Unit 1: Early American Writing

As I read Unit 1: Early American Writing, it felt like I was reading history more than I could be learning English, which is understandable considering that writing took place in a very meaningful matter during our time. The chapter started off with a little history of Jamestown and the establishment of its colony. In the section “A Break with England” the remarkable writing of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson was acknowledged for the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America. To my surprise, many great writers started with religion and beliefs of God. The Puritans were a group of English Protestants who had sought to “purify” the church of English and return to simpler ways of worshipping. In the 1500s many explorers such as Christopher Columbus described their discoveries of the world so vividly. Later in the 1700s many writers of this period were drawn to the political effort in propaganda and pamphlets. Such as Thomas Paine who helped propel the colonists to revolution. I learned that writing will always be important to our world, from constitutions to poetry, writing is what allows us to speak our minds.