Colonial4

Colonial Period [|Diary of a Fiery Preacher]  "For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us." -John Winthrop

This is the man whom everyone is talking about lately. Aye! John Winthrop, I heard his name mentioned around the household before. Only my father, Timothy Edwards, could have been responsible for telling me this. Reverend Winthrop gave a mighty sermon to the Puritans on the crossing from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The preacher told his fellow brethren these words above. He said this to spark interest in his mates that the reason the colonies had been borne was to set an example for the rest of God's world and that they would be waiting for the colonies to fail or succeed in it's fruitful labors. As for "a city upon a hill," as anything that is elevated, one cannot help but to look up as where the colonies of the New World are.

To whosoever may be reading this letter... My name is Jonathan Edwards, and I, inspired by the will of our lord God, have decided to record an account of life after we settled in this strange and wonderful New World. Forgive me for any discrepancies between my account, and what actually happened, for some of this was before my time.

John Smith
First, I wish to speak of a man who, like so many others, came to this world seeking adventure in this wild and untamed wilderness. This man’s name is Captain John Smith, and he is but one of many who have made a name for themselves by coming here. Born in 1580 in Willoughby, England, Smith left home in the sixteenth year of his life, after the death of his father. Alone in the world, he soon joined forces with a group of French volunteers who were fighting for the independence of the Dutch. He participated in wars in the name of the crown from 1600 to 1604. After he retired from the service, he grew restless sitting in quiet old England. So, when he got news of an expedition to Virginia, he quickly jumped on board. The trip was long and hard, but once they landed in Virginia, Smith was voted onto the council of esteemed men who would govern the new colony. Life in the colony was hard, especially because of the unrelenting assaults of the savage Native Americans. He became the leader of the colony and tried to fend off the attacks. After one battle in which his men were slaughtered, Smith was brought before the Indian chief, Powhatan. He was questioned about the colony, then went through a ritual and was made a subordinate chief. Smith believed that Powhatan’s daughter, Pocahontas, had saved his life. He returned to the colony four weeks later. Due to dissent among the colonists, he decided to leave the colony and explore the Chesapeake Bay. He eventually returned. Because of the state of the government in the colony, Smith was elected president of the council. Under his lead, the colony prospered. However, in October of 1609, he was hurt in a gunpowder burn, and had to go to England for treatment. In 1614, he returned to America on a voyage to the Maine and Massachusetts Bay areas, which were named New England. His requests to return to America were denied, so he decided to write his memoirs until he died in 1631. These memoirs would be the first written record of life in the New World. They showed the people what new things were waiting for them in this vast wilderness that civilized men had yet to explore fully.

William Bradford
The second man of which I shall speak is named William Bradford. This venerable man was born in 1590 in Austerfield, England. Both of his parents died when he was young. He went to live with different relatives after that. By the time he was seventeen, he was a member of a church that wanted to separate from the Church of England. They eventually learned that King James I was hunting them, so they fled to the Netherlands. They stayed there for 12 years. In the town of Leiden, some of the congregation worked in a textile mill. Because they were being harassed by the Dutch government, they decided to move to the Virginia Colony. Not all of the congregation could go though, so some had to stay behind. The pilgrims boarded the //Mayflower,// and sailed for America. They endured many hardships, but eventually they made it to Plymouth Harbor. There were many unfortunate events that occurred on the journey, such as Bradford’s poor wife falling overboard and drowning. For five months after they landed, they had no food. Many of them became sick, and half were dead. After the man they had elected to be governor died, Bradford was chosen to be governor. After some time, some more ships came to the colony. Bradford married again for the second time. During his time in the colony, he wrote //Of Plymouth Plantation.// It is a collection of journal entries detailing his life in the colony. These documents showed the events of what happened on their journey to this world, and what happened once they settled.

Jonathan Edwards
I have noticed that, up to this point, I have yet to tell the story of my own life. I was born in East Windsor, Connecticut in 1703. My parents enrolled me in Yale in 1716 where I started “Notes on the Mind” and “Notes on Natural Science.” After I finished there, I decided to preach in New York and Bolton, Connecticut. Then I returned to Yale and got my Masters of Arts degree, after which I became senior tutor in 1724. A year later, I was chosen to succeed my grandfather at the church in Northampton. Some important events that happened to me during this time were the revivals of 1734 and 1740-41, which some called The Great Awakening. During this time, I gave my most famous sermon, //Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God// (1741). These inspired me to write the //Religious Affections// (1746). Eventually, there were conflicts between me and the church over the issue of church membership. I insisted on a public profession of faith based on the person’s experiences. Because we could not come to an agreement, I left the church in 1750. After this, I went to the Indian mission in Stockbridge. Here I was put in charge of supervising a boarding school for Indian boys, and I finished my works //Freedom of the Will// (1754), //Original Sin// (1758), //End of Creation//, and //True Virtue//. In 1757, I accepted the position of President of the College of New Jersey, which is now called Princeton. All of my works were sermons that I gave to my congregations describing their wickedness and what our Lord would do to those who chose to follow the teachings of Satan. These sermons shaped the people’s understanding about their very nature, and what would happen once they passed from this earth to Heaven, as all men strive to achieve.

Background
The Colonial Time Period in which I live is very focused on religion. Most major documents of which I have knowledge are either, treaties and acts which deal with the government, diaries or records of common people, religious sermons or other documents, or sets of laws formulated by other prominent colonists such as myself. All of these documents were very much so influenced by events that have taken place in the colonial years. Literature has been very valued during my lifetime. The majority of the settlers in this great country I live in are very religious, seeing as they left England in search of religious freedom. Henceforth, they believe studying the Bible is of grave importance and taught children to read from a young age. In order to educate young, budding ministers they founded such schools as Harvard in 1636. It was founded by the Puritans, who also established Yale in 1701. The Baptists founded Rhode Island College, which is now Brown University, in 1764. Dartmouth opened in 1769 due to the Congregationalists. And Virginia played host to the College of William and Mary beginning in 1693. These schools also served to educate lawyers and doctors, as schools had not yet been sectioned off into law schools, schools of medicine, and seminaries. Much of the religious literature of my lifetime has been a product of the first truly American experience, The Great Awakening. This was a religious revival which took place in the colonies during the 1730’s and 1740’s. I, in fact, began this movement myself. As more and more immigrants came to the colonies everyone began to stray from the strong religious roots we came here with. My goal was to return the Pilgrims to their Calvinist roots by reawakening the “Fear of God” and some of my crazy sermons did just that, such as “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”. My movement was carried on by other preachers, such as George Whitefield, and soon spread from Georgia to Nova Scotia. It split religion in the colonies into sides. There was the “New Lights” including such people as me and George who, with our fiery style of preaching which made people feel as though they had to repent or would be burning in Hell forever, and the “Old Lights” who disapproved of us and made comments that we split churches, ruined lives, and “destroyed America’s chance of ever being a real Christian nation”. Old Lights were the old, sophisticated, emotionally-bottled type of preachers who never got excited about religion and expressed it through very controlled means. One very famous set of personal journals and records in modern society from my time period are those dealing with the Salem Witch Trials. In New England in the 1600’s consorting with the devil, also known as witchcraft, was a felony punishable by hanging. Witchcraft was the only reasonable explanation of the girls’ behaviors, which were uncontrollable screams, seizures, spells of odd behavior, and trance-like states, in Salem that the town officials could see, although I believe there’s some newfangled idea of Ergot poisoning floating around out there somewhere. The Salem Witchcraft Trials lasted from March 1, 1692 to September 22nd, 1692. When officials began questioning the girls they named Tituba, a slave, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne as their bewitchers. Governor Phips of Salem created a court of Seven judges to hear the cases. In the end, twenty citizens of Salem were killed under suspicions of being a witch. Five more died in prison. The climate in Salem was one of extremely high hysteria, which made many residents fall back on their religious beliefs even more. Many prominent settlers recorded what they found in the New World so others could learn of it. John Smith wrote many books including a history of the colony of Virginia, a description of New England, and a map of Virginia. Sir Walter Raleigh wrote a history of the world. John Winthrop wrote about History of New England. William Bradford wrote on the history of Plymouth Plantation. Nathanial Bacon was the author of the “Declaration of the People of Virginia”. Increase Mather wrote “The Troubles That Have Happened in New England”. William Penn created “Frame for Government” which held the ideas for a bicameral legislature. Cotton Mather published The Ecclesiastical History of New England. The first regular newspaper published was the Boston News-Letter. As the colonies were settled by numerous groups of people from differentiating backgrounds, many laws and documents were created to ensure peace among them. The Mayflower Compact was the first such document. It was created by Pilgrims who settled at Plymouth before they even got off the ship. Its purpose was to provide equal laws for everyone and in agreeing to abide by it one gave up a portion of their own rights in order to be protected by a government. After my time this document helped create something called the United States Constitution, which I am not at all familiar with. The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut was a set of laws that also laid a foundation for that so-called constitution. The Fundamental Constitutions were present in Carolina. The Charter of Privileges gave Pennsylvania its first set of laws when William Penn created it in 1701. Many governments during my lifetime passed acts which were a form of laws or decree stating what was and was not allowed. England passed the Navigation Acts, which caused a time of hardship for many settlers as it limited the way goods could be transported between and England and her colonies. England later furthers the Navigation Acts and adds on the Wool Act, furthering the colonies trade restrictions. In Maryland a new governor named William Fuller rids the colony of the Toleration Acts, which were previously allowing Catholics to practice their religion. The Virginia Black Code of 1705 was passed to restrict the travel of slaves. 

Cultural and Literary Climate Ever more spectacular in regards to the first settlers of the New World was what they brought with them. Thy children of God had brought us to this new part of the world. The riches, herbs, and ideas the ancestry of Europe had brought over were inconceivable; a myriad of these ideas are what influenced the cultural and literary climate of the Colonial Period. I remember my father reading me Scripture whilst I slept. My mother would always be very strict and somber at the church; the plain, droning voice of the preacher always bored me. Thy happiest moment of my day was to get out of those dreary pews and back to my work. Then my father took myself aside after morning service on Sabbath day; he whipped me for not paying attention to thee reverend. He still continued to read Scripture and remind me how important it was to love thy God and do all as He commands. So as the books were about Him and religion, the culture of my town was strictly religious and uninspiring. Perhaps the reason for my own transition from the Old Lights to the New Lights was in fact because of my intolerance for those Old Lights' boring sermons! Aye, the fiery passion of my life is to deliver uprising sermons to inspire a creature as small are a door mouse to do great things!