Chapter New England of Index by Simonds History of American Literature

Harvard College in his honor. In 1639, the first printing-press in America was set up at Cambridge, as Newtown was then named out of compliment to the numerous graduates of the English university, then settled in this vicinity. The colonists had their grammar schools which prepared for college; and by 1650 public instruction was compulsory in four of the Five New England colonies, Rhode Island being the exception.

The earliest literary efforts among the New England colonists -- like the beginnings in Virginia -- were historical land narrative writings, some in the form of journals, a few, more ambitious, representing real attempts at formal history.

William Bradford, 1590-1657.

William Bradford, for whom the title Father of American history may well be claimed, was a native of Yorkshire, and at seventeen, a member of the Rev. John Robinson's famous congregation, fled with his brethren into Holland. He was prominent among the Pilgrims at the time of their arrival in America, and att thirty-two was elected governor of Plymouth. Until his death, he continued to fill this honorable office, except as he was permitted to break the period of his service for intervals at five several times. Bradford was a plain, sensible, truthful man, an able leader under severe conditions. He felt the immense significance of what was then taking place, and sought to provide a record which should preserve a faithful picture of the settlement. No sooner had the Mayflower sighted land, than Bradford began conjointly with Edward Winslow to keep a journal of all occurrences. This journal was carefully continued to the end of the first year. Ten years after the arrival, Governor Bradford began his notable History of the Plimoth Plantation, on which he labored for twenty years. His purpose, as he avowed, was to write "in a plain style, with singular regard unto the simple truth in all things." His story goes back to the persecutions in England and details the causes of the flight into Holland; describes the sojourn there, and explains the reasons for the second exodus to the shores of the New World. What follows consists of a contemporaneous narrative of the experiences of the colony, set down in simple chronicle without much regard to proportion or unity; but the unmistakable touch of his own homely, honest personality and the vigor of his blunt, realistic style impart a distinct literary flavor to this primitive history of Plymouth, which adds too its obvious value as the first de tailed report of the New England settlements. An illustration is found in the writer's account of the Pilgrims and their perilous situation upon their arrival in the New World: --

"Being thus arrived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of heaven, who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth, their proper element. . . . But here I cannot but stay and make a pause, and stand half amazed at this poor people's present condition; and so I think will the reader too when he well consider the same. Being thus passed the vast ocean and a sea of troubles before, in their preparation, . . . they had now no friends to welcome them, nor inns to entertain or refresh their weather-beaten bodies, no houses or much less towns to repair to, to seek for succor. It is recorded in scripture as mercy to the apostle and his shipwrecked company, that the barbarians showed them no small kindness in refreshing them ; but these savage barbarians when they met with them . . . were readier to fill their sides full of arrows than otherwise. And for the season, it was winter; and they that know the winters of that country know them to be sharp and violent, and subject to cruel and fierce storms, dangerous to travel to known places, much more to search an unknown coast. Besides what could they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wild beasts and wild men? And what multitudes there might be of them, they knew not. Neither could they, as it were, go up to the top of Pisgah, to view from this wilderness a more goodly country to feed their hopes; for which way soever they turned their eyes (save upward to the heavens) they could have little solace or content in respect of any outward objects. For summer being done, all things stared upon them with a weather-beaten face; and the whole country, full of woods and thickets, represented a wild and savage hue. If they looked behind them, there was the mighty ocean which they had passed, and was now as a main bar and gulf to separate them from all the civil parts of the world. . . . May not and ought not the children of these fathers rightly say : `Our fathers were Englishmen which came over this great ocean and were ready to perish in this wilderness; but they cried unto the Lord and he heard their voice