Of Plymouth Plantation - Bradford

Tiffany Garcia
English 48A
11/24/09
Bradford Journal

Book Quote:
“Morton, thinking himself lawless, and hearing what gain the French and fisherman made by trading of pieces, powder, and shot to the Indians, he as the head of this consortship, began the practice of the same in these parts; and first he taught them how to use them, to charge and discharge…” (127).

Online Quote:
"America was seen as a place where they could begin new lives in a colony centered on God and governed in an honorable manner. By creating their own laws as they felt were needed, they allowed themselves the freedoms they did not see in England."
-Associated Content

Summary:
Bradford’s Manuscript begins with notifying us they had another ship before the Mayflower, the Speedwell, however was not suitable enough for travel so ended up getting the Mayflower. They are on the ship, they are having seasickness, and only one unpleasant man dies from a disease and is thrown overboard. They arrive in Cape Cod instead of Virginia. They find Native food while looking for water. They settle in Plymouth, Massachusetts. They Natives stay away from them but watch the puritans. Winter comes as the Puritans run out of supplies and half the population dies from diseases. They do meat Squanto who is a Native but speaks English. He teaches them how to live there; he saves them from starvation. Years pass before more settlers come but have a different idea of life. They are not Puritans and are giving power to the Natives, guns. Morton, the leader of the group is later forced out. Besides having a different belief from the Puritans he was a threat to their safety by showing the Indians they could have more power than them, they could over-run the Puritans should they choose to.

Opinion:
Bradford never states he and the other puritans were trading giving guns to the Indians so I will assume not. Guns are more effective than bows and so they felt more protected in being the only one with guns. These are one of the major reasons why they wanted Morton out as he was giving the Natives guns. This made the puritans more in danger. They must have already seen they were not given the guns for any reason other to train them and for them to do the main fighting’s. If not to kill each other’s tribe than to kill the puritans who are already settled there. The Puritans were already in small numbers because of the cold winter that killed half of the population; they were in danger of being cleaned out entirely and it would have been the Native’s gun supplier’s fault, Morton.

Anne Bradstreet

Tiffany Garcia
English 48A
Bradstreet Journal

Book Quote:
“All things within this fading world hath end…Who with salt tears this last farewell did take”

Online Quote:
“Anne Bradstreet contrasts the transitory nature of earthly treasure with eternal treasures, and seems to see these trials as lessons from God” –Associated Content

Summary:
Anne Bradstreet was a woman Puritan who wrote personal poetry and were exposed in publication without her knowledge. Her work explain everyday life for Puritan women but also share her personal question whether there is a God and why doesn’t he come to her and others. But resolves it is God’s will.

Opinion:
As all things must end she must let go and accept it is the way it is meant to be, as being a puritan she must believe it so. In other poems of hers she mentions she will be rejoined with the ones she loves in heaven, an after-life. However in this one she ends a “last farewell” no comfort of seeing one another in heaven. I believe it isn’t there for a reason because in such a case of leaving her child and husband, she would try to comfort them as much as she could as a good woman puritan does. Because death from childbirth was so common, and she explains her belief of her possibly dying she writes this poem in hope of comforting those she cares for but doesn’t say she’ll see them in the after life and her personal history of her lack of belief in God comes in. She sees she will most likely die and leaves this poem as she will die and never see them again. But if there is a God let him watch them who she leaves.

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God -Edwards

Tiffany Garcia
English 48A
Edwards Journal

Book Quote:
“Their case is past all hope…but here you are…in the house of God, and have an opportunity to obtain salvation”

Internet Quote:
“After filling their hearts with fear, he uses this image to show them that there is indeed a light at the end of the tunnel in the form of God's mercy and forgiveness. There is no doubt as to the effectiveness of his tactics in using imagery to penetrate into the hearts and minds of those who are present.” –Associated Content

Summary:
Jonathan Edwards sermon puts the fear of God into his listeners. Throughout the sermon he repeats they are meaningless to God he doesn’t need them, they need him to be saved, they are damned for Hell. Then a few paragraphs before the end he turns and tells them there is still hope for salvation if they are not great worshipers of God because it is God who keeps them from falling into the pit of hell’s fire.

Opinion:
This sermon starts and continues to send the message we are sinners and are damned, we are to soon to be dropped into the fires of hell, there is no way to prevent it even if you try so hard to sneak around it; however this all changes just a few paragraphs from the end. Just when the listeners give-up believed to be damned, they learn there is hope for salvation. The metaphors give the listeners help in imagining what they are seen to be, what they are damned to endure; they are nothing, wicked, a burden and can easily be rid of into the flames of hell. Edwards gives the listeners hope to change what they are destined for and will do whatever it takes. They were dedicated to their religion hoping that was the answer for guaranteeing salvation. Edwards completed his mission in this sermon, get them to be more dedicated to the church, believing to be saved by God and should worship him for doing so.

Common Sense -Thomas Paine

Tiffany Garcia

English 48A
11/10/09

Book Quote:

“if you have, and can still shake hands with the murderers, then are you unworthy the name of husband, father, friend, or lover, and whatever may be your rank or title in life, you have the heart of a coward, and the spirit of a sycophant.” –(Paine 635)

Online Quote:

“With these defining words, Thomas Paine strikes fear into those Americans who do not support the revolution. Paine resorts to name calling when he refers to the British as ‘murderers’ and all their supporters as ‘cowards’ and ‘sycophants.’ This attempt is logical in the sense that Paine asks his audience to step back and look at themselves. It is this self-reflecting approach that he uses in order to further capture his audience. –Socyberty

Summary:

Thomas Paine’s Common Sense was a pamphlet that was meant to uproar the people of the English colonies against Great Britain. Pain’s introduction addresses the abusiveness of power by the crown and its claim to have the right. He also mentions the author will not be revealed. The rest of what we see in Norton’s Anthology version, Paine argues the need and benefit of breaking connections from Great Britain. America’s living by trade will do better business throughout Europe if it has an open dock. Great Britain has not protected them from America’s enemies but from their own enemies, Great Britain’s. Though most of them have originated from England, England had originated from France so if they should be in control by their origin then England should be controlled by its origin France.

Opinion:

I find him to get aggressive with his readers in this part which is good to get their extreme attention. It is dangerous though because the reader could take it so insulting and ridiculous that they would have thrown the pamphlet out. However most of them didn’t because it was written at the right time when the colonies were already tired of Great Britain and wanted to be rid of them. They had already experienced a great amount of murders by the red coats. Their loved ones murderers would not have gone away to prison as they would if they were in English soil. But because these colonies were already seen as a threat in loss of power because of the great distance, the crown would need to keep them on their toes and would be taken advantage of them.

The interesting narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano

Online Quote:
“He was a victim and a witness of the hardships and chose to share his rough journey during those tragic moments in his life”

- Associated Content

Book Quote:
“While I was thus employed by my master, I was often a witness to cruelties of every kind, which were exercised on my unhappy fellow slaves” (Equiano 696).

Summary:
Born in Africa, he and his sister are kidnapped and re separated forever. He tossed to different masters then goes on a ship bound for Barbadoes. Throughout this story he describes the conditions of slaves that are suffering more than he; keeps thanking God for his blessing of a kinder master. He puts his trust in what God believes should happen to him. There were plenty of them that made offers to buy him but Mr. King, his master at the time, wouldn’t. His last master does treat him right and gives him a chance to earn his freedom by earning the money he paid to buy him. Gustavus earns the money in trade.

Opinion:
I am stuck with two opinions of this story. For one I believe he shows himself stronger than the other slaves because he stuck out from the other slaves, not easily broken as others were, committing suicide because they weren’t strong enough. Another way to see this story is he doesn’t show himself so awfully treated as other slaves were because he doesn’t want to put himself in the spotlight as they should be. I know he was once extremely beaten but didn’t suffer constantly through life as the other slaves did most likely; he was the lucky masters that were as cruel as others were. In the end was placed in the right hands that would be humane and reasonable to let Gustavus Vassa earn his freedom by earning the money that was paid for him. Telling other slave owners “why can’t we all be reasonable?” If they were better treated maybe they wouldn’t be so relentless to work for you after all as Gustavus wasn’t for Mr. King. He did wish for his freedom as any slave would but didn’t try anything as others did because of their ill treatment. It is in this story we also see Christianity used as a tool to keep slaves from rebelling slavery. The consequences were “God would not love me” (692). Gustavus was faithful to god will and might have believed what his master said to be true.