Years:  pre-1607

Major Historical Events: Christopher Columbus genocides (1492), Juan Ponce de Leon explores Florida (1513), Sitting Bull protest (1890)

Major Authors / Works: Native American writers Sioux and Arapho

Time Period: Pre-Colonialism

Dates: Published in 1840s and set in pre-1607

Point of View: First Person

Themes(5): freedom, hunger, death, redemption, races, spiritual

Connection: In “Ghost Dance Songs,” the theme of freedom is persuaded through songs, comparable to the Sitting Bull protest. Sioux expresses gratitude through God, “A nation is coming / the father says so” (19/21). They believe freedom is coming but the right time is one nobody knows. Sioux then says, “They are coming with the buffalo / They are coming with the new earth” (29/30). Their father [God] has given them a reason for freedom just like Sitting Bull when persuading others against the white man’s bullets.

Years:  1607-1775

Major Historical Events: Salem Witch Trial (1692), Boston Massacre (1770), The Revolutionary War (1775)

Major Authors / Works: William Bradford wrote “Of Plymouth Plantation”, John Winthrop wrote “A Model of Christian Charity”, Anne Bradstreet wrote “To My Dear and Loving Husband” and “Verses upon the Burning of Our House, July 10, 1666. 

Citation: Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty!, 6th ed, 2019.

Time Period: Colonialism

Dates: published in 1741 and set in 1738-1742

Point of View: second person

Themes: mercy, grace, wrath, redemption, sin

Connection: In “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” Jonathan Edwards reveals consequences for sinners by stating “...if God should withdraw his hand…the fiery flood of fierceness…would come upon you” (3). He believes everyone should follow God or hell will be the result much like the mob during the Salem Witch Trials. Puritans believed strictly in God and those who opposed were sinners. Edwards states, “...there is no other reason to be given, why you have not dropped into hell” (4). Puritans and Edwards both believed that without following God, his release leads to a trip to hell. 

Years:  1776-1820s

Major Historical Events: The French Revolution (1789), The Declaration of Independence (1776), The American Revolution (1775)

Major Authors / Works: Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, John Locke

Citation: Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty!, 6th ed, 2019.

Time Period: Enlightenment

Dates: Published in 1848 and set in 1800s

Point of View: First Person

Themes: freedom, rights, happiness, equality, liberty

Connection: In “Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions,” the theme of rights is expressed through alluding to the Declaration of Independence. Stanton discusses women rights by stating, “Such has been the patient sufference of women under this government..demand the equal station to which they are entitled” (2). Stanton believes in not only rights as proved in the Declaration but rights for women as equal to man. Further stating, “He has withheld from her rights which are given to the most ignorant and degraded men” (2). The rights men have fought for in the Declaration, Stanton believes women may have the same.

Years:  1820s-1860s

Major Historical Events: the First Reform Bill (1832), The Missouri Compromise (1820), death of Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe (1847)

Major Authors / Works: John Greenleaf Whittier, James Russell Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes

Citation: Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty!, 6th ed, 2019.

Time Period: Romanticism

Dates: published in 1843 and set in 1840s

Point of View: first person

Themes: guilt, insanity, madness, death, time

Connections: In “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Edgar Allan Poe expresses death through killing an innocent man which connects to his wife's death. Soon before she died, Edgar kills a man because of his quote, “vulture eye” stating, “His eye would trouble me no more” (2). Poe’s wife was sick and he was paranoid causing him to act out. He then expresses, “First of all I dismembered the corpse. I cut off the head…arms and the legs” (2). Poe was distinctly acting out of sorrow and paranoia of being alone. 

Years:  1840s-1860s

Major Historical Events: Mexican-American War (1846), California Gold Rush (1849), Great Famine (1845)

Major Authors / Works: Margaret Fuller, Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emily Dickinson

Citation: Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty!, 6th ed, 2019.

Time Period: Transcendentalism

Dates: Published in 1836 and set in 1820s-1830s

Point of View: first person

Themes: individualism, self-knowledge, God, nature, independence 

Connections: In “Self-Reliance,” Ralph Waldo Emerson has the theme of being independent and relying on oneself just like California during the California Gold Rush. Emerson discusses, “Trust thyself…” (2). In other words, people should believe in what they have known on their own and follow your instincts like California did, allowing them to increase their economy and become independent. Emerson then says, “Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of our own mind” (2). Follow instinct and grow within yourself and your community just like those who grew during the Gold Rush. 

Years:  1820s-1865

Major Historical Events: Abolition of slavery (1865), The Second Great Awakening (1830s), The Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

Major Authors / Works: Frederick Douglass, Olaudah Equiano, Sojourner Truth

Citation: Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty!, 6th ed, 2019.

Time Period: Slave Narrative

Dates: Published in 1845 and set in 1818-1845 

Point of View: First Person

Themes: truth, racism, education, suffering, religion

Connections: Racism has led to major discrimination for many years. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass explains the torture of blacks: “I have seen Colonel Lloyd make Old Barney…receive… more than thirty lashes” (10). A white man gets no punishment. Furthermore racism is a key cause leading to the abolition of slavery, Mr. Gore says, “‘It is better that a dozen slaves should suffer under the lash, than that of an overseer should be convicted...of having been at fault’” (13). Blacks were treated like savage animals giving the term slaves. 

Years: Roughly 1901-1950

Major Historical Events: World War I (1914-1918), The Great Depression (1929-1939), Harlem Renaissance (1918-1937)

Major authors / Works: 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: The American Dream, society, class, love, marriage

Connection: In “The Great Gatsby,” wealth was a major theme. There were the rich and the poor much like The Great Depression. Nick says, “...they smashed up things…and then retreated back into their money” (137). Those who have money can easily throw things of importance away, but then buy it back. Nick’s father states, “Just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had” (4). Those who have no money, strive to be those people. In The Great Depression, wealth was a major factor in who had a good life and who didn’t.