History of American Literature | Page 3

the formation and
guidance of the Republic, and the Civil War. All these combined to
give individuality to American thought and literature.
Taken as a whole, American literature has accomplished more than
might reasonably have been expected. Its study is especially important
for us, since the deeds associated with our birthplace must mean more

to us than more remarkable achievements of men born under other
skies. Our literature, even in its humble beginnings, contains a lesson
that no American can afford to miss. Unless we know its ideals and
moral aims and are swayed by them, we cannot keep our heritage.
WHY VIRGINIA WAS COLONIZED.--In 1607 the first permanent
English colony within the present limits of the United States was
planted at Jamestown in Virginia. The colony was founded for
commercial reasons by the London Company, an organization formed
to secure profits from colonization. The colonists and the company that
furnished their ship and outfit expected large profits from the gold
mines and the precious stones which were believed to await discovery.
Of course, the adventurers were also influenced by the honor and the
romantic interest which they thought would result from a successful
settlement.
When the expedition sailed from England in December, 1606, Michael
Drayton, an Elizabethan poet, wrote verses dedicated "To the Virginian
Voyage." These stanzas show the reason for sending the colonizers to
Virginia:--
"You brave heroic minds, Worthy your country's name, That honor still
pursue, Whilst loit'ring hinds Lurk here at home with shame, Go and
subdue. * * * * * And cheerfully at sea, Success you still entice, To get
the pearl and gold; And ours to hold Virginia, Earth's only paradise."
The majority of the early Virginian colonists were unfit for their task.
Contemporary accounts tell of the "many unruly gallants, packed hither
by their friends to escape ill destinies." Beggars, vagabonds, indentured
servants, kidnapped girls, even convicts, were sent to Jamestown and
became the ancestors of some of the "poor white trash" of the South.
After the execution of Charles I. in 1649, and the setting up of the
Puritan Commonwealth, many of the royalists, or Cavaliers, as they
were called, came to Virginia to escape the obnoxious Puritan rule.
They became the ancestors of Presidents and statesmen, and of many of
the aristocratic families of the South.
The ideals expressed by Captain John Smith, the leader and preserver

of the Jamestown colony, are worthy to rank beside those of the
colonizers of New England. Looking back at his achievement in
Virginia, he wrote, "Then seeing we are not born for ourselves but each
to help other ... Seeing honor is our lives' ambition ... and seeing by no
means would we be abated of the dignities and glories of our
predecessors; let us imitate their virtues to be worthily their
successors."
WHY THE PURITANS COLONIZED NEW ENGLAND.--During the
period from 1620 to 1640, large numbers of Englishmen migrated to
that part of America now known as New England. These emigrants
were not impelled by hope of wealth, or ease, or pleasure. They were
called Puritans because they wished to purify the Church of England
from what seemed to them great abuses; and the purpose of these men
in emigrating to America was to lay the foundations of a state built
upon their religious principles. These people came for an intangible
something--liberty of conscience, a fuller life of the spirit--which has
never commanded a price on any stock exchange in the world. They
looked beyond
"Things done that took the eye and had the price; O'er which, from
level stand, The low world laid its hand, Found straightway to its mind,
could value in a trice."
These Puritans had been more than one century in the making. We hear
of them in the time of Wycliffe (1324-1384). Their religion was a
constant command to put the unseen above the seen, the eternal above
the temporal, to satisfy the aspiration of the spirit. James I. (reign,
1603-1625) told them that he would harry them out of the kingdom
unless they conformed to the rites of the Established Church. His son
and successor Charles I. (reign, 1625-1649) called to his aid
Archbishop Laud (1573-1645), a bigoted official of that church. Laud
hunted the dissenting clergy like wild beasts, threw them into prison,
whipped them in the pillory, branded them, slit their nostrils, and
mutilated their ears. JOHN COTTON, pastor of the church of Boston,
England, was told that if he had been guilty only of an infraction of
certain of the Ten Commandments, he might have been pardoned, but

since his crime was Puritanism, he must suffer. He had great trouble in
escaping on a ship bound for the New England Boston.
[Illustration: JOHN COTTON]
Professor Tyler says: "New England has perhaps never quite
appreciated its great