Major Historical Events: founding of the Americas (1492), death of most Native American peoples, and Bartholomew Gosnold is the first Englishman to land on the Americas (1602)

Major Authors / Works: “Ghost dance songs” recorded by James Mooney (1896), Arapaho, Sioux.

Citation: Mooney, James. The Ghost-Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890. G.P.O., 1896. 

Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty!: An American History. 6th ed, W.W.Norton & Company, 2019.

Time Period: Pre-Colonialism

Dates: Published in 1896

POV: First Person

Themes: anxious, Repetition, Naivete, Sadness, Regret

Connection: The Founding of Americas influenced the ghost dance songs with the arrival and betrayal of the native people by the whites from europe, the Arapaho singing, “My children, when at first I liked the whites” (1). The lyrics signify that something changed, being the death and suffering of millions. The naivete of the Native Americans also shines through, The Arapaho recounting, “All is gone—I have nothing to eat” (9). The regret shows through in the words of a massacred people, people that showed kindness to the white people and were repaid with disease, massacre, looting, and sorrow.

Major Historical Events: England founded 13 colonies (1607), Henry Hudson explores the hudson river and east coast (1609), The British win the French and Indian war (1754)

Major Authors/works: William Bradford wrote Of

Plymouth Plantation, Anne Bradstreet (First american poet), John Edwards “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”

Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty!: An American History. 6th ed, W.W.Norton & Company, 2019.

Time Period: Colonialism

Dates: 1741

POV: second person

Themes: Puritanism, Angry God, Wrath, Mercy, Damnation

Connection: “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” is a work of its time, with many pilgrims and puritans  moving from europe to the Americas. Religion takes precedent in America, Edwards writing, “The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present” (Edwards). The harsh tone coincides with the time, as damnation is a very possible outcome for people whom act badly in puritan society. The theme of damnation rings clear, Edwards writing, “And the world would spew you out” when talking about straying from God. God should be feared, and Edwards thoroughly conveyed that in his book.

Years: 1776-1820s

Major historical events: Revolutionary war ends with an american victory (1783), Shays’ Rebellion protesting taxes (1786) War of 1812 (1812-1815)

Major Authors/works John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government (1690) Ben Franklin’s Autobiography (1791), Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence (1776), and Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s Declaration of Sentiments (1848)

Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty!: An American History. 6th ed, W.W.Norton & Company, 2019.

Time Period: Enlightenment

Dates: 1848

POV: 2nd Person

Themes: rebellion, equality, oppression of women, liberty, pursuit of happiness

Connection: Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s Declaration of sentiments connects to the enlightenment due to its forward thinking and views of equality and social reform. Stanton’s document is a play on Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence, Stanton writing, “We hold these… self-evident; that all men and women are created equal” (Stanton). Stanton’s play on Jefferson’s document exposes the lack on inclusion of women. Stanton’s declaration also includes the theme of rebellion in it, writing, “We shall employ agents, circulate tracts, petition the State and national Legislatures…” Stanton shows that she is serious and would bring about a revolution for the rights of others.

Years: 1820s-1860s

Major historical events: Missouri Compromise (1820), Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act (1830), Mexican-American war (1848).

Major Authors/works: Edgar Allan Poe wrote “The Raven,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and “The Cask of Amontillado”, Henry Longfellow, who translated Dante’s Inferno to english (1867), John Whittier who wrote “Snow-Bound” (1866), also Lowell, Holmes, and Bryant

Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty!: An American History. 6th ed, W.W.Norton & Company, 2019.

Time Period: Romanticism

Dates: 1850

POV: 3rd person

Themes: Female Independence, Guilt, Nature vs Society, Puritanism, Compliance to Religion.

Connection: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, inspired by the women's rights movement introduces a headstrong woman to literature: Hester, who can make her own decisions, Hawthorne writing, “much after her own fancy, seemed to express the attitude…” (Hawthorne 47).The independence of Hester revolutionized female characters in literature. Nature vs society is represented through the contrast of the rose bush and the Puritans, Hawthorne writing, “But on one side of the portal, and rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild rosebush..." (46) The difference between the blunt Puritan and flamboyant rose shines through as a stark juxtaposition in the novel.

Years: 1840s-1860s

Major historical events: The Civil War (1861-1865), Lincoln is assassinated (1865), Reconstruction (1865-1877).

Major Authors/works: Walt Whitman wrote “O Captain My Captain”(1865), Emily Dickenson wrote “Fame is a bee” (1865), Thoreau wrote his essay “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience”(1847) Emerson wrote “Experience” (1844).

Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty!: An American History. 6th ed, W.W.Norton & Company, 2019.

Time Period: Transcendentalism

Dates: 1865

POV: First Person

Themes: loss, grief, victory, patriotism, suffering

Connection: Walt Whitman’s poem “O Captain! My Captain!” connects to major historical events in transcendentalism such as the death of Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and the ending of the Civil War. The impact of Lincoln’s death sounds clear, Whitman writing, “O the bleeding drops of red” (Whitman 5). The drops of “red”, reference the death of Abraham lincoln, with the gruesome way he died. The theme of victory rings loud and clear, with Whitman commenting in the opening lines writing, The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won” (1 // 2) The prize being victory.

Years: 1818-1845 & 1845

Major historical events: 1st Seminole war (1818), Slavery ended in the northern US (1826), Texas enters the US as a slave state (1845), Slavery in the US (1776-1865).

Major Authors/works Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845), Sojourner Truth’s Narrative of Sojourner Truth (1850), over 2000 stories recorded by the Federal Writers’ Project in (1936-1948)

Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty!: An American History. 6th ed, W.W.Norton & Company, 2019.

Dates: 1845

POV: 1st

Themes: pursuit of knowledge, ‘unsayable; unspeakable, abuse, freedom of choice, 

Connection: Frederick Douglass’ narrative quite obviously is based off of slavery in the United States, a system so ingrained in American life its remains still remain to modern America, Douglass writing, “Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart…” (Douglass 8) Douglass’ experience and primary source recounts give the reader a scarily vivid view into slavery. Douglass gives nods to his freedom of choice, even including the first and last words in his story as “I” (1) “decide” (69). Douglass’ inclusion of this affirms that he is the master of his own life. 

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), Roaring twenties (1920-1929)

Major authors: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Zora Neale Hurston, Gertrude Stein, Ralph Ellison, Ernest

Hemingway, William Faulkner, etc.

Time Period: Modernism

Dates: Published in 1925 & Set in 1922

Point of View: First person

Themes: American Dream, Class, Love, Power, money

Connection: Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby goes into great detail of the extravagance of the roaring twenties, Nick Carraway commenting, “it was a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy” (Fitzgerald 5). Fitzgerald’s account fully does justice to the party filled decade that represents the post war economic boom. The American dream is fit perfectly by the book, as it ultimately fails, Nick remarking upon Gatsby’s house as an “incoherent failure” (180). The failure of Gatsby’s dream- the American dream shows how much of a dream it really is.