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The Colonial Book and the Writing of American History, 1790-1855

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The Colonial Book and the Writing of American History, 1790-1855 HISTORY’S IMPRINT: THE COLONIAL BOOK AND THE WRITING OF AMERICAN HISTORY, 1790-1855 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Lindsay E.M. DiCuirci, M.A. Graduate Program in English The Ohio State University 2010 Dissertation Committee: Elizabeth Hewitt, Adviser Jared Gardner Susan Williams Copyright by Lindsay Erin Marks DiCuirci 2010 ABSTRACT “History’s Imprint: The Colonial Book and the Writing of American History, 1790-1855” investigates the role that reprinted colonial texts played in the development of historical consciousness in nineteenth-century America. In the early decades of the nineteenth century, antiquarians and historians began to make a concerted effort to amass and preserve an American archive of manuscript and print material, in addition to other artifacts and “curiosities” from the colonial period. Publishers and editors also began to prepare new editions of colonial texts for publication, introducing nineteenth-century readers to these historical artifacts for the first time. My dissertation considers the role of antiquarian collecting and historical publishing—the reprinting of colonial texts—in the production of popular historical narratives. I study the competing narratives of America’s colonial origins that emerged between 1790 and 1855 as a result of this new commitment to historicism and antiquarianism. I argue that the acts of selecting, editing, and reprinting were ideologically charged as these colonial texts were introduced to new audiences. Instead of functioning as pure reproductions of colonial books, these texts were used to advocate specific religious, political, and cultural positions in the nineteenth century. In addition, these reprints and the stories they contained exposed the instability and heterogeneity of American history and challenged the myth of a unified national identity. ii My dissertation is divided into three parts and each analyzes the nineteenth- century construction of a particular epoch of colonial history: Columbus’s discovery of the Caribbean, England’s settlement of Virginia, and the Puritans’ landing in New England. This organization reflects both the regional variations evident in nineteenth- century historical writing and the ideological underpinnings of these vastly different colonial narratives. My analysis reveals that colonial history became contested territory in the nineteenth century as writers and readers grappled with the notion of American exceptionalism—a belief in America’s unique role in modern history—and as they sought to locate the roots of democracy. Using the methodologies of book history and literary criticism, my dissertation enriches studies of American literary history, print culture, regionalism, and transnationalism. iii DEDICATION To Mike and my parents, for their love, patience, and encouragement iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am indebted to many people for the completion of this project. I am grateful for the guidance and encouragement of my dissertation committee: Beth Hewitt, Jared Gardner and Susan Williams. It was Beth’s introductory course in American Literature that drew me to the field as a Master’s student and a course with Susan, and hers and Jared’s scholarship, that sparked my interest in periodicals. I owe a particular debt to Beth for reading many drafts of not just this document but countless other applications and articles. Beth supported this project at every turn and gave insightful feedback and critiques that motivated me and elevated the level of my work. I am also thankful to Harvey Graff and Alan Farmer for introducing me to the fields of literacy and book history and for their feedback on this project in its earliest form. I am thankful to the College of Arts & Humanities at Ohio State for a quarter-long fellowship and a grant which allowed me to conduct essential dissertation research and participate in professional development opportunities. An Andrew Mellon grant from the Massachusetts Historical Society supported invaluable access to their archives and assistance from their expert staff. A Presidential Fellowship from Ohio State allowed me the free time from teaching to complete the research and writing of this dissertation. I could not have successfully completed this project without the support of my graduate school colleagues, who deeply enriched my life and work over the last six years. v I especially thank Alexis Stern Martina for her generous spirit and her willingness to drop everything to read a new paragraph or an old paragraph or to go for a walk. Finally, I am deeply grateful for the support of my family. The DiCuirci family is a tremendous source of encouragement and love and I am thankful for all of the ways that they have provided for Mike and I. My parents, Larry and Linda Marks, have always believed I could do anything I wanted, and that has only been true because of their guidance. They have read everything significant I have written, but far beyond that, they have always been ready with the right words and reaffirming reminders that I needed in every step of this process. I am fortunate to have such enthusiastic, intelligent, and loving parents in my corner. This project would have been impossible without my husband, Mike. I thank him for his patience and attentiveness, his kindness, humor and willingness to make sacrifices; I thank him for keeping me rooted in what matters most. vi VITA February 10, 1982………………………Born in Royal Oak, MI May, 2000………………………………B.A. English, Cedarville University Minor in History June, 2004………………………………M.A. English, The Ohio State University 2004-2009………………………………Graduate Teaching Assistant Department of English The Ohio State University 2006-2007……………………………….Writing Center Consultant Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing The Ohio State University 2008-2009……………………………….Writing Across the Curriculum Consultant Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing The Ohio State University 2010……………………………………..Presidential Fellow, The Ohio State University PUBLICATIONS “Reviving Puritan History: Antiquarianism, Evangelicalism, and Mather’s Magnalia in Antebellum America.” Forthcoming in Early American Literature. “From the Periodical Archives: Joseph Cook’s ‘Conversational Opinions of the Leaders of Secession.’” American Periodicals: A Journal of History, Criticism, and Bibliography 17.1 (2007): 97-114. “Intersecting Gazes: Exploring the Challenges of Complicating Course Design.” Resources for Teaching: Rhetorical Visions. Eds. Theresa Kulbaga, Ivonne Garcia, and Deneese Owen. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2008: 152-157. vii FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: English Secondary Fields: Colonial and United States Literature and Culture to 1865, History of the Book and Material Culture viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract……………………………………………………………….……............ii Dedication……………………………………………………………..……...........iv Acknowledgments……………………………………………………………….....v Vita………………………………………………………………………………...vii INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………..………..1 PART I: Puritanism Revisited: The Histories of Cotton Mather and John Winthrop in Antebellum New England……………………23 Chapter 1: The Second Great Awakening and Mather’s Magnalia Christi Americana………………………………...30 Chapter 2: Progressive History and the Revision of John Winthrop’s Journal…………………………………………...64 PART II: Southern Roots of the Republic: Historical Publishing and the Case for Independence………………………………………111 Chapter 3: Reprinting Robert Beverley’s History of Virginia on the Eve of War………………………………………………122 Chapter 4: The Southern Literary Messenger and the Narrative of Southern Exceptionalism…………………………........…….162 PART III: American Admiral: Christopher Columbus and Atlantic World History………………………………………………………..207 Chapter 5: The Spanish Archive and the American Romance in Washington Irving’s Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus……………………………………….225 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………...277 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………...285 ix INTRODUCTION “There is no sure way of preserving historical records and materials, but by multiplying the copies. The art of printing affords a mode of preservation more effectual than Corinthian brass or Egyptian marble.” Jeremy Belknap, Address to the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1792 A witness to the birth of the United States, publisher and antiquarian Ebenezer Hazard immediately recognized the new nation’s need to preserve colonial records. In a series of letters to Jeremy Belknap, co-founder of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Hazard discussed the idea of publishing a collection of colonial documents that might aid in writing the nation’s first histories. Belknap warned that the publication would be a “risque” but that “there is a necessity for a risque in all such cases” (235). While a narrative history would be “more popular and profitable than such a collection,” the collection would provide a crucial basis for understanding the “facts” of colonial history. As Hazard responded, “I think materials such as mine will, of themselves, form the best history that can be published, as they will furnish facts free from the glosses of commentators” (262). Though neither Hazard’s Historical Collections (1792-4) nor Belknap’s own American Biography (1794, 1798) sold well—for the very reasons Belknap had stated—their work established a tradition of historical publishing, or the reprinting of historical texts, that became tremendously influential in establishing an American
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