Mr. Everhart's Flying Circus - Pre-Colonial/Colonial

Pre-Colonial and Colonial American Literature

Classroom Discussions and Experiences:

- Unit Cover Sheet: PreColonial and Colonial Activities Cover Sheet
- Unit Rhetorical Strategies: Anadiplosis, Anaphora, Asyndeton, Polysyndeton
- Unit Study Questions: Study Questions - Pre-Colonial and Colonial Literature Checkpoint Test

Video Openers:

- Video Opener: 50 Centuries in 10 Minutes - kardboardking - March 4, 2014 - Students need to develop a world view of the rise and fall of powers throughout history. I show this to facilitate discussions to see how humanity has spread itself.
- Video Opener: Charting Culture - Maximilian Schich (University of Texas at Dallas) and Mauro Martino (IBM) - July 31, 2014. This video is shown in class to show the spread of culture and the movement of cultural centers throughout history.
- Video Opener: The Atlantic Slave Trade in Two Minutes - Andrew Kahn and Jamelle Bouie - Slate - June 30, 2015
- Video Opener: Here's Everyone Who's Immigrated to the U.S. Since 1820 - Max Galka - Metrocosm.com - May 3, 2016

"1492. As children we were taught to memorize this year with pride and joy as the year people began living full and imaginative lives on the continent of North America. Actually, people had been living full and imaginative lives on the continent of North America for hundreds of years before that. 1492 was simply the year sea pirates began to rob, cheat, and kill them."--Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions (1973)

Native American Oral Traditions, Creation Stories, and the Importance of Storytellers in Society

- Video Opener: The Invasion of America: How the United States Took Over an Eighth of the World - Claudio Sant/University of Georgia - This video shows the conquering of the Native American tribes from year to year. Between 1776 and 1887, the United States seized 1.5 billion acres of land from America's indigenous people by treaty and executive order.
- Interactive Map: Native Land - Victor G. Temprano - What tribes used to be where?
- Text: Native American Oral Tradition Excerpts by Various Authors - The Sun Still Rises In The Same Sky (Joseph Bruchac), The Sky Tree (Huron), The Earth Only (Teton Sioux), Excerpt from The House Made of Dawn (Navajo), Coyote Finishes His Work (Nez Perce)
- Interviews: I spent a day with INDIGENOUS PEOPLE - Anthony Padilla - August 18, 2023
  - Guest: Crystal Echo Hawk - https://illuminative.org/about-illuminative/ - Pawnee
  - Guest: Tai Leclaire - https://www.taileclaire.com/about - https://www.headdressfilm.com/ - Mohawk

Genre Transition

(Pre-1630) Pre-Colonial Literature (1630 to 1800) Colonial Literature

- Native Americans and Early European Explorers Early European Settlers
- Matrilineal Culture Patrilineal Culture
- Respect and embrace nature Fear of the wilderness
- Animism and Shamanism Puritanism and Deism
- Nature is a Cycle Nature is a Hierarchy
- Oral Tradition in Storytelling Diaries, Religious Texts, Government Texts
- Historical Narratives and Cultural Hero Stories Sermons and Political Speeches

The Culture Hero

- The Culture Hero is a shining example of what all future children should grow up to be like in a particular culture.
- The Culture Hero's story is a test of worthiness of the traits emphasized by a culture.
- A successful Culture Hero (deemed worthy by the results of the story) returns home at the end of the journey bringing with him an invention, a discovery, or sacred knowledge to share with the community forever.
- A Trickster figure will often be the antagonist, setting the traps and challenges that would lead the protagonist away from virtue.
- A protagonist who fails in a Culture Hero story becomes a horrible warning of what not to be in that culture.

Explaining the Historical Effects of the Protestant Reformation on Literacy

- Map: Wittenberg, Germany - Google Maps
- Bonus Text: The 95 Theses (1517) by Martin Luther

Explaining the Hierarchal World View

- Visual Aid: The Great Chain of Being

Explaining Soteriology and Defining Grace, Providence, the Elect, and the Unregenerate

- Sermon: Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (1741) by Jonathan Edwards - Class Excerpt [ Full Text ] - Class Textbook Pages 46-48
- Audio: Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God - voiced by Max Mclean

The Puritans Meet The Rationalists, Explaining Religious Literature - Literal Interpretation vs. Parable

- Text: 1 Samuel 17 New International Version - "David and Goliath"

Literal Interpretation: Everything in a story is historically and factually true.

Parable: The lesson of the story is worth learning, but the events of the story aren't necessarily true.

Pre-Colonial America Meets Colonial America, Captivity Narratives

- Text: Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (1682) by Mary Rowlandson - Class Excerpts [ Full Text ] - Class Textbook Pages 37-42
- Image: Our Blessed Homeland / Their Barbarous Wastes by Tom Gauld

Sub-genre Transition

Puritanism Age of Reason/Rationalism

- Puritan Religion Deism
- God is an active force in the world God is not an active force in the world
- Tradition Tinker and Experiment
- Truths discovered through faith and introspection Truths discovered through the power of reason
- Emphasizes humanity's flaws Emphasizes humanity's goodness
- The elect can discover the world's natural truth All people can discover the world's natural truth
- Lives are predetermined. Fates are locked Lives are not predetermined. Free will.

The Rise of Rationalism and Benjamin Franklin

- Autobiography: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1793) by Benjamin Franklin - Class Excerpts [ Full Text ] - Class Textbook Pages 68-71
- Almanac: Poor Richard's Almanack by Benjamin Franklin (1732-1758) Class Excerpts [ Full Text Available ] - Class Textbook Pages
- Letter: The Whistle (1779) by Benjamin Franklin

Stop and Enjoy a Darn Good Piece of Writing from the Colonial Period

- Speech: "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" - Speech to the Second Virginia Convention (1775) by Patrick Henry - Class Textbook Pages 80-83
- Bonus Speech: "Shall Liberty or Empire Be Sought? - Speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention (1788) by Patrick Henry

Some Interesting Ideas from Pre-Colonial and Colonial Times that Maybe Need to Be Thought Again

- Letters: Thomas Jefferson and the 19 Year Constitutional Refresh (1789 and 1816)
- Constitution: The Iroquois Constitution and Seven Generation Thinking (between 1390 and 1525) - Class Excerpt (Full Text)
  - - Video: The Iroquois Confederacy - Historia Civilis - June 20, 2018
- Bonus Website: The Pledge of Allegiance - Is the Pledge of Allegiance indoctrination and tyrannical?

AP Works - American Literature - Colonialism - 1630 to 1800CE

- "The Crisis" by Thomas Paine (1776) - Essays
- Letters from an American Farmer by Jean de Crevecoueur (1782) - Letters
- The Federalist by Alexander Hamilton (1788) - Essays