic information presented in the midterm, but through the whole novel. After that, how you use the 50 minutes is up to you.

Grading

Along with my making a determination of the project’s quality and effectiveness, you will also be grading the participation of each group member. Specific criteria can be found within the attached rubric.

A Note about Images and Sound

Both images and sounds are great things to have on websites, but  they need to be done properly, especially from a copyright and intellectual property perspective. In short, you are not allowed to just snag sounds and images from the web unless they are in the Public  Domain, which is not always easy to determine.  If you are uncertain,  I suggest you  email the person who has the images you want to use and  seek their permission.  When that sound or image is then used, it is expected that attribution be provided so readers of the site know where the information came from.  Sometimes, if you can't  secure permission, the image or sound can be included  by providing a link rather than placing the image itself within the site. We can talk about this as needed.

Literature Review Assignment

Both of the major writing assignments will follow the same process. Step one is to find a scholarly essay or book chapter, of at least 10 pages, and read and annotate as was discussed and practiced in class. From the annotations you are to compose a summary of the article. If you article is more than 10 pages, which it will likely be, you are to annotate and summarize the whole thing. If you cannot find an article or chapter of at least 10 pages, you my work with multiple articles and chapters and summarize them all.

Having summarized the essay, you are then to write between 500 and 750 words explaining how the essay(s) helped you better understand, enjoy or appreciate the texts the essay addressed.

Writing Assignment

You are going to annotate and summarize a piece of research/scholarship (minimum of 10 pages in length) regarding any of the readings through The Scarlet Letter, in whole or part (meaning a single poem, one of the groupings of poems, or all of them, or maybe something else, but talk to me about it if you are unsure). Following the annotation and summary, you are going to write 500-750 words describing how the summarized material has informed, enlightened or confused/complicated your understanding of the essay's topic. I'll be happy to talk individually or with the whole class about this, so be sure to ask if you need to.

Introduction

The introduction should do the following: provide article/essay author's name (full name on first mention), the title of the text being summarized, and the point the summary is seeking to make. Additionally, there should be some general background information about the point that will be raised by the thesis and response section of the essay.

Summary Clearly and Objectively Reflects Original Text

An effective summary does a number of things in order to describe as accurately and briefly as possible the substance or main ideas contained in a text:

1. presents material in the same order as the original,
2. provides a clear indication of each major/main detail,
3. maintains the main idea and perspective of the original,
4. devotes a proportional amount of material to that provided in the original,
5. refrains from interjecting the summarizer's opinions (I think Orwell believes that . . . ),
6. and the ideas are clearly acknowledged as those of the original author (Didion writes . . . ).

A few specific examples are okay, but the summary should not be overload with them nor consist almost completely of them.

Response presents student views on text

The response should develop and/or refine your idea(s) on some part(s) of the original. You need not respond to the whole essay (in fact, responding to all the reading or all the ideas in the reading will likely result in an under-developed response, which is why I suggest no more than three response points; the fewer points responded to, the better), but the more the response encompasses the over-arching ideas and concepts found wending their way through in the original, the more effective the response is likely to be. An effective response will link each of its points to a clearly and readily identifiable portion of the original and/or its summary. There are specific examples to illustrate the relationship between each point of the response and the summary/original. How do the various points/ideas fit with what you see happening in the world today? In making your views clear, this is the place to use specific examples from the original text as well as examples you might pull from elsewhere. When you either quote or paraphrase, provide a citation.

Conclusion

Generally speaking, a conclusion should drive home the point of the essay (as expressed by the thesis), creating a sense of finality and understanding. Not only does an effective conclusion go beyond restating points raised by the thesis and essay, it does so in a way that leaves the present essay concluded while also leaving the reader wanting to know more.

Paragraphs

Paragraphs should be coherent units of thought. Each should contain a topic statement/sentence that limits development to one idea/point, general and/or specific examples to illustrate the point, and some explanation establishing the relationship between the paragraph and the thesis. There is a clear topic sentence/statement, exemplary development through the use of examples both general and specific, and a clear explanation tying the material to the thesis. Ideally the material is ordered for greatest effectiveness.

Paragraph elements

This applies to your response much more than your summary.

1. Open with a sentence that indicates the point of the paragraph: When considering the use of feminine rhyme schemes to highlight gender concerns, [essay author] compels future readings of the [text] to be seen anew.
2. Second part of the essay makes it clear why the topic of the paragraph matters:
3. Specific examples are provided, from both the research and the poetry/play to illustrate the point:
4. Explanation is provided to tie the paragraph back to the thesis, to establish the relationship between the evidence of the paragraph and the claim of the thesis. In the writing of an argument, connecting these "dots" is essential in getting the reader to see things your way.

Historical Timeline 1492-1738

Time Line for early American History and Literature

• Gutenberg Press and Bible, the advent of movable type and the printed page, harbinger of expanded literacy./li>
• 1492: Columbus: first voyage and the beginning of the Spanish Inquisition. Italians were best sailors of the day, which is why an Italian Columbus was sailing under the banner of the Spanish Queen.
• 1500: Beginning of the Renaissance period of Literature in England
• 1533: Separation of English Church from Rome: This is where Henry VIII decided to drop the Catholic Church because the Pope wouldn't grant him a divorce so he could marry again.
• 1549/1552: Book of Common Prayer, sought to bridge divide between various protestant sects due to ambiguities it contained on various dogma.
• Peace of Augsburg: princes free to impose their religion on their realm and cemented split between Roman Catholic and various Protestant churches.
• 1570s: Calvinist Dutch (refuge for many Puritans who flee England) revolt against Catholic Spain. Resulted in 1609 Twelve Years Truce, the end of which led Pilgrims to leave for America.
• 1584: Hakluyt's Discourse of Western Planting given to Queen EI, a propaganda piece about riches to be gained from colonizing the new world and saving the heathen natives from Roman Catholicism. America as a place for Puritan dissenters, criminals, vagrants and the unemployed.
• 1584: Roanoke Colony founded. Relief supplies gone for in 1585, colony gone upon return in 1586
• 1588: Defeat of the Spanish Armada: Much of the fleet was sunk and scattered in a storm but the English saw this as a sign that God was on their side and that Elizabeth was in good standing with the Divine.
• 1558--1603 Death of Elizabeth, Ascension of James I
• 1580-1620: considered the Elizabethan period in English Lit. (Includes what is also called the Jacobean era)
• 1605: Gunpowder Plot: Some Catholics, led by Guy Fawkes, supposedly an attempt to blow up Parliament. Some killed resisting arrest, remainder jailed and many executed for treason. Nov. 5 is Guy Fawkes Day in England. Fawkes is burned in effigy.
• 1607: Settlement at James Town: First real settlement of North America. Nearly 90 percent of the settlers are dead within the year.
• 1607: Virginia founding. Smith takes over from Newport after being placed in irons during the voyage. Founded as a commercial venture seeking gold and silver. By 1616 hungry and abandoned children were being shipped to Virginia under the Poor Law. Many Irish arrived having been evicted from their lands in Ireland
• In 1607, about the same time as the Jamestown colonization, a group of English colonists attempted to establish a colony in the Northern Virginia territory. The colony was located in present day Maine and was named Popham. It lasted for approximately a year before the discouraged settlers returned to England The Pilgrims were the first English colonists to permanently settle in New England in what we now know as Massachusetts in 1620.
• 1609: First Scot and English protestant settled in Ulster: sought to conquer Ireland by settling English Protestants. This is where the Irish "Troubles" began and are still going on today.
• 1611: King James translation of the Bible: Primary translation used by Protestants still today.
• 1616: Shakespeare dies
• 1618: Harvey discovers circulation of the blood (published 1628): Prior to this it was thought that the blood ebbed and flowed like the tide.
• 1619: First slaves, women, and labor strike in America; settlers are allowed to own land and elect lawmakers
• 1625-49: Reign of Charles I
• 1626: Although the Dutch West India Co. explored and began to settle the New York area as early as 1614, the story we all remember from our early history lessons is where Peter Minuit settled on Manhattan Island with other Dutch settlers and bought the island from the local Indians for 60 gilders ($24) worth of goods. He named his settlement on the island New Amsterdam. The Dutch holdings in the area were collectively called New Netherlands. New Amsterdam was granted self-government by the Dutch in 1652. In 1664, after King Charles II decided to reclaim the territory between Virginia and New England, Peter Stuyvesant surrendered to English forces and New Amsterdam was given to the King's brother, the Duke of York, and renamed. One of the Middle Colonies, New York originally started out as a Proprietary colony (granted by Royalty to one or more proprietors who had full governing rights) but in 1685 became a Royal colony. Not long after the Pilgrims arrived in 1628 the Puritans came too and settled Naumkeag (later called Salem. John Winthrop, carrying the Massachusetts Bay Charter, arrived in 1630 and founded Boston. Maine was annexed to Massachusetts in 1652 and later the Plymouth Colony was too. In 1632 Charles I granted a Maryland Charter to Lord Baltimore (George Calvert, Baron of Baltimore). Lord Baltimore wanted very much to see the Colony become a reality and his son Cecil saw to it that the new Colony was settled. In 1633 the first group of settlers set sail for Maryland to establish a colony of freemen led by Leonard Calvert, Cecil Calvert's younger brother. One of the Southern Colonies, Maryland was a Proprietary colony but failed as a Catholic aristocracy.
• Roger Williams was driven from Massachusetts for espousing religious and political freedom. After spending the winter with the Indians he finally bought land from them in what is now called Providence. The new colony became a haven for those seeking religious freedom meaning they could practice what they wanted but often while persecuting those of other religions). A New England Colony, Rhode Island was established as a Corporate colony. After being driven from Massachusetts, Clergyman Thomas Hooker and his followers arrived in Hartford and declared freedom from all save Divine Authority. In 1639 the "Fundamental Orders" were enacted to govern the colony. In 1662 Connecticut finally obtained a Royal Charter under John Winthrop Jr. One of the New England Colonies, Connecticut was also a Corporate colony.
• 1638: In 1631, the first settlement was attempted in Delaware by Dutch traders led by Captain David Pietersen de Vries. By 1632 the party had been killed by the local natives. In 1638, Peter Minuet, now in the service of the Swedish, led a group of Swedish settlers to the Delaware River area under a grant from the New Sweden Company. The Dutch gained control of the land in 1655 from the Swedish. In 1664 the English obtained Delaware after defeating the Dutch. In 1682 Delaware was awarded to William Penn but his control didn't last and Delaware became independent in 1701.
• 1638: John Wheelwright, banished from Boston founded the colony of New Hampshire. In 1639 the settlers signed the "Exeter Compact" patterned after the "Mayflower Compact". One of the New England Colonies, New Hampshire started out as a Proprietary colony but it became a Royal colony in 1679.
• 1639: First printing press in America. In order to control the distribution of printed materials, it was illegal to have a printing press in the colonies. The suppression of the means to distribute materials has been key to controlling many a society. Soviet Russia banned access to Xerox machines in the 1960's and 70's and many repressive governments today ban access to the Internet to limit access to information.
• 1642: English Civil War. Theaters closed because most drama mocks rulers; "New Model Army" is the first professional army. Earlier armies were raised from those working a particular noble's lands. The New Model Army recruited and paid soldiers to fight for Parliament against the Monarchist forces.
• 1649: Execution of Charles I: Many trace England's decline to this act. Since the Monarch was seen as God's chosen ruler on earth, to kill the king was to act directly against the will of God.
• 1649-60:Interregnum-Rule of Cromwell & Son. Cromwell was an astute ruler but he made the mistake of passing rule to his incompetent son, rather an odd choice for someone who led the battle against the hereditary succession of power inherent in the throne.
• 1653: Virginia colonists began to settle the North Carolina region in 1653 to provide a buffer for the southern frontier. In 1691 Albermarle, the northern Carolina region, was officially recognized by the English crown. This is the first time the North Carolina designation was used. One of the Southern Colonies, North Carolina started out as a Proprietary colony but obtained a Royal charter in 1729 from Charles II.
• 1660: Restoration of Throne to Charles II: After Cromwell's son botched things up, the people of England were eager to restore the Monarchy.
• 1663: South Carolina was the site of the first European settlement in North America. In 1526 San Miguel de Guadalupe was established by settlers from Hispaniola. The party returned to Hispaniola after suffering many deaths due to fever the first year. In 1663 King Charles II created the colony of Carolina (named for King Charles II) by granting the territory, of what is now roughly North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, to loyal supporters. This colonial charter was challenged by many Virginians who had settled in Albermarle Sound and resented their inclusion in the Carolina Charter. Charleston (originally Charles Town after the King) was founded in 1670 by a group of 200 colonists from English Barbados. The leader of the colonists was Sir John Yeamans, a powerful plantation owner on Barbados
• 1664: After obtaining control of Dutch holdings lying between Virginia and New England, the Duke of York made a proprietary grant, to Sir George Carteret and Lord Berkeley, of the land between the Hudson and the Delaware River. These men intended to profit from real estate sales. The new grant was named New Jersey for Carteret, who was governor of the Isle of Jersey. One of the Middle Colonies, New Jersey started out as a Proprietary colony but in 1702 it was granted a Royal charter.
• 1682: In 1681 what is now, roughly, the state of Pennsylvania was granted to William Penn, a member of the Society of Friends (Quakers), to offset a debt owed to Penn's father. In 1682 the city plan for Philadelphia was laid out. In 1682 the "Frame of Government" for Pennsylvania was put into effect. In 1683 the first German settlers arrived in Pennsylvania and formed Germantown near Philadelphia. One of the Middle Colonies, Pennsylvania was a Proprietary colony. In 1763, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, two young British astronomers commissioned to establish a borderline between Maryland and Pennsylvania, worked for more than four years to settle a century-old boundary dispute between the Calverts of Maryland and the Penns of Pennsylvania by establishing the Mason-Dixon Line.
• 1732: There were a few Spanish settlements along the coast, north of Florida, in the 16th and early 17th century but what is now Georgia was originally just the southern portion of the Carolina grant. Hoping to provide a second chance for adventurous members of the English under class, King George II, in 1732, granted Georgia to James Edward Oglethorpe, an English general. In addition to its lofty social goals the new Colony was also intended to provide additional protection for its northern colonial partners. Prior to Oglethorpe and his party settling the area in 1733, Fort King George was the only English occupation in the area. The Fort, which was established in 1721, was the Southern-most post in the Colonies and was situated to provide a buffer against Spanish and French intrusion from the South.
• 1738, General Oglethorpe brought a large military contingent to Georgia and the following year his troops provided a strong showing against the Spanish in King George's War ( the War of Austrian Succession in Europe). General Oglethorpe led his men into St. Augustine and although they were not able to obtain a victory there, when the Spanish sailed into Georgia seeking retaliation two years later, he and his soldiers were able to drive the Spanish back to Florida for, what turned out to be, the last time. One of the Southern Colonies, Georgia started out as a Proprietary colony but eventually became a Royal colony in 1752.

Iroquois League—a confederation of tribes, almost something of a model for the colonies when they become states because each tribe maintains its identity as a separate entity while forming part of a greater whole.

Some Elizabethan Characteristics

• Nationalist fervor of country, bolstered by defeat of Spanish Armada (much of which was sunk in a storm), beginnings of world colonization and trade--both of which were reflected in literature.
• Renaissance learning and interest began to be more generally felt. English language enriched by borrowings from Latin, Greek, Italian, and French. Humanist ideals (exalt the human over the divine). Verse forms such as sonnet and blank verse became more familiar.
• Religious controversy: struggles between Catholics and Church of England, and also among those of the High Church (similar in many ways to the Catholic Church) and the Low Church (Puritans).
• Rhetoric is stylish and self conscious, showing relish for ornate and cleverly arranged words. Depended more on rhyme schemes than tropes (metaphorical figures of speech)
• Reliance on amplification, exaggerated emphasis in interest of persuasive effect
• Pathetic fallacies--attribution of living qualities to inanimate objects, primarily with animalistic hostility in inanimate objects.

Some Restoration Characteristics

Fashionable/popular literature of the era is a reaction against Puritanism. (Puritans wished to purify church of England by eliminating anything remotely smacking of the Catholic Church and its pomp--doing away with superstitious rites of church (such as transubstantiation where the wafer and wine are believed to actually become the real body and blood of Jesus Christ), taking communion sitting rather than kneeling, serious observance of the Sabbath, discarding apocryphal (spurious, doubtful, divinely uninspired) books of Bible.)
Although a time of anxiety and tension, recrimination and score settling, literature marked by love of gaiety, wit, and immortality, revival of interest in science.
Guiding Principles

• Nature's law: orders natural elements/physics
• Celestial/heavenly law: that which the angels follow
• Law of Reason: binds reasoning creatures to law which they know they are bound
• Divine Law: binds men, known only because of revelation by God
• Human Law: Laws that men make out by following reason or divine law

 
The Chain of Being: describes God's plentitude, unfaltering order, and ultimate unity. Every speck in creation has a place in the chain. There are also nine levels of devils to go with the nine levels of angels, but I have never been able to figure out where they go on the continuum. Most likely they fit below the earthly.
Earthly (bottom)
inanimate class: elements: earth, water, air, fire.
vegetative class: trees, bushes, weeds, etc.
sensitive class--existence, life, and feeling that has three levels

• Bottom--creatures with touch but not movement, hearing or memory. Includes shellfish (oysters generally considered the lowest), parasites.
• middle is animals having touch, memory and movement, but not hearing. Ants are an example.
• Top are higher animals, having all four characteristics (touch, memory, movement, and hearing): horses, dogs, cats, etc.
• Man belongs to the existence, life, feeling, and understanding class.

Divine
Man's soul--bridge between earthly and divine
Angels (Angles bridge the gap between god and man)
Angels: triple divisions echo the Trinity
(contemplative) Seraphs, cherubs, thrones,
(Active in thought, not deed) Dominations, Virtues, Powers
(Active) Principalities, Archangels, Angels
God
Ether: each ruled in order by the angels above
primum mobile (outermost of 10 concentric circles making up the universe--that which is the cause of all movement but does not move itself.) the fixed stars, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon.
Among groups, there is one member who has Primacy:

• God is prime among the angels
• The sun is prime among the planets (earth wrongly seen as being at the center of the universe was considered the bottom)
• The eagle is prime among the birds
• The lion is prime among the beasts
• The king is prime among men
• Man's head is prime among his body
• Justice is prime among the virtues
• The rose is prime among flowers
• The dolphin is prime among the fish

Royal Colony*

A Royal Charter is a charter given by a monarch to legitimize an incorporated body, such as a city, company, university or such. In medieval Europe, cities were the only place where it was legal to conduct commerce, and Royal Charters were the only way to establish a city. The year a city was chartered is considered the year the city was "founded", irrespective of whether there was settlement there before. A Royal Charter is a charter granted by the Sovereign on the advice of the Privy Council, which creates or gives special status to an incorporated body. It is an exercise of the Royal Prerogative At one time a Royal Charter was the only way in which an incorporated body could be formed. Among the historic bodies formed by Royal Charter were the British East India Company, the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O), and the American colonies.

Charter Colony*

Charter colonies were promoted through private enterprise under charters from the crown. Generally, they were established by groups of settlers who were granted charters by the king and had more control over their own affairs than did the other types of colonies, which were ruled more directly by the British. They were founded by trading companies, by lords proprietors and by squatters later incorporated. Colonies of the first type for the most part either disappeared or changed their status early. The Virginia Company lost its charter in 1624, the New England Council surrendered its patent in 1635, the Providence Island colony was conquered by Spain in 1641 and the Massachusetts Bay Company became a theocracy, leaving the Bermuda Company as the only one of its kind in control of a colony through the greater part of the 17th century. Connecticut and Rhode Island, founded as squatter colonies by dissenters from Puritan Massachusetts, received charters of incorporation early in the English Restoration (restoration colony).

Proprietary Colony*

The British kings repeatedly granted territory to one or more individuals, rather than to a chartered company. These men, called proprietors, or sometimes "Lords Proprietors", were invested not only with property under private law but also with gubernatorial authority to administer it with extraordinary authority, somewhat recalling the earl palatine before the Glorious Revolution. The method was most notably used during the early colonization along the Atlantic coasts of North America and the Caribbean by Great Britain. Most were run under a charter agreement, which is reviewed by the ruling Monarch. A good example is the Province of Pennsylvania, granted to William Penn (the state still bears the name meaning 'woodlands of Penn') by King Charles II of England. This type of indirect rule eventually fell out of favor as the English Sovereigns sought to concentrate their power and authority, and the colonies were converted to crown colonies, i.e. governed by officials appointed by the King.

*Thanks to Wikipedia for the information.