UNIT 1

FORMATIVE PERIOD: 1620-1836

1.1 William Bradford

Set readings: Of Plymouth Plantation, compiled between 1630 and 1651. Published in 1856.
Chapters to read: Book I, Chapter I (“The Separatist Interpretation of the Reformation in
England. 1550-1607”, fragment); Book I, Chapter IV (“Showing the Reasons and Causes of
Their Removal”); Book II , Chapter XI (“The Remainder of Anno 1620. The Mayflower
Compact”).

1.1.1. An epic narration. Content

a) Of Plymouth Plantation has been defined as an epic in the Virgilian mold on the
founding, development and decline of the Plymouth colony between 1620 and 1650.
Outline the features that justify this definition.

b) What was the motivating idea behind the Plymouth enterprise? Why did Bradford
think it was bound to succeed? What is the author’s view of human nature?

c) What is the vision of America sustained by Bradford? Single out the metaphors used
to depict Native inhabitants.

1.1.2. The Mayflower Compact

The Mayflower Compact is the first notable document of American political history. It
established the Plymouth colony in New England as a “Civil Body Politic,” an
independent republic until in 1691 it merged with the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Concerning this agreed constitution. Hugh Brogan in his The Penguin History of the
United States of America writes: “Seen against the modern American background there
is nothing very striking in the Pilgrims’ political arrangements; but set against the
background of Stuart England they are eloquent of what was different about the New
World” (1985: 39). Comment on Brogan’s affirmation.

1.1.3. Purpose

To what purpose did Bradford write the book?

1.1.4. Style

Does the style used agree with the Puritan theory of style? Explain.

1.1.5. The Author

In the Columbia Literary History of the United States Everett Emerson writes
concerning Bradford: “A wise, thoughtful, pious man, Bradford was profoundly
engaged in his task of writing the history of his own time. Since he was governor, his
work is authoritative, and since he cared deeply about Plymouth, he was an ideal
historian.” (1988:50). Do you share this opinion’? Explain.
1.1.6. Bibliography

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

FENDER, Stephen (1983). “William Bradford (1590-1657). American Literature in

Context I. 1620-1830. London: Methuen. 45-60.

Fender illustrates Bradford’s appropriation of biblical typology as means to record the

emergence of a new nation at a time when history did not seem to work out quite as
expected. Fender also reflects on the tension between the author’s desire to make
Plymouth part of a divine historical plan, and his implicit recognition of a latent failure.
But above all, this critic argues that the narrative interest is focused on the process of
interpretation rather than on what happened to the colonists, since Bradford’s main
interest is in reading providential desire without error.

JEHLEN, Myra (1994). “Three Writers of Early America” and ‘Settlements.” The
Cambridge History of American Literature, Vol. 1: 1590-1820. Ed. Sacvan Bercovitch.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 68-76. 84-91.

Bradford is mostly discussed as effective myth-maker in his recording of colonial

history. His account shows two major lines of interpretation, first that America was
utterly savage, and second, that America was essentially different from Europe. For the
first time in American writing, Europe appears as a foreign and unwholesome creature.

OTHER BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR FURTHER STUDY

ANDERSON, Douglas (2003). William Bradford's Books: Of Plymouth Plantation and

the Printed Word. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

RODRÍGUEZ GARCÍA, José María (2002). “Exiles and Arrivals in Christopher

Columbus and William Bradford.” Explorations in Renaissance Culture 28:1: 75-98.

SARGENT, Mark L. (2004). “The Best Parts of Histories': The Letters in William
Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation.” Lives Out of Letters: Essays on American Literary
Biography and Documentation. Ed. Robert Habich. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson
University Press. 25-64.