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Elizabethan period essay
Introduction to the Elizabethan Age
Introduction to the Elizabethan Age
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In “A Description of New England,” John Smith documents his time in New England while trying to persuade several audiences to travel or to fund a third expedition to the New World with him as a leader. More specifically, Smith uses certain details to entice readers of two vastly different audiences: the poor and idle, the rich and generous, and evangelists. Smith’s main motive for writing “A Description of New England” is to persuade others to allow him to have a chance to go back to the New World as a leader, since he was previously unsuccessful. Smith’s use of exaggeration further convinces his various audiences that he can easily help them gain fortune from the New World. Smith begins this piece by addressing his first audience: those
who lack jobs or sufficient resources to go to the New World. He calls upon them to come to the New World with him and find jobs, and insinuates that they must do so because it is part of their patriotic duty to the queen. He recognizes evangelists are a part of this group and reminds them of their compact with God to preach the world, even the Native Americans he views as savages. Attempting to make New England entrancing to everyone, Smith also mentions the sense of adventure and euphoria that results from exploring the New World. However, to maintain some authenticity in his otherwise hyperbolic writing, Smith acknowledges that life in the Americas is not simple, but he contradicts this by hyperbolically saying that it is better to leave England and go to the New World, where they would not be under the control of rich tyrants. He also indirectly mentioned that if these people stay in England, their children’s futures will be compromised by the wealthy landowners, another blatant exaggeration. Smith embellishes the reality of New England, saying that everyone will get their own land and be successful. He illustrates this with a hyperbole of fisherman in the New World being able to catch “one, two, or three hundred cods” (56) in one day. However, Smith writes that the only way to prosper in the New World is with a good leader, subtly implying that he is the best person for this position, further manipulating this audience into believing they can effortlessly escape their poverty by going with him to the New World.
As the regions began to expand and develop, their motivations for settlement helped to mold their societies. New England was a place where men sought refuge from religious persecution and was established as a haven for religious refugees. Despite this reason for settling, the New Englanders still attempted to spread their own beliefs of religion. As illustrated by John Winthrop in his Model of a Christian Charity, he preached to his fellow colonists that “we shall be a city upon a hill” (Doc A) exemplifying the Puritans’ aspirations of a Holy Utopia. He and countless other New Englanders practiced the belief that they must all work together. They were determined to “mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work.” The Articles of Agreement plainly laid out the basis for the New England region. These articles made New England a cosmopolitan mix of rich and poor families, all being in possession of land and resolute in doing God’s work (Doc D). However, while the New Englanders settled to create a Holy Utopia, the people of the Chesapeake were concerned not only with their religious freedom, but also ...
During the 1600's, many people in the American colonies led very many different lives, some better than others. While life was hard for some groups, other colonists were healthy and happy. Two groups that display such a difference are the colonists of New England and Chesapeake Bay. New Englanders enjoyed a much higher standard of living. This high standard of New England's was due to many factors, including a healthier environment, better family situation, and a high rate of reproduction.
During the late 16th century and into the 17th century, European nations rapidly colonized the newly discovered Americas. England in particular sent out numerous groups to the eastern coast of North America to two regions. These two regions were known as the Chesapeake and the New England areas. Later, in the late 1700's, these two areas would bond to become one nation. Yet from the very beginnings, both had very separate and unique identities. These differences, though very numerous, spurred from one major factor: the very reason the settlers came to the New World. This affected the colonies in literally every way, including economically, socially, and politically.
When writing William Cooper's Town, Alan Taylor connects local history with widespread political, economic, and cultural patterns in the early republic, appraises the balance of the American Revolution as demonstrated by a protrusive family's background, and merge the history of the frontier settlement with the visualizing and reconstituting of that experience in literature. Taylor achieves these goals through a vivid and dramatic coalescing of narrative and analytical history. His book will authoritatively mandate and regale readers in many ways, especially for its convincing and memorable representation of two principles subjects- William Cooper, the frontier entrepreneur and town builder, and his youngest son, the theoretical James Fenimore Cooper, who molded his own novelistic portrayal of family history through accounts such as The Pioneers (1823).
During the 1700's, people in the American colonies lived in very distinctive societies. While some colonists led hard lives, others were healthy and prosperous. The two groups who showed these differences were the colonists of the New England and Chesapeake Bay areas. The differentiating characteristics among the Chesapeake and New England colonies developed due to economy, religion, and motives for colonial expansion. The colonists of the New England area possessed a very happy and healthy life. This high way of living was due in part to better farming, a healthier environment, and a high rate of production because of more factories. The colonists of the Chesapeake Bay region, on the other hand, led harder lives compared to that of the colonists of New England. The Chesapeake Bay had an unhealthy environment, bad eating diets, and intolerable labor.
Thomas Morton wrote about the Native Americans and their way of life while the colonist slowly populated the Americas. Native American’s living styles, religious views, and the relations the Indians had with the colonist are a few of the things that came across when you heard about the Indians during the time the colonist inhabited the Americas.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Willoughby’s writing is that so much change has occurred in the past hundred years. His setting, though the very Everglades we travel through today, is an Everglades where saw grass was ten feet tall, and trails were no where to be found. His Florida, though located exactly where he left it, now has too many hotels, tourists, and residents to count. The change that has taken place in Florida was one that Willoughby foreshadowed, and one that we would not be able to fully comprehend without the writings of people like Willoughby. He captured the moment on paper for the future to see and gave us a means of comparison. He wrote about change in Florida over the course of a year since his previous visit. He mentioned that a big hotel and bustling tourists destroyed the picturesque and that Florida’s “wilderness has been rudely marred by the hand of civilization” (62). I wonder what he would say today. The mere two thousand individuals he wrote about was a number no where near to the number of people who have since marred Florida. Like Willoughby, I regret change. An...
Mankind can be conceived in interesting ways by analyzing the writings of John Smith and John Winthrop. As I read through John Smith‘s “A Description of New England” and John Winthrop’s “A Model of Christian Charity,” it became evident to me that the two readings had similar and different viewpoints of the essential nature of man. Throughout my paper, I will compare their similar beliefs of community and diversity of people and completely contrast their ideas of emphasis on religion and relationships with enemies.
Like La Relacion, in "The Generall Historie of Virginia,” John Smith narrates about his own experience in the New World, but as a settler to grab the attention of readers in England during the early 1600s. In this adventure, he describes the difficulties
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is a representation of the new prospect of upward mobility in colonial America during the 18th century and the development of the Age of Reason, which assisted in the conception of the idea of the “American Dream”; a dream that includes fundamentally social ideals such as democracy, equality, and material prosperity. Furthermore, Franklin’s autobiography exemplifies a significant shift in focus from religion to enlightenment and reason. Additionally, there were forces specific to Benjamin Franklin's Philadelphia, that played an important role in his perspectives and the changes that occurred within colonial America during the 18th century.
Born in Austerfield England in 1590, William Bradford, orphaned at an early age, raised by several relatives, and with no formal education, became one of the most influential men of the original American Colonists, and is credited as the “Father of American history,” with his diaries of the Pilgrims’ journey and struggles to America. “Of Plymouth Plantation” the journals of William Bradford are still one of the major resources used for historians for this time in history. (Schoenberg, 2001)
Taylor, Alan American Colonies: The Settling of North America, New York, NY: Penguin Group, 2001. pg. 1685-1730
"North America Review." Rev. of Uncle Tom's Cabin. North American Review [Boston] Oct. 1853: 467-93. Stephen Railton, 1998. Web. 24 Sept. 2013.
In “ A Description of New England ”, Smith starts by describing the pleasure and content that risking your life for getting your own piece of land brings to men. On the other hand, Bradford reminds us how harsh and difficult the trip to the New World was for the p...
The Dutch colony of New Netherland became the English colonies of New York and New Jersey through military conquest and treaties. It was created as a Dutch colony in the 1610’s. During this time, there was very little, if any, British presence in the United States. Over the next fifty years, the British presence of course grew. When the Restoration of the Stuart monarchy occurred in 1660, the British became more aggressive about colonial expansion and consolidation in North America. An expedition in 1664 by the Duke of York seized the Hudson Valley and Manhattan Island from the Dutch. New Amsterdam was then renamed New York. The already present Dutch settlers were treated equally and were allowed freedom of worship. From 1664, these territories remained British almost continually. They were retaken by the Dutch, but the colony was returned to Britain by treaty. The reason for the seizure of the colony was the British monarchy wanted to close the gap between their property along the Chesapeake and in New England.