1 ) Description of the Course American Literature is a class for the pupils of 4th old ages of larning English as their major. Through the debut of the history and development of literature. and larning the selected subdivisions of literary plants. the pupils can acquire a thorough apprehension of American literature as a whole lineation and hold on the method of how to bask the literary plants. Therefore they can larn some cognition about understanding literature. As the youngest literature in the universe. American literature developed really rapidly.
Many authors won Nobel Prize for literature. Through larning the class. the pupils can acquire to cognize the different genres of literary signifiers and the formal linguistic communication used by the authors. 2 ) Ways of learning a. Introduction to the pupils about the history of the state and development of literature ; B. Introduction to the pupils about the writers and their authorship background. ; c. Analyze the selected texts ; d. Discuss the texts together ; e. Writing pattern. Chapter one: Introduction Teaching assistance tool: a map of early America
Teaching purpose: the pupils learn why and how to larn literature class. acquire the general thought of the colonial America and their literary signifiers. Cardinal Points: a. larning purpose ; B. Learning method ; c. Colonial American features. I. Introduction of the class 1. Why should we larn the class: a. One of the chief grounds might be that literature offers a bountiful and highly varied organic structure of written stuff. which is “important in the sense that it says something about cardinal human issues and which is digesting instead than passing.
Its relevancy moves with the passing of clip. but seldom disappears wholly the Shakespeare plays whose stoping were rewritten to conform to late seventeenth century gustatory sensation and which were subsequently staged to give maximal prominence to their romantic hero figures are now explored for their psychoanalytic import. In this manner. though its significance does non stay inactive. a literary work can exceed both clip and civilization to talk straight to a reader in another state or a different period of history. Literature is reliable stuff. By that we merely intend that most plants of literature are non fashioned for the specific intent of learning a linguistic communication.
Recent class stuffs have rather justly incorporated many reliable samples of language—for illustration. travel timetable. metropolis programs. signifiers. booklets. sketchs. advertizements. newspaper or magazine articles. Learners are therefore exposed to linguistic communication that is as echt and undistorted as can be managed in the schoolroom context. In reading literary texts. pupils have besides to get by with linguistic communication intended for native talkers and therefore we gain extra acquaintance with many different lingual utilizations. signifiers and conventions of the written manner with sarcasm. expounding. statement. narrative and so on. B.
Cultural enrichment: For many linguistic communication scholars. more indirect paths to understand a state must be adopted so that they gain an apprehension of the manner of life of the state: wireless coders. movies and pictures. newspapers and last. literary plants. It is true of class that the “world” of a novel. drama. or short narrative is a created 1. yet it offers a full and graphic context in which characters from many societal backgrounds can be depicted. A reader can detect their ideas. feelings. imposts. and ownerships: what they buy. believe in. fright. enjoy ; how they speak and behave closed doors.
Reading the literature of a historical period is one of the ways we have to assist us conceive of what life was like in that other foreign district. Literature is possibly best seen as a complement to other stuffs used to increase the foreign learner’s penetration into the state whose linguistic communication is being learnt. c. linguistic communication enrichment: we have said that reading literary plants exposes the pupil to many map of the written linguistic communication. but what about other lingual advantages?
Language enrichment is one benefit frequently sought through literature. while there is small a=doubt that extended reading increases a learner’s receptive vocabulary and facilitates transfer to a more active signifier of cognition. it is sometimes objected that literature does non give scholars the sort of vocabulary they truly need. It may be “authentic” in the sense already mentioned. but the linguistic communication of literary plants is non typical of the linguistic communication of day-to-day life. nor is it like the linguistic communication used in learners’ text editions.
We would non wish pupils to believe that Elizabeth Berret Brownning’s “How Do I love Thee? Is the sort of vocalization usually whispered into a lover’s epoch today! The expostulation to literature on the evidences of lexical appropracy has some cogency. but it need non be an overruling one if instructors make a wise pick of the text to be read. sing it as a counterweight and addendum to other stuffs. On the positive side. literature provides a rich context in which single lexical or syntactical points are made more memorable.
Reading a significant and contextual zed organic structure of text. pupils gain acquaintance with many characteristics of the written linguistic communication —the formation and map of relines. the assortment of possible constructions. the different ways of linking ideas—which broaden and enrich their ain authorship accomplishments. The extended reading required in undertaking a novel or long drama develops the student’s ability to do illations from lingual hints. and to infer intending from context. both utile tools in reading other kinds of stuff as good. Literature helps widen the intermediate or advanced learner’s consciousness of the scope of linguistic communication itself.
Literary linguistic communication is non ever that of day-to-day communicating. as we have mentioned. but it is particular in its manner. It is heightened: sometimes elaborate. sometimes wonderfully merely yet. somehow. perfectly “right” . 2. What should we larn? History and Anthology of American literature 3. Some Literary plants: Selected Reading in American Literature? ? ? Selected Reading in American Literature? ? Selected Reading in American Literature? ? ? Contemporary American Literature with Collateral Readings? ? ? High Lights of American Literature? ? An Anthology of twentieth Century American Fiction? ? ?
A Survey of American Literature? ? ? 20? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Chapter Two The Literature of Colonial America I. Teaching Time: One period. II. Teaching Purpose: through debut. the pupils should acquire an thought about the history and development of American state and how did the American literature came into being and what is the feature of its early literature. III. Teaching method: Teacher’s Presentation. IV. Teaching Tool: multi-medium. V. Key points: the features of early literature. Introduction I. The native Americans and their civilization:
Before being explored by European adventurers the American Continent had long been inhabitated by the natives—American Indians. Physical features of the American Indians are mongolocial or a mixture of that with something else. They likely first began coming from Asia to America during the Ice ‘Age. 8000-5999 BC. They crossed Berring Strait by raft. Through hundred and 1000s of old ages these earliest dwellers developed their ain civilisations. They learned agribusiness. basketry and clayware. The most dramatic accomplishments were in agribusiness.
Maize—“Indian Corn” was developed from a wild grass. The white murphy. the cacao bean. baccy were all developed by Indians. Indians remained in tribe society. II. The historical background of the Colonial Time: 1. the first England colony: Christophe Columbus ( 1451 he believed the universe is round. happen the path to East by sailing West. he asked the aid from Queen of Spain to back up him. On Aug. 3. 1492. three little vass set canvas with 100 crews. after several months of sailing they arrived at Balama Island—San Salvador on Oct. 12. 1492. He landed and in March 1493 returned.
He had 4 ocean trips in his life-time. 2. English colony: 1607 Captain Christopher Newport. three ships — Chesapeake Bay Jamestown Mayflower 1620 Plymouth Puritans New England country 3. Conflicts with Indians and the initiation of 13 settlements. III. The development of Literature: American literature emerged out of obscureness into history merely some four centuries ago. It is the newest of the literatures of great states. yet it is original in many facets. It is original because it mirrors the history of America. and epitomizes the development of political and economic sciences. societal and psychological establishments.
It is original because upon it has played most of those great historical forces and factors that have molded the modern universe: in-migration. patriotism. individuality. imperialism. faith. scientific discipline. engineering and democracy. In add-on to its realistic and graphic contemplation of the madding of the distinctly shaped character of American people. it is original in assortment and cultural colourss ; such characteristics of American literature may happen look in its merchandises in the colonial period. John Smith a British soldier of luck.
“A True Relation of Such Happenings and Accidents of Note as hath happened in Virginia” “New England Trials” “The General History of Virginia” Within a few decennaries a considerable figure of erudite people. such as Puritan reverends and governors. produced a considerable organic structure of authorship of high literary quality. yet they were non literary people in the professional sense. Their authorship included journals. travel books. aggregations of letters. diaries. histories. poesy. lifes. autobiographies and prose. to which the Puritans contributed much.
In add-on to being true trusters of their spiritual philosophies. the early Puritans by and large have college instruction with a sound cognition of the literary classics. and learned much about the basic qualities of literature from the antediluvian and modern-day writers in the old continent. Such responsible for the two indispensable features of the early American literature: their spiritual topic and imitation of English literary traditions. 1 ) William Bradford ( 1590-1657 ) Of Plymouth Plantation ( 2 ) John Winthrop ( governor of Massachusetts Bay ) Journal 1790 The History of New England ( 3 ) Edward Taylor.
The New England Quarterly ( 4 ) Cotton Mather Magnolia Christi Americana Characteristics: In malice of the alone characteristics that the colonial work forces of letters. reflected in their Hagiographas. some common characteristic tally through about all the chief plants of the major literary figures of the colonial period. which mirrored the nature of colonial American literature and continued to be the subsequent development of American literature and of America itself. Puritanism was cardinal to colonial American literature and its impact could happen look in about all respects refering literature.
The strong belief that all spiritual advancement centered in the person led colonial authors to do records of his religious development in the signifiers of diary and autobiography: a strenuous soul-searching and ceaseless searching of scruples in the Hagiographas of the Puritans was the consequence of their belief that “election” would demo itself in the behaviour and in the experiences of the interior life of the person. In maintaining with the belief that American literature should concern itself with religious and in the experiences of the interior life of the person.
In maintaining with the belief that literature should concern with religious values. the discourse became the most extremely developed and the most popular of Puritan and compact look. and its turning away of rhetorical ornament magnificently illustrated Puritan aesthetic and moral theories. In conformity with their manner of life. the Puritans preferred a manner characterized by dowdiness of imagination. simpleness of enunciation and an accent on the values most easy recognized by their readers.
It is for the same ground that they disliked the sensuous entreaty of certain types of imagination and favored the figures and images drawn from the common experiences of the New England colonists. Questions for treatment: 1. What were the characteristics of colonial America? 2. What were the literary features? 3. What was the Puritanism? Reference Books: 1. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 2. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? E. Spiller
3. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Chapter 3 The Literature of Reason and Revolution I. Teaching clip: 4 instruction hours II. Teaching Purpose: the pupils should cognize the ground and consequence of American Revolution. and the features of the literature.
Through larning the selected plants. the pupils get to cognize the writing manner of them. III. Teaching Method: a. presentation. b. analysis of the contexts of the plants. c. inquiries and treatment. IV. Key points: composing manner of the prose works. Introduction: I. The Historical Background: a ) two revolutions { American Revolution Enlightenment 1 ) European’s conflicts in the New Continent ; 2 ) The cause of the Revolution ; 3 ) The process of the Revolution ; 4 ) The significance of the Revolution. II. The Development of Literature: 1 ) prose of Thomas Paine. Franklin and Thomas Jefferson ;
2 ) Poetry of Byrant Questions for Discussion: 1 ) What do you cognize about American Revolution? 2 ) What do you cognize about Washinton? 3 ) What is the chief tendency of literature? III. Writers and their Hagiographas in this period: 1 ) Benjamin Franklin A. his life and works: Benjamin Franklin was a brilliant. hardworking and various adult male. Get downing as a hapless male child in a household of 17 kids. he became celebrated on both sides of the Atlantic as a solon. scientist and writer. Despite his celebrity. he ever remained a adult male of industry and simple gustatory sensations.
Franklin’s Hagiographas range from informal discourses on thrift to polished essays. He wrote gracefully every bit good as clearly with a humor which frequently gave an border to his words. Though the manner he formed came from copying two celebrated English litterateurs. Addison and Steele. he made it into his ain. His most celebrated work is his Autobiography. Before his autobiography. his “Poor Richard’s Almanac ( 1733-1758 ) became popular readings which contain many Proverbss like: Early to bed. and early to lift. Makes a adult male healthy. affluent and wise. Franklin’s Autobiography is many things.
First of all it is an animating history of a hapless boy’s rise to a high place. Franklin tells his narrative modestly. excluding some of his misbehaviors. his mistakes as being much less than perfect. He is resigned to the fact that his misbehaviors will frequently have a penalty of one kind or another. Sing himself with objectiveness. Franklin offers his life narrative as a lesson to others. It is a positive lesson that teaches the reader to populate a utile life. In fact the Autobiography is a how-to-do it book. a book on the art of self-reformation.
In 1771. while life in England and functioning as embassador for most of the settlements. Franklin began his autobiography as a missive to his boy. Willliam. He got every bit far as the twelvemonth 1730 ( including his reaching in Philadelphia ) being interrupted by “the personal businesss of the Revolution” . In 1784. while life at Passy. France. so a suburb of Paris. he extended his Autobiography through 1731. The majority of the balance of the work was added in 1788 and the concluding few pages were written in1790. the twelvemonth of his decease. None of this was published while Franklin lived.
Shortly after his decease. a Gallic interlingual rendition of his life to 1731 ( the first two subdivision that Franklin wrote ) was published. Though this was shortly translated into English and published in London. the “official text did non look until 1818. as portion of the plants of Benjamin Franklin. ” edited by his grandson William Temple Franklin. The first “complete” Autobiography—with the pages written in 1790—did non look until 1868. edited by John Bigelow. who had bought Franklin’s original manuscript from a Franklin household the old twelvemonth.
The Autobiography screens Franklin’s life merely until 1757 when he was 51 old ages old. good before his major achievements as a diplomat. The work as a whole was written by a adult male good beyond the normal age of retirement. yet it is non the less lively for that fact. Franklin’s command of a prose manner characterized by lucidity. conciseness. flexibleness and order was cardinal to his celebrity as a great adult male of letters. Such major characteristics of his manner was summarized by himself in a short paragraph: The words used should be the most expressive that the linguistic communication affords. provided that they are the most by and large understood.
Nothing should be expressed in two words that can every bit good be expressed in one ; that is. no equivalent word should be used. or seldom. but the whole should be every bit short as possible. consistent with clarity: the words should be placed as to agreeable to the ear in reading ; summarily. it should be smooth. clear. and short for the contrary qualities are displeasing. 2 ) Analysis of the Selected portion: A. 3 paragraphs: a. what involvement did Franklin hold as a kid ; a. Bing an learner to his brother. Franklin began composing ; B. Bettering debate. Drumhead: Franklin was 30 to knowledge and seeking to larn the linguistic communication with practical methods.
B a. the manner of larning linguistic communications ; a. Practice makes perfect ; B. Relationss to his relations ; c. Learning nine. Drumhead: Franklin was a practical adult male. In larning linguistic communications we know he had a strong endurance and departer head. 3 ) Thomas Pain ( 2737-1809 ) I. Introduction: Pain was the boy of a British starymaker and he himself entered the same trade. He came to America with a missive of debut from Franklin and began assisting redact the Pennsylvania Magazine. In Jan. 1776. he published anonymously a booklet called Common Sense. which was the first blunt call for straight-out independency.
In three months. more than 100. 000 transcripts of the booklet were sold. The booklet had enormous consequence in singing the populace to the support of independency and helped fix the public temper for “The Declaration of independency. ” When the war came. Paine joined the ground forces. To beef up the ethical motives of the soldiers. he wrote his stirring series of articles. The Crisis. The first of the 16 Numberss began with the celebrated challenge “These are the times that try man’s psyches. ” Many of the 16 Numberss were written “on drumhead” in some of the darkest minutes of the War. between 1776 and 1781.
Paine was direct. clear. candid. bold. witty. passionate and inspiring. His composing entreaties to both emotion and logic. His defects lay in inordinate flashiness. and in fluid shallowness. However. as a pamphleteer he was without equal. His was the most powerful individual voice of propaganda on behalf of the Revolution. After the war. Paine returned to England. Because of his understanding for the Gallic Revolution. as expressed in his The Rights of Man. he was forced to fly to France. He was elected a deputy at that place. but as a centrist he was subsequently put into prison. In prison he wrote “The Age of Reason” . assailing Christianity.
Paine returned to America at Jefferson’s invitation. but was ostracized because of his extremist thoughts and addresss. He died in poorness. II. Study the selected parts: A. Questions for apprehension: 1. In what sense does Paine utilize the verb “try” in the first sentence of the essay? Paine uses the word “try” in the sense of “ trial to the limit” . “subject to great adversities. ” 2. To what three type of felon does Paine indirectly compose George III? Paine compares George III to a liquidator. a highjacker. and a cat burglar. 3. What does Paine intend by an “offensive war” ? What ground does he give for non back uping such a war?
For Paine. an violative war would hold been one in which American would hold been the attackers. the first to assail. He equated such a war with slaying and would non back up it for that ground. 4. What sort of war does he believe the American Revolution to be? Paine clearly believes the American Revolution to be a defensive war. one in which his side was supporting itself against subjugation and captivity. Drumhead: In “The American Crisis” Paine maintains that “these” times will set adult male to a trial. Those who will contend merely during the summer and sunlight deserve no congratulations.
We need soldiers who will contend anytime. who will do forfeits for the baronial cause of democratic revolution. Paine maintains that solace for those Americans who support the overthrow of dictatorship is the belief that they will win “more glorious” triumph. In other words. people must appreciate what they believe in and fight hardest for. Britain’s declaration that she may “bind us in all instances whatsoever” is nil more than bondage. and merely God may hold such “undiminished” power. He believes that God will “not give up” or abandon a people who have so firm tried to avoid war.
Surely Britain can non look to God for counsel ; felons have every bit much ground to look for counsel as the British. in fact they are felons. In short “The American Crisis’ is an Enlightenment. Deist papers. Man relies on ground and never-say-die optimism. non redemption. for rescue from parturiency. However much the soldiers. a bookman. the common adult male fighting for triumph wants the support of God. he must trust o his devotedness to his cause and to his fellowman. Questions for Further study” 1. How do you understand the rubric of the essay “The American Crisis: 2. What does the author think of the torries?
3. What is Paine’s attitude towards the British military personnels? ( 4 ) Thomas Jefferson ( 1743-1826 ) I. Introduction Jefferson was born on the Virginia frontier. After his graduation from college. he became the proprietor of a plantation and a gentleman husbandman. He was a adult male of many endowments. profoundly interested in scientific discipline. experimental agribusiness and instruction. He was a scientist. discoverer. musician and linguist. As an designer. he designed his place. Monticello. He founded and designed the University of Virginia. In 1775. he went to the Continental Congress and drafted The Declaration of Independence the following twelvemonth.
In the Virginia legislative assembly. he led successful onslaughts on the established church and an unsuccessful onslaught on bondage. He served his state as curate to France ( 1784-1798 ) . Secretary of State ( 1789-1793 ) . frailty President ( 1797-1801 ) and President ( 1801-1809 ) . He is best known for his political philosophy—Jeffersonian /Democracy. which includes religion in the person and common adult male. dislike an excessively strong cardinal authorities. and accent on the importance of instruction and on agrarianism and land ownership as they brought duty and true judgement.
Politically. Jefferson is considered the male parent of the democratic spirit in his state. He ne’er thought of himself as an writer. but his essays. letters and public documents. when eventually collected. may make full 50 volumes. As a author. he showed self-respect. flexibleness. lucidity. lyrical grasp of nature and bid of generalisation. but he was on occasion long-winded and boring. On the whole he followed his theory of seting force before academic rightness. II. The Declaration of Independence.
The commission to outline the Declaration of Independence begins its work on June 11. On June 28 it presented the bill of exchange to the Congress. The papers was chiefly the work of Jefferson with alterations recommended by other members of the commission. particularly. Franklin and John Adams. The concluding version had undergone farther alteration before the Congress eventually adopted it. The Declaration of Independence adopted July 4. 1776. non merely announced the birth of a new state. it besides set forth a doctrine of human freedom. which served as an of import force in the western universe.
It rested upon peculiar grudges. but more upon a wide base of single autonomy. of single will. so precious by Americans. Endurance of subjugation could run into its threshold ; after that. the people must organize a new province. Its thoughts inspired mass ardor for the American cause. for it instilled among the common people a sense of their ain importance and inspired battle for personal freedom. self authorities and a dignified topographic point in society. It is apparent here and in American literature that Americans are protective of their freedoms in nevertheless manner they choose to construe them.
In add-on. Jefferson’s intent in authorship is to do the experiment of free authorities so successful that it would be an illustration to the remainder of the universe and a moral force in the fate of world. The rules of decentalisation of authorization. agricultural economic system. public instruction and flexible Torahs were all byproducts of the cardinal philosophy of Lockian perfectibility. III. Questions for treatment: 1. What ground for composing the Declaration does Jefferson give in its first portion of the organic structure paragraph? He says he wishes to declare the cause for the interruption with Britain out of “a nice regard to the sentiments of world.
” 2. Harmonizing to the Declaration. where does a authorities acquire its power? A authorities gets its powers “from the consent of the governed” . This. of class. is a major dogma of a democracy. 3. What are the “unalienable rights” that Jefferson references? They are “life. autonomy and chase of felicity. ” Alienable is a legal term intending capable of being transferred to another. The point Jefferson is doing is that on one can take away these rights from the person. 4. What individual or thing does Jefferson fault most of the ailments of the settlements? There can be no inquiry that he blames King George III most.
At one point he refers to “others” . intending Parliament. but he had antecedently argued that Parliament had no authorization whatsoever over the settlements ; therefore he had to concentrate here on the male monarch. the lone bond the settlements had with England. 5. What pledge did the signers of the Declaration make to each other? They pledge their lives. lucks and sacred award. These 56 work forces realized they might be subscribing their decease warrants. Affixing their signatures to the Declaration was no idle exercising. 6. What do you say Jefferson meant by the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God?
How might such Torahs differ from or be the same as other Torahs? The Torahs of nature and nature’s God were what are normally called “natural laws” . which might or might non be opposed to semisynthetic Torahs. Jefferson was rather witting of the fact that some of the Torahs of the male monarch and Parliament were opposed to such natural Torahs. Slavery would be an illustration of unnatural Torahs. The natural jurisprudence is a organic structure of Torahs. which are cardinal to human nature. and are determined by an unconditioned human sense of justness without mention to semisynthetic Torahs. which. by contrary. are conditioned by history and capable to uninterrupted alteration.
Man is given “natural rights” by the natural jurisprudence and non by any semisynthetic jurisprudence. In other words. work forces are born entitled to certain rights. which we call natural rights. The theory of natural jurisprudence and natural rights provided a theoretical footing for the American and Gallic Revolution in many states every bit good. 7. Jefferson fundamentally mentions four “self-evident” truths. Name them. Then reason for or against the impression that they are in fact self-evident. The axiomatic truths to which we refer are a. } that all work forces are created equal B ) that they have an alienable rights degree Celsius ) that authoritiess are instituted to
secure these rights and vitamin D ) that people can change or get rid of an unfair authorities and do a new one. Historically. none of these “truth” is axiomatic. Governments have treated and go on to handle citizens unevenly and as if they had no rights at all. And even in Jefferson’s clip. neither adult female nor inkinesss were treated every bit. 8. Jefferson says it is the “right and duty” of world to throw off “absolute absolutism. ” What does he intend? Absolute absolutism refers to a authorities in which the swayer holds absolute power and presumptively tyrannise his or her “subjects” .
Why would it be the responsibility of world to throw off such a absolutism? It would be the responsibility of world to make so because a tyrant would do the chase of such things as life. autonomy and felicity impossible. Under a tyrant. one would non be human ; one could non recognize oneself. 9. Compare the attitude expressed in the Declaration toward the British people with that toward King George III. The British people are referred to as “our British brethren. ” They and the settlers portion a “common kindred” . Their unselfishness and graciousness are noted through the word magnaminity.
But they. like their male monarch. “have been deaf to the voice of justness and of blood kinship. ” Thus. the British people must be held. as the remainder of the universe is held. as “enemies in war. in peace. friends. ” The male monarch and Parliament bear the brunt of the settler “wrath. ” It is the male monarch who is charged with all their grudges. His history is one “of repeated hurts and trespasss. ” Because he desires to set up “absolute tyranny” over the settlements. he is ”unfit to be the swayer of a free people. 10.
Argue for or against the impression that the Declaration of Independence was a piece of “propaganda” . Propaganda is defined as “ the spreading of thoughts. information or rumour for the intent of assisting or wounding an establishment. a cause or a individual. ” Jefferson surely spreads thoughts and information for the intent of assisting a cause and wounding George III. His Declaration clearly is a thing from the paperss. However. it is an first-class piece of propaganda. in the sense in which that word is decently defined. Further Reading: Volume of Thomas Jefferson 4 ) Philip Freneau ( 1752-1832 ) I.
Introduction: Thomas Jefferson described Freneau as the adult male who “saved our fundamental law which was fast galloping into monarchy. ” He was born in New York to a comfortable household whose ascendants came to America as Protestant refugees from seventeenth century France. At the age of 16. Freneau entered Princeton. where he was a schoolmate of James Madison. While an undergraduate. Freneau wrote “The Power of Francy. ” his first of import verse form. and he collaborated with Brackenridge. a novelist on a loyal. airy verse form. “The Rising Glory of America” read at the beginning ceremonials in 1771.
After graduation. Freneau worked briefly and unsuccessfully as a school maestro. In the summer of 1775. at the start of American Revolution. he was in New York. where he wrote a series of biting. loyal sarcasms. In 1776. he traveled to the West Indies. There he wrote “The House of Night” a verse form alcoholic with images of tropical nature and he saw the horrors of bondage that subsequently attacked in “To Sir Toby” Two old ages subsequently Freneau returned to North America where he enlisted in the colonial reserves and so became a mariner on a encirclement smuggler.
In 1780 he was captured by British naval forces and imprisoned for six hebdomads on ‘The Scorpion. a British prison ship in New York Harbor. Imprisonment increased his hate for the British and all the authorities. When he was released in an exchange of captive. he made his manner to Philadelphia. where he began to compose for the Freeman’s diary for his fervent loyal poetry and For his scathing sarcasm of the British and of monarchist sympathizes. With the terminal of the Revolution. Freneau returned to the sea for his support. functioning between 1784 and 1790 as maestro of a merchandiser ship.
In ‘786 his first volume of verse form was published and in 1790 he resumed his calling as a journalist. A twelvemonth subsequently with the assistance of Jefferson. Secretary of State under Washington. Freneau was appointed a transcriber in the State Department and he established the National Gazette. a semi-weekly newspaper that became the voice of broad democracy in American political relations. For the following two old ages. Freneau joined in a series of barbarous political conflicts with the Federalist protagonists of Washington authorities.
With his ain strong sarcasms and unmaskings and with erudite essays on authorities written by Madison and Braderidge. Washington protested to Jefferson for using “that rascal Freneau” . In 1793. Jefferson retired as Washington’s Secretary of State. With his frequenter out of office and with the circulation of his newspaper dwindling. Freneau closed the Gazette and returned to his household farm in New Jersey. In 1803 he was forced to return to the sea to gain his life as a ship’s captain.
Four old ages subsequently he returned one time more to his New Jersey farm and worked the last old ages of his life as an occasional labourer and rolling tinker. In 1832. when he was eighty. he became lost in a blizzard on his manner place from a tavern and died of exposure. Freneau’s political news media in behalf of democracy had won him celebrity and assist take to the rise of Jasksonism and the “Age of the common Man” in America. But since the mid-19th century. his journalistic victories have been overshadowe.
