Puritan Literature and the American

¶ … Puritan Literature and the American Revolution

The people before the American Revolution were characterized to have great admiration for literatures. Most of which, if not influenced, base their beliefs and ideals from the contents of the different literatures that were either legally or illegally put into print and disseminated to people. One of the types of literature that provoked the American Revolution is the Puritan literature.

The Puritan literary consciousness of many Americans before the American Revolution lead their revolt against the governing powers within the different American states. The Puritan literatures, characterized by sermons, diaries, and personal narratives (TeachNLearn.Org), which usually contains instructive lessons from the present situation of the American society and government during that time, and that somehow insinuated to people to rebel against the evil and corrupt activities of the time, have influenced the minds of many Americans causing them to shout in the public their principles that were against the government that rules America, particularly the British rule.

The Puritan literacy helped the Americans' consciousness to reflect on the centuries that British had been ruling America. From the sermons of different Puritan literatures, which most slaves secretly keep, they were awakened on the demoralization that they had been experiencing. They learned to realize the human rights that were deprived from them.

Another characteristic of the Puritan literature is its ability to identify the identity of the colonized America. According to Puritanism: A New World Vision, an online article,

This particular form of identity can be seen through different aspects of literary expression: the Puritans used these aspects as sermons, declarations, covenants, controversies and statements of purpose. Therefore, the lasting effect of the printing press on colonial America is to be found in its contribution to the emergence of a national identity based first and foremost on language and writing. It was first by means of publication that America declared to the world its identity as a nation and trough an effect of discourse that she defined proclaimed and projected its past, its present and its future.

With the help of Guttenberg's invention of the printing press, the identity of America was defined in many Puritan literatures. The printing press and the colonized America's identity which was contained in Puritan literatures became the means in awakening the minds of many Americans, providing them with vision of the new world and breaking out from the colony of the British rule. These visions, according to the Puritanism: A New World Vision online article, are embedded in the following elements.