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American Literature: LIT 6-19 Questions
1.
Roughly how long ago did Europeans land in our hemisphere?
2. Explain the quote by J.H. Parry.
3.
For what did the European settlers rely on the American Indians? Give examples.
4. In exchange, what did the American Indians want from the Europeans?
5. Why did the arrival of European settlers have a deadly impact on American Indians?
6.
Based on William Bradford’s account what would it be like to have smallpox? What are some
of the symptoms? The outcome?
7. What happened to American Indians who survived the epidemics? Why?
8. According to Francis Jennings what is the overall effect European settlers had on the American
Indians?
9. When and in what languages were the first detailed observations of life on the new continent
recorded?
10. In the hopes of receiving funding for further expeditions, what did explorers like Columbus
emphasize about the Americas?
11. Where did Cabeza de Vaca land? For how many years did he explore the Gulf area?
12. According to his passage on Pg. 10, how did the natives he encountered live?
13. What do you think might explain the girls’ symptoms and later their behavior during the trial?
14. Why did Tituba confess to being a witch?
15. What happened after Tituba’s confession? What are some possible reasons why this
happened?
16. How many people were hanged between June and September 1692?
17. What is the definition of a Puritan?
18. Why did many Puritans flee England?
19. Before going to the New World, where did the Puritans flee first?
20. When did the Puritans set sail for the New World?
21. What were Puritans certain of?
22. What did the Puritans doubt?
23. What are 4 things the Puritans valued?
24. In your own words, summarize what the Puritans believed.
25. What did the Puritans compose in 1620? What did it state?
26. List 3 characteristics of Puritan writing.
27. What did the Puritans believe about the Bible?
28. What was one of the first colleges to be founded only 16 years after the first Pilgrims landed?
29. What is rationalism? Why did it challenge the faith of the Puritans?
30. Name the great English rationalist who also formulated the laws of gravity and motion.
31. What did rationalists believe was God’s gift to humanity?
32. Summarize the rationalist worldview.
33. What disease did a ship from the West Indies bring to a Boston harbor in April 1721?
34. What diseases are comparable today?
35. Who is responsible for inoculating people for the smallpox disease?
36. How did Mather’s religious views clash with his method to cure smallpox?
37. Why is it ironic that Mather was the one to find a “cure” for smallpox?
38. What did Mather’s experiment prove?
39. What was legal in all New England colonies in 1620?
40. How many people in the city of Boston in 1721 are affected by the smallpox?
41. Define deism.
42. The arguments presented in this famous American document are based on the rationalist
assumptions about the relations between people, God, and natural law.
43. List two famous American deists.
44. What was a popular form of writing during the Age of Reason? Why?
Now go back to pg. 6 and answer the 3 Think About questions.