Puritans and the founding

3/29: Franklin lecture in class today (notes below), We also read "Silence Dogood" letters. Homework is to read the excerpt from Franklin's last introduction to Poor Richard's Almanack. This introduction is more commonly known as "The Way to Wealth." The work is attached below.

3/23: I've attached the Puritan assessment (with grading criteria). I forgot that Friday is a no testing day, so I will give you all of long block to work on this in groups, but you'll need to finish during long black.

If you can, listen to the podcast about Anne Bradstreet ( I would really appreciate it, and it is only 15 minutes long:).

3/17: We watched excerpted portions of Jill Lepore's talk about King Philip's War. Start at the beginning of the video and watch the first 5 minutes, the fast forward until about 26:10 and run to the end. The purpose is to put the war into context and to understand how our understanding of the war has been shaped and changed over time.

3/15: Groups of four: We are examining these murals to get a sense of captivity narratives (very popular literature in the aftermath of King Philip’s War), the destruction created by the war, and how Rowlandson’s Puritan values inform her retelling of her story. We are going to try to cover as many of the murals as we can in a short period of time, so pair up (among the four) and each pair will look at two murals together (I’ll keep the time). You should each be describing what you see in your journals. Look at visuals first, then paraphrase the writing. Pay attention to anything you see that speaks to the above goals AND be thinking about whose story is being told.

Homework (for Thursday): On one side of the notecard: recap for me the discussion your group had about the murals, about what you saw, about what struck you about whose story, about how Rowlandson’s Puritanism informs her retelling, etc. Then, please read the excerpt from Jill Lepore’s book In the Name of War about Rowlandson’s captivity narrative. Pay careful attention to the excerpts from the narrative itself and to Lepore’s commentary about it. On the back of the notecard: reflect about what you read, about Rowlandson’s own writing and her Puritan faith and about Lepore’s point of view as a historian. Fill the back of the card.

3/14: Puritanism (from Vowel's excerpt) and Winthrop's speech.

3/10: We read another excerpt from Sarah Vowell's book today, this one focusing on the Puritans, on John Winthrop's "A Model of Christian Charity" and on Winthrop's leadership when the Puritans establish settlements in Boston. Here's what you need to pay attention to (for understanding) in the excerpt: Vowell's explication of Winthrop's speech, its Puritan world view, its guiding principles, etc., Calvinism as a belief system - the idea of the elect, its promises and its costs, the contradictions in beliefs and practice. AFTER YOU'VE FINISHED: please write about what you read in your journals (at least two pages): write about new understanding about the Puritans and their beliefs, about the connections Vowell makes between them and us, about Winthrop as a leader (both good and bad), make connections to what we saw in the Mayflower Compact, in Allit's principles, etc. HOMEWORK: Read the excerpt from Winthrop's speech (this is excerpted from the end of the speech). My expectation is that you will need to read it several times. Mark it up for understanding, make sure to mark places where you are confused, etc. At the bottom of the speech, reflect: tie together Winthrop's ideas (tHINK about his leadership), pay close attention to the bolded sections and write down your understanding of those and WHY they mater to our understanding of their beliefs, of their legacy (how they helped to shape American ideals), of our roots, etc.

3/2: Put aside the Gatsby proof paragraph that you printed out last night (if there’s time at the end of the class, you can talk together about it – otherwise, wait until tomorrow – we’ll talk together then). We are going back to the beginning of the country to trace the roots of the ideas that feed into the 20^th century version of the American Dream. That means starting with the Massachusetts’ settlements (I know Virginia was first, but it wasn’t considered a successful settlement until well after the Pilgrims set sail). Today, you are reading two excerpts from books that are designed to give you some background. The “Preface” is from Nathaniel Philbrick’s book Mayflower. The Pilgrims were a Separatist group of Puritans who first left England for Holland, but then worried that their children would lose their sense of English identity (among other reasons) and so decided that they wanted to start anew in America. The second excerpt is From Sarah Vowell’s book The Wordy Shipmates, about the group of Puritans who set sail ten years after the Pilgrims. Please read and mark up both of the excerpts. The goal is to build background knowledge in an effort to understand the people and their beliefs, and make whatever connections you can to the ideas expressed about the dream in Fitzgerald, about the way Americans see ourselves now and have seen ourselves through history. Please take notes as you read, make connections when you have finished reading, ask questions, highlight points we need to talk about tomorrow. Complete first drafts are due for response tomorrow.