Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY ENGLISH COLONIAL LITERATURE
It is much more Prudence, and Charity, to Civilize, and make them Christians,
then to kill, robbe, and hunt them from place to place, as you would doe a wolfe.
By reducing of them, God shall be served, his Majesties Empire enlarged by the
addition of many thousand Subjects, as well as of large Territories, our Nation
honoured, and the Planters themselves enriched by the tracke and commerce
which may be had with them; and in many other things, they may be usefull, but
presudiciall they cannot be, if it be not through their owne faults, by negligence of
fortifying themselves, and not consering military discipline.
2.6.2 Reading and Review Questions
1. What, if any, signicance do you see in the voyagers on the Dove and
the Arke hearing as soon as they arrived at the Patowmeck river that
(a) hostile American Indians were gathering against them, and (b)
they raised a cross on the island of S. Clements, taking possession of
“this Countrey for our Saviour, and for our Soveraigne Lord the King of
England?”
2. How does the experience of these colonizers compare with those at
Jamestown or Plymouth Plantation? Why? How does the purpose of
these colonizers dier from earlier groups?
3. Why does Calvert make such a point about the approval and support
these colonizers gained from the start from the Native Americans? What
evidence does he give?
4. What values, in terms of material wealth and prosperity, are apparent in
Calvert’s account of the commodities procurable through industry? How
do these values compare to those of other colonizers?
5. How much attention does Calvert give to gender issues among the
American Indians? Why? What is his attitude towards American Indian
women? How do you know? How does his description of gender issues
dier from those of other accounts, like van der Donck’s or Champlain’s?
2.7 ANNE BRADSTREET
(1612–1672)
Like many women of her era, Anne Bradstreet’s life quite literally depended
upon those of her male relatives. In Bradstreet’s case, these relatives were her father,
Thomas Dudley (1576–1653), and her husband Simon Bradstreet (1603–1697). Her
father encouraged Bradstreet’s literary bent; her husband caused her emigration
from England to America. Both guided her Puritan faith. She met Simon Bradstreet
through his and her father’s working for the estate of the Earl of Lincoln (1600–
1667), a Puritan. Simon Bradstreet helped form the Massachusetts Bay Company.
With him, Anne Bradstreet sailed on the Arbella to become a member of that colony.
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