Lauren Smith
April 1, 2022
ENGL 201-D02 LUO
Professor Christopher Robinson
The colonial period lasted from 1607 to 1765. This time is during the 17th century.
America during the 17th century was a time that Americans had seen a new land that they wanted
to explore and study. The more they learned about America and the land, the more opportunities
that they had discovered. Three people had left Europe and went to go explore the land of
America. These three famous explorers are known as William Bradford, John Winthrop, and
John Smith. The three men wanted to come to America for the same reason, and they all had the
same goal to make America a good place. Each man wrote about the journey they took and what
was encountered, seen, and what happened throughout the journey.
William Bradford born in 1590 and died in 1657, wrote the narrative documents
Separatists’ Pilgrimage. He wrote this to tell of why the puritans traveled to Holland and then to
North America to find religious freedom and why they got the name pilgrims. They are called
Pilgrims because of the pilgrimage to their Promised Land, their New Jerusalem. Because of
recording their experiences, made Bradford a hagiographer. He wrote about the cost of godliness
and the difficult choices they had to make. He shows the reasoning and the justification for the
choices they made. Bradford also wrote about how important their achievement was and why it
was important. His writing is divided into three parts and part one tells of the journey from
England to Holland. Bradford tells of the persecution in England and the reasons for leaving for
Holland being war, pollution, shrinking congregation, economic hardships, licentious Dutch life
and its threat to separatist youths, spreading the gospel to the new world, believing that Christ
will make the new world the site of His 2nd coming. The second part of his writing talks about
leaving Holland and the experience they had at sea. He wrote about how there were violent
storms during the journey at sea and how they were tempted to return home. Part three discusses
the arrival and life in the new land. The people struggled to survive in a land that was so hostile,
and they had disputes with the other people they thought to be strange.
John Winthrop was born on January 22, 1588, and died on March 26, 1649. In 1630 he
delivered Christian Charitie on the ship headed for America called Arbella. This sermon
consisted of talking about how God told them to create a Christian community “a city upon a
hill” and the covenant that he and the puritans entered with God. He also discusses the reasons
for leaving being missionary work, escape, overcrowding; corruption of education and religion in
England, and the need for an exemplary Christian Community, a “City Set Upon a Hill,” to shine
as an example of Christian Charitie or Love for the whole world to see. On his journey, Winthrop
writes The Journal of John Winthrop. This records what they did each day and their day-to-day
activities, their success in the wilderness and Indians subdued and other successes, and their
conflicts with Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson; also known as “American Jesabel”.
John Smith was born in 1580 and died in 1631, and was the founder of Jamestown in
1607. From 1608 to 1609 he had become the president of the colony. In 1609 Smith returned to
England and in 1614 he returned to New England and in 1615 returned to England permanently
to live the rest of his life there. John Smith wrote several literary works each work talks about the
experiences he had in America. If all of the works are about the same thing then why write
several works about the same thing? Even though all of the works that Smith wrote all talk about
the same incidents, they all have new details that are not mentioned in the other works. Each new
literary work gives more details than the last. Each one goes into more detail. His writing style
was plain, he wrote for plain men’s satisfaction.
William Bradford, John Winthrop, and John Smith all three journeyed to America and
wrote about what they had experienced while on their journey, what they saw, what they
encountered, and their view of America. The three men did have something in common with
their literary works. They all had religious reasons for moving to America and they all wrote
about it. Each man had the same goal to make America better, but each man traveled differently,
traveled with different people, and had different stories to tell and write about.
References
Donohue. (2011). Bradford’s Indian book being the true roote & rise of American letters as
revealed by the native text embedded in Of Plimoth Plantation. University Press of
Florida.
Parker, M. (2013). John Winthrop: Founding the City Upon a Hill (1st ed.). Routledge.
https://doi-org.ezproxy.liberty.edu/10.4324/9780203408360
Pritchard, R. E. (2021). Captain john smith, adventurer : Piracy, pocahontas and jamestown. Pen
& Sword Books Limited.
