William E. Nelson
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195327281
- eISBN:
- 9780199870677
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195327281.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
The four-volume series of which this book is the first volume shows how the legal systems of Britain's thirteen North American colonies, which were initially established in response to divergent ...
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The four-volume series of which this book is the first volume shows how the legal systems of Britain's thirteen North American colonies, which were initially established in response to divergent political, economic, and religious initiatives, slowly converged until it became possible by the 1770s to imagine that all thirteen participated in a common American legal order, which diverged in its details but differed far more substantially from English common law. This book reveals how Virginians' zeal for profit led to the creation of a harsh legal order that efficiently squeezed payment out of debtors and labor out of servants. In comparison, Puritan law in early Massachusetts strove mainly to preserve the local autonomy and moral values of family-centered, subsistence farming communities. The law in the other New England colonies, although it was distinctive in some respects, gravitated toward the Massachusetts model, while Maryland's law, except during a brief interlude of Puritan rule, gravitated toward that of Virginia.Less
The four-volume series of which this book is the first volume shows how the legal systems of Britain's thirteen North American colonies, which were initially established in response to divergent political, economic, and religious initiatives, slowly converged until it became possible by the 1770s to imagine that all thirteen participated in a common American legal order, which diverged in its details but differed far more substantially from English common law. This book reveals how Virginians' zeal for profit led to the creation of a harsh legal order that efficiently squeezed payment out of debtors and labor out of servants. In comparison, Puritan law in early Massachusetts strove mainly to preserve the local autonomy and moral values of family-centered, subsistence farming communities. The law in the other New England colonies, although it was distinctive in some respects, gravitated toward the Massachusetts model, while Maryland's law, except during a brief interlude of Puritan rule, gravitated toward that of Virginia.
Douglas A. Sweeney
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195154283
- eISBN:
- 9780199834709
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195154282.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Nathaniel William Taylor (1786–1858) was arguably the most influential American theologian of his generation. Despite his tremendous national influence, however, his views were chronically ...
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Nathaniel William Taylor (1786–1858) was arguably the most influential American theologian of his generation. Despite his tremendous national influence, however, his views were chronically misunderstood. He and his associates always declared themselves to be Edwardsian Calvinists – working in the train of “America's Augustine,” Jonathan Edwards – but very few people, then or since, have believed them. In this revisionist study, Douglas A. Sweeney examines why Taylor and his associates counted themselves Edwardsians. He explores what it meant to be an Edwardsian minister and intellectual in the nineteenth century, how the Edwardsian tradition evolved after the death of Edwards himself, how Taylor promoted and eventually fragmented this tradition, and the significance of these developments for the future of evangelical America. Sweeney argues that Taylor's theology has been misconstrued by the vast majority of scholars, who have depicted him as a powerful symbol of the decline of Edwardsian Calvinism and the triumph of democratic liberalism in early national religion. Sweeney instead sees Taylor as a symbol of the vitality of Edwardsian Calvinism throughout the first half of the nineteenth century, a vitality that calls into question some widely held assumptions about this era. Charting Taylor's contribution to the modification, diversification, and ultimate dissolution of the Edwardsian tradition, Sweeney demonstrates his role in the translation of Edwardsian ideals to the ever‐expanding evangelical world that would succeed him. The Edwardsian tradition did not die out in the early nineteenth century, but rather grew rapidly until at least the 1840s. Nathaniel W. Taylor, more than anyone else, laid the theoretical groundwork for this growth – contributing, to be sure, to the demise of New England Theology, but at the same time making it accessible to an unprecedented number of people.Less
Nathaniel William Taylor (1786–1858) was arguably the most influential American theologian of his generation. Despite his tremendous national influence, however, his views were chronically misunderstood. He and his associates always declared themselves to be Edwardsian Calvinists – working in the train of “America's Augustine,” Jonathan Edwards – but very few people, then or since, have believed them. In this revisionist study, Douglas A. Sweeney examines why Taylor and his associates counted themselves Edwardsians. He explores what it meant to be an Edwardsian minister and intellectual in the nineteenth century, how the Edwardsian tradition evolved after the death of Edwards himself, how Taylor promoted and eventually fragmented this tradition, and the significance of these developments for the future of evangelical America. Sweeney argues that Taylor's theology has been misconstrued by the vast majority of scholars, who have depicted him as a powerful symbol of the decline of Edwardsian Calvinism and the triumph of democratic liberalism in early national religion. Sweeney instead sees Taylor as a symbol of the vitality of Edwardsian Calvinism throughout the first half of the nineteenth century, a vitality that calls into question some widely held assumptions about this era. Charting Taylor's contribution to the modification, diversification, and ultimate dissolution of the Edwardsian tradition, Sweeney demonstrates his role in the translation of Edwardsian ideals to the ever‐expanding evangelical world that would succeed him. The Edwardsian tradition did not die out in the early nineteenth century, but rather grew rapidly until at least the 1840s. Nathaniel W. Taylor, more than anyone else, laid the theoretical groundwork for this growth – contributing, to be sure, to the demise of New England Theology, but at the same time making it accessible to an unprecedented number of people.
Andrew R. Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195321289
- eISBN:
- 9780199869855
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195321289.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter provides an in‐depth exploration of the jeremiad in second‐generation New England (c.1660–1685). Delivered primarily in the form of election or fast day sermons, the New England jeremiad ...
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This chapter provides an in‐depth exploration of the jeremiad in second‐generation New England (c.1660–1685). Delivered primarily in the form of election or fast day sermons, the New England jeremiad decried the community's falling‐away from its godly origins, praised the colonies' founders and founding generation, and called for repentance and reformation. The New England jeremiad's lamentation of decline appeared hand in hand with parallels between New England settlers and the ancient Israelites, reinforcing the community's sense of chosenness. The jeremiad was used by clergy and magistrates in New England as a form of social control, but performed this function not merely by suppressing dissent but by offering early New Englanders a vision of their community as singularly blessed by God. The jeremiad did not fade away after the seventeenth century, but continued into the Revolutionary and early national periods as a central part of American politics and culture.Less
This chapter provides an in‐depth exploration of the jeremiad in second‐generation New England (c.1660–1685). Delivered primarily in the form of election or fast day sermons, the New England jeremiad decried the community's falling‐away from its godly origins, praised the colonies' founders and founding generation, and called for repentance and reformation. The New England jeremiad's lamentation of decline appeared hand in hand with parallels between New England settlers and the ancient Israelites, reinforcing the community's sense of chosenness. The jeremiad was used by clergy and magistrates in New England as a form of social control, but performed this function not merely by suppressing dissent but by offering early New Englanders a vision of their community as singularly blessed by God. The jeremiad did not fade away after the seventeenth century, but continued into the Revolutionary and early national periods as a central part of American politics and culture.
J. Samaine Lockwood
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781469625362
- eISBN:
- 9781469625386
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469625362.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, American Colonial Literature
This introduction argues that New England regionalism included not only fiction writing but a range of women-dominated cultural practices including colonial home restoration, history writing, antique ...
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This introduction argues that New England regionalism included not only fiction writing but a range of women-dominated cultural practices including colonial home restoration, history writing, antique collecting, colonial fancy dressing, and photography. Using the example of Elizabeth Bishop Perkins, this introduction demonstrates the alternative intimate forms and temporalities central to New England regionalism's history-making project. It explicates how regionalist writers placed the unmarried daughter at the center of New England history, representing her as cosmopolitan, mobile, and queer. In foregrounding the unmarried daughter of New England as the ideal inheritor of a legacy of dissent, these regionalists theorized modes of white belonging based on women's myriad alternative desires rather than marriage and maternity.Less
This introduction argues that New England regionalism included not only fiction writing but a range of women-dominated cultural practices including colonial home restoration, history writing, antique collecting, colonial fancy dressing, and photography. Using the example of Elizabeth Bishop Perkins, this introduction demonstrates the alternative intimate forms and temporalities central to New England regionalism's history-making project. It explicates how regionalist writers placed the unmarried daughter at the center of New England history, representing her as cosmopolitan, mobile, and queer. In foregrounding the unmarried daughter of New England as the ideal inheritor of a legacy of dissent, these regionalists theorized modes of white belonging based on women's myriad alternative desires rather than marriage and maternity.
J. Samaine Lockwood
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781469625362
- eISBN:
- 9781469625386
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469625362.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, American Colonial Literature
This chapter examines the regionalist recollections of C. Alice Baker and the members of her queer triadic family: Susan Minot Lane and Emma Lewis Coleman. This family of New England regionalists ...
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This chapter examines the regionalist recollections of C. Alice Baker and the members of her queer triadic family: Susan Minot Lane and Emma Lewis Coleman. This family of New England regionalists rethought colonial New England history, especially the history of Deerfield, Massachusetts, through architectural restoration, antique collecting, heritage-tourism development, photography, archival research and history writing, and painting. Baker's historical works in particular demonstrate New England women regionalists' alternative approach to history writing, one that emphasized intimate engagement with historical matter, the embodied performance of history, and the reconfiguring of domestic spaces and family formations in relation to women's sensual and intellectual lives.Less
This chapter examines the regionalist recollections of C. Alice Baker and the members of her queer triadic family: Susan Minot Lane and Emma Lewis Coleman. This family of New England regionalists rethought colonial New England history, especially the history of Deerfield, Massachusetts, through architectural restoration, antique collecting, heritage-tourism development, photography, archival research and history writing, and painting. Baker's historical works in particular demonstrate New England women regionalists' alternative approach to history writing, one that emphasized intimate engagement with historical matter, the embodied performance of history, and the reconfiguring of domestic spaces and family formations in relation to women's sensual and intellectual lives.
Andrew R. Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195321289
- eISBN:
- 9780199869855
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195321289.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This book traces the emergence and development of the American jeremiad, a form of political rhetoric that laments the nation's decline from a virtuous past and calls it to repentance and renewal. ...
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This book traces the emergence and development of the American jeremiad, a form of political rhetoric that laments the nation's decline from a virtuous past and calls it to repentance and renewal. Employed by Americans of all political persuasions since the earliest days of settlement, the jeremiad has proven to be a powerful way of invoking the American past in order to chart a brighter American future. Part I of the book focuses on three especially important episodes in the jeremiad's history: early New England, Civil War America, and the rise of the Christian Right. Part II provides a critical analysis of the jeremiad's role in the American “culture wars” and politics more generally. In seeking to place the American past in the service of the American future, the book argues, the jeremiad takes not one form, but two: a traditionalist jeremiad whose view of the past depends heavily on claims about how things used to be, and emphasizes the importance of preserving concrete aspects of the past as we move toward an uncertain future; and a progressive jeremiad, which views the past as a repository of emancipatory principles articulated at the founding but never fully realized in practice. Acknowledging that both traditionalist and progressive jeremiads are deeply entwined with the nation's history, the book concludes with a call for a revived progressive jeremiad as most compatible with the deep diversity—cultural, religious, political, philosophical—that characterizes American society at the dawn of the twenty‐first century.Less
This book traces the emergence and development of the American jeremiad, a form of political rhetoric that laments the nation's decline from a virtuous past and calls it to repentance and renewal. Employed by Americans of all political persuasions since the earliest days of settlement, the jeremiad has proven to be a powerful way of invoking the American past in order to chart a brighter American future. Part I of the book focuses on three especially important episodes in the jeremiad's history: early New England, Civil War America, and the rise of the Christian Right. Part II provides a critical analysis of the jeremiad's role in the American “culture wars” and politics more generally. In seeking to place the American past in the service of the American future, the book argues, the jeremiad takes not one form, but two: a traditionalist jeremiad whose view of the past depends heavily on claims about how things used to be, and emphasizes the importance of preserving concrete aspects of the past as we move toward an uncertain future; and a progressive jeremiad, which views the past as a repository of emancipatory principles articulated at the founding but never fully realized in practice. Acknowledging that both traditionalist and progressive jeremiads are deeply entwined with the nation's history, the book concludes with a call for a revived progressive jeremiad as most compatible with the deep diversity—cultural, religious, political, philosophical—that characterizes American society at the dawn of the twenty‐first century.
Douglas A. Sweeney
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195390971
- eISBN:
- 9780199777099
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195390971.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity, Church History
Few matters were more hotly debated by Reformed divines in nineteenth-century America than the nature, history, and contemporary expression of the Calvinist system of thought. John Williamson Nevin ...
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Few matters were more hotly debated by Reformed divines in nineteenth-century America than the nature, history, and contemporary expression of the Calvinist system of thought. John Williamson Nevin of Mercersburg Seminary contended that most Americans had abandoned Calvin’s system long ago (especially in regard to the Eucharist). The New England theologians (led by Edwards Amasa Park) claimed to be faithful modern Calvinists, but no longer bound to Calvin’s own doctrinal preferences. Princeton theologians (led by Charles Hodge) criticized both of these other groups, trying their best to shore up a sense of mainstream orthodox Calvinist unity from the time of the Reformation to their own age. This chapter will use these debates to examine the status of Calvinism and reassess Calvin’s legacy in nineteenth-century America. It will also engage the interpretations of many recent historians who interpret the nineteenth century as one in which most American "Calvinists" abandoned Calvin’s legacy.Less
Few matters were more hotly debated by Reformed divines in nineteenth-century America than the nature, history, and contemporary expression of the Calvinist system of thought. John Williamson Nevin of Mercersburg Seminary contended that most Americans had abandoned Calvin’s system long ago (especially in regard to the Eucharist). The New England theologians (led by Edwards Amasa Park) claimed to be faithful modern Calvinists, but no longer bound to Calvin’s own doctrinal preferences. Princeton theologians (led by Charles Hodge) criticized both of these other groups, trying their best to shore up a sense of mainstream orthodox Calvinist unity from the time of the Reformation to their own age. This chapter will use these debates to examine the status of Calvinism and reassess Calvin’s legacy in nineteenth-century America. It will also engage the interpretations of many recent historians who interpret the nineteenth century as one in which most American "Calvinists" abandoned Calvin’s legacy.
J. Samaine Lockwood
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781469625362
- eISBN:
- 9781469625386
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469625362.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, American Colonial Literature
This chapter argues that literature thought of as regionalist—works by Rose Terry Cooke, Mary Wilkins Freeman, and Sarah Orne Jewett—was self-consciously historiographical. These writers, in their ...
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This chapter argues that literature thought of as regionalist—works by Rose Terry Cooke, Mary Wilkins Freeman, and Sarah Orne Jewett—was self-consciously historiographical. These writers, in their fiction, represented unmarried women's relationship to colonial history through depicting characters' re-performance of history and their sensual engagement of historical spaces and matter (colonial houses, old-fashioned gardens, and “old” women). In addition to analyzing regionalist fiction by these authors, this chapter examines photographs Emma Lewis Coleman and Sarah Orne Jewett collaborated on for a special edition of Deephaven that never reached print. Taken together, these various works demonstrate how a notion of New England exceptionalism underwrote the New England regionalists' vision of women's queer mobility on an international stage.Less
This chapter argues that literature thought of as regionalist—works by Rose Terry Cooke, Mary Wilkins Freeman, and Sarah Orne Jewett—was self-consciously historiographical. These writers, in their fiction, represented unmarried women's relationship to colonial history through depicting characters' re-performance of history and their sensual engagement of historical spaces and matter (colonial houses, old-fashioned gardens, and “old” women). In addition to analyzing regionalist fiction by these authors, this chapter examines photographs Emma Lewis Coleman and Sarah Orne Jewett collaborated on for a special edition of Deephaven that never reached print. Taken together, these various works demonstrate how a notion of New England exceptionalism underwrote the New England regionalists' vision of women's queer mobility on an international stage.
Virginia Dejohn Anderson
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205623
- eISBN:
- 9780191676703
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205623.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, British and Irish Modern History
The thousands of English settlers who flocked to the north-eastern coastline of the continent of North America during the early seventeenth century established a flourishing society which so closely ...
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The thousands of English settlers who flocked to the north-eastern coastline of the continent of North America during the early seventeenth century established a flourishing society which so closely resembled that of the mother country that it alone, of the many English outposts erected on the far side of the Atlantic, could reasonably be known as New England. Although New England's town-based settlement, diversified economy, and family labour system corresponded broadly to English patterns, colonial society differed in important ways. New Englanders interacted — sometimes peacefully, sometimes violently — with Indian peoples. The established Puritan religion of all New England colonies except Rhode Island constituted religious dissent in England, where for much of the century its adherents were subject to persecution and legal disabilities. The availability of land in New England gave its inhabitants a degree of economic independence that Englishmen could only envy.Less
The thousands of English settlers who flocked to the north-eastern coastline of the continent of North America during the early seventeenth century established a flourishing society which so closely resembled that of the mother country that it alone, of the many English outposts erected on the far side of the Atlantic, could reasonably be known as New England. Although New England's town-based settlement, diversified economy, and family labour system corresponded broadly to English patterns, colonial society differed in important ways. New Englanders interacted — sometimes peacefully, sometimes violently — with Indian peoples. The established Puritan religion of all New England colonies except Rhode Island constituted religious dissent in England, where for much of the century its adherents were subject to persecution and legal disabilities. The availability of land in New England gave its inhabitants a degree of economic independence that Englishmen could only envy.
Douglas A. Sweeney
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195154283
- eISBN:
- 9780199834709
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195154282.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
In his conclusion, Sweeney moves beyond the usual story of Edwardsian decline to a summary of Taylor's own substantial legacy to post‐Edwardsian America. He notes that in New England, Taylor's ...
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In his conclusion, Sweeney moves beyond the usual story of Edwardsian decline to a summary of Taylor's own substantial legacy to post‐Edwardsian America. He notes that in New England, Taylor's theology managed to split Connecticut's General Association, but his opening up of the Edwardsian culture changed the face of New England Theology. As America moved westward, Taylor's dilation of New England's traditional regional orthodoxies paved the way for the spread of its churches and their theology on the frontier. For Taylor, as for his American successors, the proof of one's theology lay in preaching and virtuous living.Less
In his conclusion, Sweeney moves beyond the usual story of Edwardsian decline to a summary of Taylor's own substantial legacy to post‐Edwardsian America. He notes that in New England, Taylor's theology managed to split Connecticut's General Association, but his opening up of the Edwardsian culture changed the face of New England Theology. As America moved westward, Taylor's dilation of New England's traditional regional orthodoxies paved the way for the spread of its churches and their theology on the frontier. For Taylor, as for his American successors, the proof of one's theology lay in preaching and virtuous living.
Douglas A. Sweeney
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195154283
- eISBN:
- 9780199834709
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195154282.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Threatened by Unitarianism and Finneyite progressives, the Edwardsians of the 1820s banded together to fight off the encroachment of theological liberalism and “new measures” revivalism. By 1828, ...
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Threatened by Unitarianism and Finneyite progressives, the Edwardsians of the 1820s banded together to fight off the encroachment of theological liberalism and “new measures” revivalism. By 1828, with the publication of Taylor's Concio ad Clerum, the fissures in the Calvinist front that remained hidden during the first part of the decade became more noticeable. Fears spread that Taylor had fallen into Arminianism and abandoned Edwardsian Calvinism. As Lyman Beecher moved to Cincinnati to take the presidency of Lane Seminary, Bennet Tyler continued to warn of the dangers of Nathaniel William Taylor's teaching. By 1850, when the sabers ceased rattling between Taylor and Tyler, Catharine Beecher publicly began teaching a form of Arminianism, which she claimed she learned from Taylor. In his seventies, Taylor was unable to fight the errant claims. Sweeney argues that the battle between Taylor and Tyler was symptomatic of the decline of Edwardsian Calvinism in New England. The true decline of New England Calvinism began when the leaders of New England Theology became so self‐absorbed in their minor theological battles that they lost their voice in the culture wars of the mid‐nineteenth century.Less
Threatened by Unitarianism and Finneyite progressives, the Edwardsians of the 1820s banded together to fight off the encroachment of theological liberalism and “new measures” revivalism. By 1828, with the publication of Taylor's Concio ad Clerum, the fissures in the Calvinist front that remained hidden during the first part of the decade became more noticeable. Fears spread that Taylor had fallen into Arminianism and abandoned Edwardsian Calvinism. As Lyman Beecher moved to Cincinnati to take the presidency of Lane Seminary, Bennet Tyler continued to warn of the dangers of Nathaniel William Taylor's teaching. By 1850, when the sabers ceased rattling between Taylor and Tyler, Catharine Beecher publicly began teaching a form of Arminianism, which she claimed she learned from Taylor. In his seventies, Taylor was unable to fight the errant claims. Sweeney argues that the battle between Taylor and Tyler was symptomatic of the decline of Edwardsian Calvinism in New England. The true decline of New England Calvinism began when the leaders of New England Theology became so self‐absorbed in their minor theological battles that they lost their voice in the culture wars of the mid‐nineteenth century.
Jessica M. Parr
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781628461985
- eISBN:
- 9781626744998
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781628461985.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
Whitefield was particularly excited to visit New England because of its connection with the puritan past. While New England retained some features of pilgrim culture it had a fractious religious ...
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Whitefield was particularly excited to visit New England because of its connection with the puritan past. While New England retained some features of pilgrim culture it had a fractious religious landscape and many local clergymen believed that piety was slipping. Some members of the clergy welcomed Whitefield because of his popularity. Others, including Charles Chauncy, (rightfully) believed that his visit would cause further fissures. The visit in fact led to a contentious debate over the relationship between clergy and their congregation and particularly whether evangelicalism would further erode the authority of the orthodox erudite (typically Congregational) clergy.Less
Whitefield was particularly excited to visit New England because of its connection with the puritan past. While New England retained some features of pilgrim culture it had a fractious religious landscape and many local clergymen believed that piety was slipping. Some members of the clergy welcomed Whitefield because of his popularity. Others, including Charles Chauncy, (rightfully) believed that his visit would cause further fissures. The visit in fact led to a contentious debate over the relationship between clergy and their congregation and particularly whether evangelicalism would further erode the authority of the orthodox erudite (typically Congregational) clergy.
Paul Giles
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691136134
- eISBN:
- 9781400836512
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691136134.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter examines the Augustan tradition in American literature, arguing that it should not be seen as confined to the world of belles lettres. It suggests that Augustan American literature ...
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This chapter examines the Augustan tradition in American literature, arguing that it should not be seen as confined to the world of belles lettres. It suggests that Augustan American literature involves the creative entanglement of potentially contradictory narratives, and the peculiar power of its art derives from its sense of being deliberately out of place, of transgressing the boundaries of civil convention in the interests of exploration and extravagance. The chapter explores the relationship between plantations and the aesthetics of extravagance by offering a critique of Cotton Mather's Magnalia Christi Americana, which describes an increasing sense toward the end of the seventeenth century of the importance of geography, of the position of New England in relation to the rest of the world. It also analyzes the poetry of Phillis Wheatley, Timothy Dwight, and Richard Alsop.Less
This chapter examines the Augustan tradition in American literature, arguing that it should not be seen as confined to the world of belles lettres. It suggests that Augustan American literature involves the creative entanglement of potentially contradictory narratives, and the peculiar power of its art derives from its sense of being deliberately out of place, of transgressing the boundaries of civil convention in the interests of exploration and extravagance. The chapter explores the relationship between plantations and the aesthetics of extravagance by offering a critique of Cotton Mather's Magnalia Christi Americana, which describes an increasing sense toward the end of the seventeenth century of the importance of geography, of the position of New England in relation to the rest of the world. It also analyzes the poetry of Phillis Wheatley, Timothy Dwight, and Richard Alsop.
John Gatta
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195165050
- eISBN:
- 9780199835140
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195165055.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Literature
During the colonial era, British settlers only gradually allowed North America’s actual physical environment to shape their idea of the New World they inhabited. Although New England Puritans were ...
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During the colonial era, British settlers only gradually allowed North America’s actual physical environment to shape their idea of the New World they inhabited. Although New England Puritans were generally fearful of unsettled land, they were also disposed to regard the wild continent as uncorrupted space—and even, on occasion, as a sacred site of regeneration by contrast with the rejected Catholic emphasis on locally consecrated church edifices. That distrust toward the American environment shown, for example, in writing by Governor William Bradford must be understood in its proper historical and religious context. Bradford’s Puritan theology thus proves to be no less ecologically benign than the neopagan, naturalistic religion that informs the writing of Thomas Morton, whose famous maypole at Ma-re Mount disturbed the peace of nearby Plymouth. By the third-generation era of Cotton Mather, Puritan New Englanders had become all the more willing to envision the continent itself as a sanctified geophysical place that could be compared through biblical typology with the land of Israel.Less
During the colonial era, British settlers only gradually allowed North America’s actual physical environment to shape their idea of the New World they inhabited. Although New England Puritans were generally fearful of unsettled land, they were also disposed to regard the wild continent as uncorrupted space—and even, on occasion, as a sacred site of regeneration by contrast with the rejected Catholic emphasis on locally consecrated church edifices. That distrust toward the American environment shown, for example, in writing by Governor William Bradford must be understood in its proper historical and religious context. Bradford’s Puritan theology thus proves to be no less ecologically benign than the neopagan, naturalistic religion that informs the writing of Thomas Morton, whose famous maypole at Ma-re Mount disturbed the peace of nearby Plymouth. By the third-generation era of Cotton Mather, Puritan New Englanders had become all the more willing to envision the continent itself as a sanctified geophysical place that could be compared through biblical typology with the land of Israel.
Achsah Guibbory
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199557165
- eISBN:
- 9780191595004
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199557165.003.0010
- Subject:
- Literature, 17th-century and Restoration Literature
This Epilogue briefly summarizes the complex, contradictory attitudes toward Jews, Judaism, and the Hebrew Bible, which was a tool of both the powerful and the powerless and whose narratives proved ...
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This Epilogue briefly summarizes the complex, contradictory attitudes toward Jews, Judaism, and the Hebrew Bible, which was a tool of both the powerful and the powerless and whose narratives proved foundational to English Protestant Christianity. ‘Israel’ could mean many different things, and the claim to be the true Israel, God's chosen, was contested. The preoccupation with the connection between England (and later America) and Israel—and with redefining who or what is ‘Israel’—continued long after the seventeenth century. It can be seen in Handel's music, the later phenomenon of British Israelism, the settlement of New England, the American Revolution, and even Emma Lazarus's poem on the Statue of Liberty.Less
This Epilogue briefly summarizes the complex, contradictory attitudes toward Jews, Judaism, and the Hebrew Bible, which was a tool of both the powerful and the powerless and whose narratives proved foundational to English Protestant Christianity. ‘Israel’ could mean many different things, and the claim to be the true Israel, God's chosen, was contested. The preoccupation with the connection between England (and later America) and Israel—and with redefining who or what is ‘Israel’—continued long after the seventeenth century. It can be seen in Handel's music, the later phenomenon of British Israelism, the settlement of New England, the American Revolution, and even Emma Lazarus's poem on the Statue of Liberty.
Mark A. Noll
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195151114
- eISBN:
- 9780199834532
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195151119.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
By 1750, a transition was beginning to take place in American Christianity. Americans began to replace traditional theology with public intellectual ideologies like republicanism and commonsense ...
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By 1750, a transition was beginning to take place in American Christianity. Americans began to replace traditional theology with public intellectual ideologies like republicanism and commonsense moral reasoning – views that had traditionally been seen as heterodox. This occurred in large parts because the traditional Puritan framework cracked and fragmented during the heated events of the colonial Great Awakening.Less
By 1750, a transition was beginning to take place in American Christianity. Americans began to replace traditional theology with public intellectual ideologies like republicanism and commonsense moral reasoning – views that had traditionally been seen as heterodox. This occurred in large parts because the traditional Puritan framework cracked and fragmented during the heated events of the colonial Great Awakening.
William E. Nelson
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195327281
- eISBN:
- 9780199870677
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195327281.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
The Introduction outlines the primary thesis of this book—that prior to 1660 the Chesapeake and New England came into being as strikingly different places and that the law in force in each both ...
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The Introduction outlines the primary thesis of this book—that prior to 1660 the Chesapeake and New England came into being as strikingly different places and that the law in force in each both reflected and contributed to their differences. It also explains that the choice of 1660 as the terminal date for the volume—the year when Charles II was restored to his throne and the crown launched a longterm effort to fashion England's colonies into a coherent empire with a single common-law based judicial system—is not an arbitrary one. Ending the volume in 1660 highlights the initial differences between Chesapeake and New England law and also suggests that similarities in their early law resulted from the common social and economic realities that colonists faced as they settled and tamed the continental wilderness.Less
The Introduction outlines the primary thesis of this book—that prior to 1660 the Chesapeake and New England came into being as strikingly different places and that the law in force in each both reflected and contributed to their differences. It also explains that the choice of 1660 as the terminal date for the volume—the year when Charles II was restored to his throne and the crown launched a longterm effort to fashion England's colonies into a coherent empire with a single common-law based judicial system—is not an arbitrary one. Ending the volume in 1660 highlights the initial differences between Chesapeake and New England law and also suggests that similarities in their early law resulted from the common social and economic realities that colonists faced as they settled and tamed the continental wilderness.
Meredith Baldwin Weddle
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195131383
- eISBN:
- 9780199834839
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019513138X.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Social and geographical context influenced the developing peace testimony. In England, early Quakers were outside the established order; in contrast, when they made their way into the wilds of ...
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Social and geographical context influenced the developing peace testimony. In England, early Quakers were outside the established order; in contrast, when they made their way into the wilds of Carolina, they represented societal order itself and Pennsylvania Quakers were dominant and confident. When Quakers arrived in New England in 1656, they represented a threat to the Puritan order; persecution and military service obligations challenged the peace testimony. Everywhere Quakers made use of their sufferings, both spiritually and as a practical tactic, keeping careful records of them. In a time when “carnal weapons” could be both actual and metaphorical, principles of peace could be at once complex, confused, and conscientious.Less
Social and geographical context influenced the developing peace testimony. In England, early Quakers were outside the established order; in contrast, when they made their way into the wilds of Carolina, they represented societal order itself and Pennsylvania Quakers were dominant and confident. When Quakers arrived in New England in 1656, they represented a threat to the Puritan order; persecution and military service obligations challenged the peace testimony. Everywhere Quakers made use of their sufferings, both spiritually and as a practical tactic, keeping careful records of them. In a time when “carnal weapons” could be both actual and metaphorical, principles of peace could be at once complex, confused, and conscientious.
Linford D. Fisher
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199740048
- eISBN:
- 9780199949892
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199740048.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
This book tells the gripping story of American Indians’ attempts to wrestle with the ongoing realities of colonialism between the 1660s and 1820. By tracing the religious and cultural engagement of ...
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This book tells the gripping story of American Indians’ attempts to wrestle with the ongoing realities of colonialism between the 1660s and 1820. By tracing the religious and cultural engagement of American Indians in Connecticut, Rhode Island, western Massachusetts, and Long Island, New York, this narrative pulls back the curtain on the often overlooked, dynamic interactions between Natives and whites. Native individuals and communities actively tapped into transatlantic structures of power to protect their land rights, welcomed educational opportunities for their children, and even joined local white churches during the First Great Awakening (1740s). Although these Native groups had successfully resisted evangelization in the seventeenth century, by the eighteenth century they showed an increasing interest in education and religion. Their sporadic participation in the First Great Awakening marked a continuation of prior forms of cultural engagement. More surprising, however, in the decades after the Awakening, Native individuals and subgroups asserted their religious and cultural autonomy to even greater degrees by leaving English churches and forming their own Indian Separate churches. In the realm of education, too, Natives increasingly took control, preferring local reservation schools and demanding Indian teachers whenever possible. In the 1780s, two small groups of Christian Indians moved to New York and founded new Christian Indian settlements, called Brothertown and New Stockbridge. But the majority of New England Natives—even those who affiliated with Christianity—chose to remain in New England, continuing to assert their own autonomous existence through leasing out land, farming, and working on and off the reservations.Less
This book tells the gripping story of American Indians’ attempts to wrestle with the ongoing realities of colonialism between the 1660s and 1820. By tracing the religious and cultural engagement of American Indians in Connecticut, Rhode Island, western Massachusetts, and Long Island, New York, this narrative pulls back the curtain on the often overlooked, dynamic interactions between Natives and whites. Native individuals and communities actively tapped into transatlantic structures of power to protect their land rights, welcomed educational opportunities for their children, and even joined local white churches during the First Great Awakening (1740s). Although these Native groups had successfully resisted evangelization in the seventeenth century, by the eighteenth century they showed an increasing interest in education and religion. Their sporadic participation in the First Great Awakening marked a continuation of prior forms of cultural engagement. More surprising, however, in the decades after the Awakening, Native individuals and subgroups asserted their religious and cultural autonomy to even greater degrees by leaving English churches and forming their own Indian Separate churches. In the realm of education, too, Natives increasingly took control, preferring local reservation schools and demanding Indian teachers whenever possible. In the 1780s, two small groups of Christian Indians moved to New York and founded new Christian Indian settlements, called Brothertown and New Stockbridge. But the majority of New England Natives—even those who affiliated with Christianity—chose to remain in New England, continuing to assert their own autonomous existence through leasing out land, farming, and working on and off the reservations.
Richard A. Bailey
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195366594
- eISBN:
- 9780199894109
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195366594.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter analyzes the ways that colonial New Englanders used, constructed, and reconstructed their specific variants of puritanism in order to interpret the rapid transformations of their social ...
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This chapter analyzes the ways that colonial New Englanders used, constructed, and reconstructed their specific variants of puritanism in order to interpret the rapid transformations of their social and cultural landscapes. As white men, women, and children came to numerical and martial dominance in New England, they relied on their theological convictions to make religious sense of their social realities, fashioned as they were by migrations, bondage, natural disasters, and warfare. By doing so, they organized colonial society in very clear and consistent ways, separating themselves from those who differed from them physically and culturally.Less
This chapter analyzes the ways that colonial New Englanders used, constructed, and reconstructed their specific variants of puritanism in order to interpret the rapid transformations of their social and cultural landscapes. As white men, women, and children came to numerical and martial dominance in New England, they relied on their theological convictions to make religious sense of their social realities, fashioned as they were by migrations, bondage, natural disasters, and warfare. By doing so, they organized colonial society in very clear and consistent ways, separating themselves from those who differed from them physically and culturally.
