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LITERATURA DE LOS EEUU HASTA

1850

THE IROQUOIS CREATION MYTH

The Iroquois were a mixture of different tribes. Is a French name and it refers to a mixture of

five tribes. They lived in community :several families who shared cooking fires. They call

themselves people of the longhouse.

Cusicks version of the creation myth comes from the 19ty Century. We find some parallelism

with points in the Bible, we do not know for sure if this is due to his Christian education: a

dualistic world, images of clay, a virgin, reptiles as symbols of evil.

For Cusick it was a true story, for us it remains a myth, a part of the culture of Native

Americans. *Our attitude changes when we refer to something that is not part of our culture or

religion (otherness). What strikes us is the origin of the sun out of head, and the moon out of

the body of the deceased virgin. The myth reminds us of a mixture of cultural traditions. For

example as Ainhoa says: The Greeks thought that knowledge was in the head (the sun) and

passions were concentrated in the body (the moon). Light is very relevant, is associated to

goodness and lack of light is associated with evil.

REASONS TO LEAVE:

- Captain John Smith had founded Jamestown in 1607. He wrote Description of New England(1616) and convinced the English that there was an earthly paradise to be populated. Here

nature and liberty afford us that freely which in England we want, or it costs us dearly. What

greater satisfaction is there than hauling in ones supper by dropping a hook and line into any

plentiful river or stream, is it not pretty sport to pull up two pence, six pence, and twelve

pence as fast as you can let out a line?

1. Situation in England

1608: James Stuart on the throne of England, enemy of Puritanism. No hope for

reformation. Puritans lived under outrageous demands and the tyranny of bishops, a

situation which could be compared with the power under the Popery, Therefore, a groupmoved to Holland.

.. the work of God was no sooner manifest in them but present they were both scoffed and

scorned by the profane multitude; and the minsters urged with the yoke of subscription or

else must be silenced (Bradford, 130)

In England, Puritans were oppressed but there were places (Scotland, France, Netherlands)

were reformation was cut and sharpen much nearer the first Christian churches as it was

used in the Apostles times.

Location of the Puritans in England => Nottinghamshire, Lines shire, Yorkshire.

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2. Situation in Holland

Leydenfirst city to colonize; isolated because of the language. Impossibility to farm, so

they turned to commerce. They were afraid that their children would suffer perilous

influence from Holland (the Dutch did not keep the Sabbath Day as strictly as the English

Puritans). There was the danger of a war between Spain and Holland, with the fear that theSpaniards could behave as brutally as the American Indians.

They applied for a charter to settle in the Virginia Plantation, which included the territory of

New England.

PILGRIMS

The term comes from the Bible Hebrews XI 31-16 : These all died in faith, not having

received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them and

embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on earth.

So the Puritans at the Mayflower were called PILGRIMS. The leaders were Puritans.

VOYAGE AND SETTLEMENT:

The Mayflower (180 tons weight)

September 16th, 1620 Plymouth (England)

Passenger: 149 (35 from Leiden (Holland) ).

Captain : Christopher Jones

One of the passengers: William Bradford from Holland, leader of the first colony.

On board: 65 days. 4 persons died. A baby was born: Oceanus

Arrival: November 9th, 1620. New England coast.

Plymouth: December 21st, 1620

Hard conditions.

April 1621, Mayflower goes back to England

First street: Leyden Street.

MIGRATIONS from England. Prosperity. Promise for the immigrants. A large number of

immigrants arrived in the 17th

Century and Plymouth became part of the Massachusetts Bay

Colony in 1691 when a new charter was granted. New Amsterdam (New York) had been

founded in 1623. Salem had been founded in 1628 and Boston in 1630.

LITERATURE:

Pilgrims to the Promise Land. God is everywhere, every sign shows Gods presence on

Earth. It is a religious adventure. Literary influence from the Bible and Milton. God is the

real protagonist. Active God, man passive in the hand of God. Rethoric as in the Bible (TheBook of the Common Prayer). It lacks realism. Guilt.

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17th Century thought: men are passive. God is active. Men are puppets in the hands ofGod.