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When did the American colonies declare independence?

On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, “unanimously” by the votes of 12 colonies (with New York abstaining) resolved that “These United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, Free and Independent states.” Two days later, on July 4, the congress approved the Declaration of Independence, which formally cut the colonies’ ties with Great Britain and established the United States of America.

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The literature in English of the British colonies of North America and, after 1776, of the United States. The earliest colonial literature consisted mainly of religious and political tracts. The first notable poets were Anne Bradstreet (1612-72) and Edward Taylor (1642-1729), both of Massachusetts. The intellectual dominance of New England was continued into the early 18th century by the theologian and metaphysician Jonathan Edwards (1703-58).

The period of the American Revolution was dominated by political writers, such as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine. Influential writers of the early 19th century included Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, and Edgar Allan Poe and American literature came to its full maturity in the works of the New England writers Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Herman Melville, the poets Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, and the humorist Mark Twain.

The influence of English literature on the early development of American literature was now reciprocated, notably in the works of the novelist Henry James and the poets T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound, all of whom went to live in Europe. They were followed in the 1920s by Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Other writers who achieved a transatlantic reputation include the dramatists Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams, and Arthur Miller and the poets Robert Frost, Robert Lowell, and John Berryman. The vitality of 20th-century American literature is most evident in the novel, practitioners of which include William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, Vladimir Nabokov, Thomas Wolfe, Norman Mailer, Saul Bellow, Gore Vidal, Kurt Vonnegut, John Updike, and Thomas Pynchon.

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The Colonial Period (1607–1775)

This period encompasses the founding of Jamestown up to a decade before the Revolutionary War. The majority of writings were historical, practical, or religious in nature. Some writers not to miss from this period include Phillis Wheatley, Cotton Mather, William Bradford, Anne Bradstreet, and John Winthrop. The first Slave Narrative, "A Narrative of the Uncommon Sufferings, and Surprizing Deliverance of Briton Hammon, a Negro Man," was published during this period, in 1760 Boston.

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n 1607, Jamestown became the first settlement of the British empire in North America. Its location had been chosen due to it being easily defensible as it was surrounded on three sides by water, the water was deep enough for their ships, and the land was not inhabited by Native Americans. The pilgrims had a rocky beginning with their first winter. In fact, it took a number of years before the colony became profitable for England with the introduction of tobacco by John Rolfe. In 1624, Jamestown was made a royal colony.

To make the gold the Virginia Company and King James expected, the settlers tried many enterprises, including silk production and glassmaking. All met with little success until 1613, when colonists John Rolfe developed a sweeter, less harsh-tasting strain of tobacco that became wildly popular in Europe. At last, the colony was turning a profit. Tobacco was used as money in Jamestown and used to pay salaries. While tobacco proved to be the cash crop that helped Jamestown survive as long as it did, most of the land need to grow it was stolen from the native Powhatan Indians and growing it in saleable quantities depended on the forced labor of enslaved Africans.

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Enslaved Poet of Colonial America: A Story of Her Life

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Phillis Wheatley (sometimes misspelled as Phyllis) was born in Africa (most likely in Senegal) in 1753 or 1754. When she was about eight years old, she was kidnapped and brought to Boston. There, in 1761, John Wheatley enslaved her as a personal servant for his wife, Susanna. As was the custom of the time, she was given the Wheatley family's surname.

The Wheatley family taught Phillis English and Christianity, and, impressed by her quick learning, they also taught her some Latin, ancient history, mythology and classical literature.

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Known for: Anne Bradstreet was America's first published poet. She's also known, through her writings, for her intimate view of life in early Puritan New England. In her poems, women are quite capable of reason, even while Anne Bradstreet largely accepts the traditional and Puritan assumptions about gender roles.

Dates: ~1612 - September 16, 1672

Occupation: poet

Also known as: Anne Dudley, Anne Dudley Bradstreet

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John Winthrop (1714-1779) was a scientist who was born in Massachusetts and was appointed as the head of Mathematics at Harvard University. He was recognized as the preeminent American astronomer of his time.

Winthrop was the descendant of John Winthrop (1588-1649) who was the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He was the son of Judge Adam Winthrop and Anne Wainwright Winthrop. He had been baptized by Cotton Mather. While Mather is remembered for his support of the ​Salem Witch Trials, he was also a keen scientist who researched in hybrids and inoculation.

Preeminent American Astronomer

Winthrop gained attention in Great Britain where many of his research findings were published. The Royal Society published his works. His astronomical research included the following:

He was the first to observe sunspots in Massachusetts in 1739.

He followed the movement of Mercury.

He determined the accurate longitude for Cambridge where Harvard was located.

He published works on meteors, Venus, and solar parallax.

He accurately predicted the return of ​​Halley's Comet in 1759.

He was the first colonist sent out by a colony to complete a scientific expedition to observe the transit of Venus from Newfoundland.