AMERICAN LITERATURE

Wherever there are people there will be a literature. A literature is the record of human experience, and people have always been impelled to write down their impressions of life. They do so in diaries and letters, in pamphlets and books, and in essays, poems, plays, and stories. In this respect American literature is like any other. There are, however, many characteristics of American writing that make it different from all others. This has not always been true.
American literature began with the first English colonies in Virginia and New England. Colonists came to the New World to find religious freedom and prosperity. They came, however, in no spirit of revolution. They came as Englishmen, bringing with them the literary wealth of English legends, ballads, and poems and the richness of the English language. They were loyal to the Crown. These settlers did not even call themselves Americans.
How the English colonists slowly came to think and act as "Americans" is a familiar and proud story. How their literature slowly grew to be "American" writing is less well known. The growth of American literature, however, follows closely the history of the nation from its beginning to the present time.
American authors have written countless essays and songs, poems and plays, novels and short stories. There is space here to discuss only the most important and the best. Even a short summary, however, shows something of the splendid accomplishment of American literature since it emerged from its crude colonial beginnings more than 300 years ago.

Colonial Times in America

The man sometimes called the first American writer was Capt. John Smith (1580-1631). He was a soldier-adventurer who came to Virginia in 1607 and wrote pamphlets describing the new land. His first, 'A True Relation of Virginia' (1608), aimed at attracting settlers and winning financial support for the colony. His 'General History of Virginia' (1624) elaborates on his experiences. In it he tells how his life was saved by Pocahontas. Smith was an able leader and an interesting reporter. His books are valued because he was the first person to write about the English settlements.
Colonial life in Virginia was best described by William Byrd (1674-1744), owner of Westover, an estate of almost 180,000 acres on the James River. The beautiful house is a showplace today. Educated in England, Byrd returned home to lead the life of a country gentleman. He worked hard managing his affairs. His most notable public act was to survey the boundary between Virginia and Carolina, fighting his way through the great Dismal Swamp. He described this adventure of 1728-29 in 'History of the Dividing Line', published in 1841. He told, often amusingly, of settlement life in the backcountry. Byrd's 'Secret Diary', discovered in 1940, gives intimate glimpses of colonial times and helps bring to life this refined and witty colonial gentleman.
Plantation life in Virginia was civilized, even elegant. The people were not intellectual, however, and they produced little writing. The inhabitants, descended from the Royalist, or "Cavalier," group in England, were faithful members of the Church of England. They accepted religion as a matter of course and felt no need to write about it. In addition, the system of plantation life produced a number of isolated communities, as did the feudalism of the Middle Ages. This kept people from gathering in cities.
People in the Southern Colonies therefore had little need to write, and social conditions, furthermore, did not encourage them to do so. The South's great contributions, both to statecraft and to literature, came later. The significant writing of colonial times was done in New England, where American literature may properly be said to have begun.
Colonial life began in New England with the landing of the Pilgrims at Cape Cod in 1620. Before going ashore they signed the Mayflower Compact, an agreement to live together in harmony under law. It is found in 'History of Plimoth Plantation'. This moving account of the early struggles of the colonists was written by William Bradford (1590-1657), who was governor for 30 years. A similar journal was kept by Governor John Winthrop (1588-1649) of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, founded ten years after Plymouth. Present-day knowledge of Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims' dealings with Indians, and other experiences of the first settlers comes from these two narratives of the colonization.