Thirteen English Colonies, Part 2
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UNIT 4 ___ . ___ During the 1600s, people began printing books in America. Quaker William Penn founded the Pennsylvania colony as a place dedicated to freedom. High ranking Page from the Bay Psalm Book Englishmen founded the North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia colonies. American Jonathan Edwards and Englishman George Whitefield led Thirteen English a revival called the Great Awakening. We finish the unit learning about life in colonial Williamsburg. Colonies, Part 2 AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL 119 119 Beginning of Genesis in the “Eliot Indian Bible” Lesson 16 Printing Books in Daily Life Colonial America he first books published and printed in America reflected the Tfaith of its first European settlers. The Cambridge Press The Puritans established Boston and other villages when they arrived in Massachusetts Bay in 1630. One of those villages was Newtowne. The Massachusetts Bay colony organized a college in Newtowne in 1636. It was the first college in the colonies. Its purpose was to train ministers. Puritan minister John Harvard, who lived in the village of Charlestown, died Massachusetts Hall at Harvard College, built in 1790 in 1638. In his will, he gave the new college his library of 400 books and half of his large estate. Colony officials named the school Harvard College. In 1638 Newtowne was renamed Cambridge, after the University of Cambridge in England. That same year, minister Jose Glover and his family sailed from England to settle in the Massachusetts Bay colony. Glover brought a printing press and types with him. He also brought Stephen Daye as an indentured servant, and Daye’s two sons. 120 Glover died on the way to America. His widow married Henry Dunster, the president of Harvard College. Henry Dunster hired Stephen Daye to run the Cambridge Press. Though Daye was in charge, his son Matthew ran the printing press. Matthew had been a printer’s apprentice in England. Daye’s first printing project was a broadside, titled “The Freeman’s Oath,” printed in 1639. The Bay Psalm Book Thirty Puritan leaders translated the 150 Psalms in the Bible and arranged them into verses for their congregations to sing. In 1640 the Cambridge Press printed them with the title, The Whole Book of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre. This hymn book is usually called simply the Bay Psalm Book. It was the first book printed in America. The Cambridge Press printed about 1,700 copies. Today there are only 11 known copies still in existence. John Eliot and the “Eliot Indian Bible” Puritan minister John Eliot became known as the Apostle to the Indians. Eliot was born in 1604 in England and was educated at the University of Cambridge. Eliot came to the Massachusetts Bay colony on the English ship the Lyon in 1631. This was the same ship that brought Roger Williams (founder of Rhode Island) and his wife to America, but Eliot came a few months after the Williams family. Eliot helped to found the village of Roxbury and became one of its ministers. He was one of the main translators of the Bay Psalm Book. Eliot wanted to share the gospel of Jesus with local native nations. He learned to speak Natick, the local Algonquian dialect. He learned it so well that he was able to preach to native people without an interpreter. Psalm 1 in the Bay Psalm Book 121 The English Parliament established the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Indians in 1649. The Society supported Eliot’s efforts. In 1654 Eliot published A Primer or Catechism in the Massachusetts Indian Language to use as a teaching tool. This was the first book in a native language to be printed in the English colonies. John Eliot spent fourteen years translating the Bible into the Natick dialect. The Cambridge Press printed this Bible between 1660 and 1663. Stephen Daye supervised John Eliot preaches to native people� Samuel Green while he printed 1,000 copies. Printer Marmaduke Johnson arrived from England bringing 100 reams of paper. He also brought 80 pounds of new type, including plenty of “O’s” and “K’s,” which were necessary to print the Bible in the Natick language. Johnson became Samuel Green’s assistant. The Bible is titled The Holy Bible Containing the Old Testament and the New, Translated into the Indian Language. This Bible, which is often called the “Eliot Indian Bible,” was the first complete Bible printed in the New World. It was the largest printing project completed in the 1600s in America. See the top of the first page of Genesis on page 120. John Cotton, The Patriarch of New England John Cotton became a Puritan while living in England. The archbishop of Canterbury leads the Church of England. Because of his Puritan beliefs, the archbishop commanded John Cotton to appear before him. Instead of going to Canterbury to be reprimanded or punished, John Cotton fled to Boston in 1633. John Cotton was another of the thirty ministers who helped with the Bay Psalm Book. Cotton served First Church in Boston until he died. He had a good reputation. People admired him for his piety. He was called the Patriarch of New England. Cotton believed strongly that people who did not conform to Puritan laws should be punished. In 1645 he published The John Cotton by John Smibert Way of the Churches of Christ in New England. 122 A Family of Ministers: Richard, Increase, and Cotton Mather Three generations of ministers in the Mather family wrote or helped to write several of the first books printed in America. Richard Mather came to the Massachusetts Bay colony from England in 1635. He served the Dorchester, Massachusetts, church from 1636 until his death in 1699. He was one of the ministers who worked on the Bay Psalm Book. Richard Mather’s son Increase was born in Dorchester in 1639. Increase graduated from Harvard at age seventeen. He went to Dublin, Ireland, to study. He later preached in England for a short time. After returning to Massachusetts, Increase married Maria Cotton, daughter of John Cotton. He became the minister of North Church (now called Old North Church) in Boston. In 1676 Increase Mather published a book about King Philip’s War. The title was A Brief History of the War with the Indians in New England. Narragansett warriors captured Mary Rowlandson. In 1682 Increase Mather helped her to publish The Sovereignty and Goodness of God . A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mary Rowlandson. Increase Mather served as the president of Harvard for sixteen years. Increase and Maria Mather named their Mather Family oldest son Cotton after his grandfather, John Cotton. Cotton Mather attended Harvard and then served alongside his father at North Church. He published 469 books, articles, and pamphlets. He wrote about theology, history, politics, and science. In his book, Magnalia Christi Americana, which means The Great Works of Christ in America, he gives a detailed history of New England. The book praises the Puritan founders. Cotton Mather Richard Mather Increase Mather by John Foster by James Hopwood also published The Negro Christianized. In this book, he encouraged people to educate the Africans who were being brought to America as enslaved persons. The book also encouraged the Puritans to accept them as church members. Cotton Mather, print by Peter Pelham 123 Roger Williams Roger Williams wrote A Key into the Language of America in 1643. In this book, he wrote about the Narragansett language and about customs of the native nations of New England. Puritan Poets In the 1600s, many Puritans wrote journals and devotional poetry. The purpose of their writings was to examine their hearts and lives. When people visited one another’s homes, they sometimes read their personal poems aloud to one another. Anne Bradstreet was the first American to publish a book of poetry. Her book, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, was published in England in 1650. Anne had come to America on the Arbella with Massachusetts Bay Governor Anne Bradstreet John Winthrop. She traveled with her parents, her siblings, and her husband, Simon, to whom she had been married for two years. She and Simon reared eight children. American Children’s Literature of the 1600s In 1690 Benjamin Harris published The New England Primer in Boston. It included the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, stories, an alphabet in rhyme, and other rhymes. In 1646 John Cotton published Spiritual Milk for Boston Babes. It was a 13- page book of questions and answers. Early editions of The New England Primer included this short book. This is an opening in The New England Primer. Benjamin Franklin printed this 1764 edition. 124 Early American Printers Early American printers served as publishers, printers, and booksellers. Often they had printing presses in the back of their business and a bookshop in the front. Cambridge Press was the main printing company in America for 34 years. It published only one book each year. Marmaduke Johnson, who had helped print the “Eliot Indian Bible,” began a print shop in Boston in 1674. William Bradford, who was a Quaker (not to Print shop at Old Sturbridge Village, Massachusetts be confused with William Bradford of Plymouth), began a print shop in Philadelphia in 1685. Bradford moved to New York City in 1693 and opened a printing business there. Thomas Short opened the first print shop in New London in the Connecticut colony in 1709. In 1720, 80 years after the first print shop opened in the Massachusetts Bay colony, those four cities were the only cities in the colonies that had a print shop.