Years: pre-1607

Major Historical Events: Juan Ponce de León explores Florida (1513), Christopher Columbus reaches North America (1492), Saint Augustine becomes the first European colony in North American history (1565)

Major American Authors: Sioux and Arapaho

Time Period: Pre-Colonialism

Dates: published in 1840s & set in pre-1607

Point of View: first person 

Themes: freedom, starvation, death, redemption, race

Connection: The “Ghost Dance Songs” relate to how Christopher Columbus reached North America in 1492. The Sioux sing, “A nation is coming, a nation is coming” (19). This relates because it alludes to the establishment of the United States, which came later in the late-1700s. Starvation is also a major theme in the “Ghost Dance Songs” which we know because of the quote, “I am crying for thirst; / All is gone—I have nothing to eat” (Arapaho 8-9). This is significant because starvation was a big source of mortality and also relates to the theme of death.

Years: 1607-1775

Major Historical Events: Jamestown’s establishment (1607), British King establishes the 13 colonies (1607), the Salem Witch Trials begin (1692)

Major American Authors: Jonathan Edwards, colonists, Puritans

Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty! An American History. New York City, Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc., 2020.

Time Period: Colonialism

Dates: published in 1741 & set in 1741

Point of View: second person

Themes: wrath, mercy, grace, religion, redemption

Connection: “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” relates to the Salem Witch Trials because they both use religion to incite fear. Edwards says, “...natural men are held in the hand of God, over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit” (1). This is important because he incites fear by talking about being above a fiery pit. Additionally, Edwards’s tone adds to the theme of wrath when he screams, “The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present” (3). Significantly, Edwards uses a simile to describe God’s wrath and anger towards people.

Years: 1776-1820s

Major Historical Events: Thomas Jefferson and founding fathers sign “The Declaration of Independence” (1776), Pennsylvania becomes the first state to abolish slavery (1780), James Madison writes “The United States Constitution” (1787)

Major American Authors: Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams

Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty! An American History. New York City, Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc., 2020.

Time Period: Enlightenment

Dates: written in 1776 & signed in 1776

Point of View: Third person

Themes: equality, independence, freedom, happiness, inclusion

Connection: Thomas Jefferson’s signing of “The Declaration of Independence” directly correlates to this document because he both wrote and signed it. Jefferson says, “We … solemnly publish and declare, … That these United Colonies are, … Free and Independent States” (5). This is significant because it exemplifies ethos through establishing that they are representatives. Additionally, “The Declaration of Independence” indicates the equality of everyone with the quote, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal...” (1). This is important because it defines that everyone has the same rights and that the government will treat them fairly.

Years: 1820s-1860s

Major Historical Events: Edgar Allan Poe’s mother and father die (1811), Frederick Douglass publishes his autobiography (1845), United States Congress declares war against Mexico (1846)

Major American Authors: Edgar Allan Poe, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier

eds. Encyclopaedia Britannica. “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, britannica.com/biography/Edgar-Allan-Poe, Accessed 13 Dec. 2021.

Time Period: Dark Gothic Romanticism 

Dates: published in 1843 & set in 1830s during Poe’s lifetime

Point of View: first person

Themes: horror, murder, guilt, anger, time

Connection: Because Edgar Allan Poe’s parents died at a young age, he frequently implemented the motif of mortality in his works. Poe writes, “The old man was dead … Yes, he was stone, stone dead” (64) This is significant because it relates to how his parents died and shows that he still grieves. Relating to his parents’ deaths, time is a theme in “The Tell-Tale Heart”, especially when he describes, “A watch’s minute hand moves more quickly than did mine” (24-25). This exemplifies how the narrator was moving very slowly and it felt like time was also moving slowly. 

Years: 1840s-1860s

Major Historical Events: Ralph Waldo Emerson becomes the first chief spokesman for Transcendentalism (1835), Female Transcendentalist Margaret Fuller dies in a shipwreck (1850), Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (1852)

Major American Authors: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman

Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty! An American History. New York City, Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc., 2020.

Time Period: Transcendentalism

Dates: published in 1841 & set in 1841

Point of View: first, second, and third person

Themes: nonconformity, nature, individualism, anti-mediocrity, spiritual  

Connection: Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” is an example of how he became the first chief spokesman for the Transcendentalism movement. Emerson states, “A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best” (2). This proves that Emerson is happy doing what he loves being an author for Transcendentalism. Additionally, Emerson is a firm believer of individualism, which he proves by saying, “...envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better…” (1). Basically, he is saying that it’s detrimental to copy someone else; you need to be yourself.

Years: 1820s-1865

Major Historical Events: John Brown raids Harpers Ferry (1859), Battle of Fort Sumter (1861), Battle of Gettysburg (1863), Southern states pass the Negro Act of 1740 to prohibit slaves from learning to read and write (1740)

Major American Authors: Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Jacobs

Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty! An American History. New York City, Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc., 2020.

Time Period: Slave Narrative

Dates: published in 1845 & set in 1818

Point of View: first person

Themes: violence, loss of innocence, truth, unspeakable, injustice

Connection: The Negro Act of 1740 relates to Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass because Douglass disobeyed this law. Douglass announces, “During this time, I succeeded in learning to read and write” (22). This is important because he knew that knowledge was his ticket to freedom. He also experienced the theme of violence from altercations of other slaves. Douglass writes, “The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest” (4). Like the Negro Act of 1740, this gave him more motivation to escape slavery and try to gain freedom.

Years: Roughly 1901-1950

Major Historical Events: World War I (1914-1918), The Great Depression (1929-1939), World War II (1939-1945, America entered 1941), the Holocaust (1941-1945), Harlem Renaissance (1918-1937), airplanes (1903)

Major American Authors: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Zora Neale Hurston, Gertrude Stein, Ralph Ellison, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, etc.

Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty! An American History. New York City, Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc., 2020.

Time Period: Modernism

Dates: published in 1925 & set in 1922

Point of View: first person 

Themes: wealth, misinformation, American Dream, mortality, love

Connection: The Great Gatsby relates to WWI because Nick Carraway “participated in that delayed Teutonic migration known as the Great War” (Fitzgerald 5). This is significant because it shows how Nick wanted to live the American Dream after service. Likewise in the American Dream, wealth through Mr. Gatsby’s mansion and ability to buy expensive items shows the ripe landscape of the 1920s. Nick says, “His bedroom was the simplest room of all--except where the dresser was garnished with a toilet set of pure dull gold” (58). This demonstrates Gatsby’s wealth through the “gold standard” and his ability to have expensive things.