DOCSLIB.ORG

7. James Baldwin's the Fire Next Time and the Jeremiad

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
7. James Baldwin's the Fire Next Time and the Jeremiad JAMES TACKACH 7. JAMES BALDWIN’S THE FIRE NEXT TIME AND THE JEREMIAD TRADITION James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time fits many genres—personal memoir, religious journey, an analysis of the racial landscape of the United States early in a tumultuous decade, a critique of the Nation of Islam and black nationalism. Baldwin’s extended essay that originally appeared as an article in The New Yorker late in 1962, and in book form early in 1963, also takes the form of a jeremiad, an admonitory sermon to Baldwin’s American countrymen for the putative sins they had committed. The jeremiad, originally a type of sermon that took its name from the Old Testament Book of Jeremiah, presents a warning to the unrighteous and the wavering that God’s justifiable vengeance will be coming as payment due for individual and communal sins. The jeremiad traveled to America with the English Pilgrims and Puritans who settled in Massachusetts during the seventeenth century; it became a staple of their pulpit. Secularized and adapted to a wide range of social and moral issues, the jeremiad has endured, over almost four centuries, to become an important component of American religious and political rhetoric; it survived the decline of Puritan hegemony in New England, was adapted by American patriots to the cause of American independence from Great Britain, found new energy during the abolitionist era and Civil War, and remains alive—and not merely in evangelical Christian churches—almost four centuries after it sailed to America with English religious dissenters. The Fire Next Time is a mid-twentieth-century jeremiad, a condemnation of American racism that connects Baldwin to the Puritan vision of America—a special place inhabited by a special people who were given a special mission in the world and would be held responsible by God for failing to achieve that mission. THE JEREMIAD AND THE PURITAN VISION OF AMERICA The British Pilgrims who sailed from Holland aboard the Mayflower and established Plymouth Plantation in 1620, and especially the British Puritans who crossed the Atlantic Ocean aboard the Arbella and established Massachusetts Bay Colony a decade later, saw themselves as God’s newly chosen people. The majority of them did not come to America for gold, furs, land, or anything else of material value that this so-called New World might offer. Unlike their British predecessors who landed in Virginia in 1607 and established Jamestown, most of these New England migrants crossed the Atlantic mainly for religious purposes— to set up a new society, both ecclesiastical and civil, far from the Anglican and A. Scott Henderson & P. L. Thomas (eds.), James Baldwin: Challenging Authors, 107–120. © 2014 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved. JAMES TACKACH Catholic religious ideology and practices that still prevailed in post-Reformation England. They were indeed pilgrims embarking for a holy land in America where they could live and worship without interference from British civil and religious authorities. Their mission to this New World was unique and exceptional, they believed, an errand in the American wilderness guided by their God, who had established with them a special covenant, similar to the one that he had formed with the ancient Israelites: If these new Israelites obeyed God and carried out his work on Earth, he would bestow upon them special blessings that no other earthly communities enjoyed. The Israelites of old had become too worldly and, thus, had failed to uphold this covenant, but it was renewed by God with these seventeenth- century Pilgrims and Puritans. As the Puritan historian Perry Miller (1967) has stated, the leaders of Massachusetts Bay Colony “conceived of their society as in covenant with God like Israel of old, which supplied meanings and directions not alone for theological speculation but for the civil polity as well” (p. 415). Pilgrim and Puritan literature—sermons, histories like William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation, journals and letters—is filled with references to Moses and the Israelites journeying toward and arriving in the promised land of Canaan. The New Englanders saw themselves as the new Israelites and America as their promised land, their new Jerusalem. As the historian Nathaniel Philbrick (2006) has noted in Mayflower, the Pilgrims emigrated to America “with the conviction that God wanted them to go.” It was their “patriotic and spiritual duty to plant a godly English plantation in the New World” (p. 6). Two Puritan sermons of 1630 eloquently articulated the vision of the Massachusetts immigrants. Before the Arbella departed from Southampton, England, for America, Reverend John Cotton, the pre-eminent Puritan clergyman living in England, delivered to the ship’s passengers a sermon titled God’s Promise to His Plantations. For his sermon’s biblical text, Cotton appropriately chose a passage from II Samuel: “Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and I will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more” (II Samuel 7:10). Although Cotton would not be crossing the Atlantic on the Arbella—he would come to Massachusetts Bay Colony a few years later—he blessed the journey, comparing the departing Puritans to the ancient Israelites, led by Moses, escaping the pharaoh in ancient Egypt and journeying to the land of Canaan. Cotton (1630) also offered the travelers God’s pledge for a special place of their own: “It is a land of promise, where they have provision for soul as well as for body” (p. 77). A short time after Cotton delivered his sermon, the leader of the Puritans aboard the Arbella, John Winthrop, a layman, offered a sermon that remains one the most influential American speeches, A Model of Christian Charity. In this sermon, Winthrop suggested that this Puritan outpost in New England would be no ordinary earthly community; it would become, as Winthrop’s title suggested, a model community based on the ethic of Christian charity. According to Winthrop (1630), the Massachusetts Bay Puritans must “be all knit more nearly together in the bonds of brotherly affection” (p. 83). These bonds of love that would hold the community together must become like “a bond or ligament” that holds the human body intact 108 .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Development of Congregational Polity and Early Governance in Watertown, Massachusetts”
    “The Development of Congregational Polity and Early Governance in Watertown, Massachusetts” Charter Day Talk - September 12, 2009 - Rev. Mark W. Harris Anyone who wishes to understand early town government and town meetings in Massachusetts needs to know about the form of church government that the early Puritan settlers described as, “One, Immutable, and Prescribed in the Word of God.” (1) The authority for their chosen form of Ecclesiastical organization was the Bible, and the Puritans set forth in the Cambridge Platform of 1648 that “the parts of church-government are all of them exactly described” there. Here was a sharp division between Puritan and Anglican, for the Puritan could not find in the book of Acts or the letters of Paul any reason to justify a hierarchal system of bishops, or cardinals, or popes. The Puritan structure of organization has typically been described as congregational polity, because the congregations were intended to be a reflection of the primitive Christian churches which were small cells of independent believers. (2) By 1648 nearly thirty years had passed since the first settlers had arrived in Plymouth. The Westminster Confession, a theological platform, had arrived in the colonies from England, and by and large, there was agreement among the Puritans in matters of faith. Fifty churches had been gathered in the four colonies - Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, New Haven and Hartford. The Synod in Cambridge, which held its first session in 1646, was called by the General Court to formally structure the polity of the New England churches. Some of the English authorities had hoped to Presbyterianize the congregations, and while the theological agreement made it a fortuitous time to regularize church polity in the New World, the Puritans had no desire to capitulate to a system that did not, in their view, conform to texts from scripture.
    [Show full text]
  • MASSACHUSETTS: Or the First Planters of New-England, the End and Manner of Their Coming Thither, and Abode There: in Several EPISTLES (1696)
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Joshua Scottow Papers Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln 1696 MASSACHUSETTS: or The first Planters of New-England, The End and Manner of their coming thither, and Abode there: In several EPISTLES (1696) John Winthrop Governor, Massachusetts Bay Colony Thomas Dudley Deputy Governor, Massachusetts Bay Colony John Allin Minister, Dedham, Massachusetts Thomas Shepard Minister, Cambridge, Massachusetts John Cotton Teaching Elder, Church of Boston, Massachusetts See next page for additional authors Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/scottow Part of the American Studies Commons Winthrop, John; Dudley, Thomas; Allin, John; Shepard, Thomas; Cotton, John; Scottow, Joshua; and Royster,, Paul Editor of the Online Electronic Edition, "MASSACHUSETTS: or The first Planters of New- England, The End and Manner of their coming thither, and Abode there: In several EPISTLES (1696)" (1696). Joshua Scottow Papers. 7. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/scottow/7 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Joshua Scottow Papers by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Authors John Winthrop; Thomas Dudley; John Allin; Thomas Shepard; John Cotton; Joshua Scottow; and Paul Royster, Editor of the Online Electronic Edition This article is available at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/ scottow/7 ABSTRACT CONTENTS In 1696 there appeared in Boston an anonymous 16mo volume of 56 pages containing four “epistles,” written from 66 to 50 years earlier, illustrating the early history of the colony of Massachusetts Bay.
    [Show full text]
  • BIRTH of BOSTON PURITANS CREATE “CITY UPON a HILL” by Our Newssheet Writer in Boston September 8, 1630
    BIRTH OF BOSTON PURITANS CREATE “CITY UPON A HILL” By our newssheet writer in Boston September 8, 1630 URITAN elders declared yesterday that the Shawmut Peninsula will be called P“Boston” in the future. The seat of government of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which began two years ago, will also be in Boston. It follows a meeting between John Winthrop, the colony’s elected governor and clergyman William Blackstone, one of the first settlers to live in Trimount on the peninsula, so called because of its three “mountains.” Blackstone recommended its spring waters. Winthrop (pictured) left England earlier this year to lead ships across the Atlantic. Of the hundreds of passengers on board, many were Puritans seeking religious freedom, eager to start a new life in New England. They had prepared well, bringing many horses and cows with them. The new governor, a member of the English upper classes, brought the royal charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company with him. However, the company’s charter did not impose control from England—the colony would be effectively self-governing. Arriving in Cape Ann, the passengers went ashore and picked fresh strawberries—a welcome change from shipboard life! Colonists had previously settled in the area, but dwellings had been abandoned after many had died in drastically reduced by disease. But Winthrop the harsh winter or were starving. is taking few chances by spreading out One early colonist was Roger Conant, who settlements to make it difficult for potentially established Salem near the Native Naumkeag hostile groups to attack. people. But Winthrop and the other Puritan In time, Winthrop believes many more leaders chose not to settle there, but to continue Puritans will flock to his “City upon a Hill” to the search for their own Promised Land.
    [Show full text]
  • A Model of Christian Charity Directions
    A Model of Christian Charity Directions: Use the primary source below to do a quality PSA. Don’t forget the text specific question! John Winthrop's A Model of Christian Charity - delivered on board the Arbella as members of the Massachusetts Bay Colony sailed toward the New World - describes the struggle of Puritans and their "errand into the wilderness." Winthrop's address comes down to us as a cultural artifact, an integral part of our national legacy, and the city it envisions at its climax is a key to ideas of American exceptionalism which became such an important part of the place of the United States in world affairs. John Winthrop (1588-1649) was the first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Like most members of the Colony, Winthrop was a Puritan. This group claimed that the Church of England was corrupted by selfish leaders and petty squabbles. In contrast, Puritans envisioned an idealized community in which all citizens would focus their lives on the word of God. The text of A Model of Christian Charity, written in 1630, can be found below. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- God almighty in His most holy and wise providence hath so disposed of the condition of mankind, as in all times some must be rich, some poor, some high and eminent in power and dignity, others mean and in subjection. Reason: First, to hold conformity with the rest of His works, being delighted to show forth the glory of His wisdom in the variety and difference of the creatures and the glory of His power, in ordering all these differences for the preservation and good of the whole.
    [Show full text]
  • Headnote for Ann Bradstreet
    Headnote for Ann Bradstreet By John O'Brien Headnote by by John O'Brien Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672) is one of the finest poets whose writings have survived from seventeenth- century New England. She was born Anne Dudley in England in 1612 to a wealthy and influential family. Her father, Thomas Dudley, was a Puritan who became a founding member of the Massachusetts Bay Company in the late 1620s. The Company was eager to develop a Puritan-oriented colony in north America, and when they launched their their first ship, the Arbella , in 1630, Thomas Dudley went with the expectation that he would serve as the colony’s deputy governor once they arrived. Anne, who was by this point married to Simon Bradstreet, a young man who had worked with her father, joined her father and husband on the journey, arriving in what is now Salem, Massachusetts in June 1630. She spent the rest of her life in New England. The Bradstreets were an important family in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Her father served in a number of significant administrative positions, and her husband was for many years the secretary of the colony, among many other things. Each also served as governor of the colony. Bradstreet remembered many years later that upon arrival in Massachusetts, “I came into this country, where I found a new World and new manners at which my heart rose.” The language is ambiguous, but the sense is probably that her heart did not “rise” with pleasure, but with anger and perhaps even nausea at having been displaced from a comfortable life in England to the frontier in North America.
    [Show full text]
  • PILGRIM and PURITAN: a DELICATE DISTINCTION by Richard Howland Maxwell Pilgrim Society Note, Series Two, March 2003
    PILGRIM AND PURITAN: A DELICATE DISTINCTION by Richard Howland Maxwell Pilgrim Society Note, Series Two, March 2003 Near the end of his term as president of the United States, Ronald Reagan delivered an address in which he sought to call the American people back to the values of - in his words - "that old Pilgrim, John Winthrop." Reagan's successor in office, George Bush - who, according to some, ought to have known better because he is a descendant of Mayflower passenger John Howland - compounded the historical error in his 1992 Thanksgiving proclamation by saying, "This Thanksgiving… let us renew the solemn commitment that John Winthrop and his fellow Pilgrims made more than 100 years ago." Mr. Bush not only had the Pilgrims and Puritans confused; he missed their dates by more than two centuries! And a bit more recently, the November 1994 issue of the Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine suggested that we include in our Thanksgiving that year "the Puritans in Plymouth, Massachusetts from whom most of our traditions come." The same article later described the "first Thanksgiving" as "the 1621 feast to celebrate the first long winter the Puritans survived in the New World." These illustrations of the apparent ignorance of many Americans concerning at least some parts of our own history have produced among some of us Mayflower descendants an emotional reaction. We become highly incensed if someone refers to the Plymouth settlers as "Puritans," and we become downright angry at the thought that Winthrop might be called a "Pilgrim." The purpose of my presentation today is to examine with as little prejudice as possible the shared history, similarities, and differences between the two groups we commonly call Pilgrims and Puritans.
    [Show full text]
  • Puritan Farmers Or Farming Puritans
    PURITAN FARMERS OR FARMING PURITANS: PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES IN NEW ENGLAND COMMUNITY FORMATION by Donald E. Maroc B.A., Indiana University, 1968 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of History We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard: THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA April, 1970 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shal1 make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree tha permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of H > 5TQ/-<-| The University of British Columbia Vancouver 8, Canada Date C ABSTRACT A large number of Englishmen, predominantly from the West Country and East Anglia, began the settlement of New England in 1630. In the sparsely populated North American wilderness they established a new society. The foundation for their New England community lay in the English experience which they brought to the New World. When a group of men consciously agree to form a new community it is essential that they share certain aspirations, needs and experiences. The form of this new society results from an effort to fulfill and satisfy their common characteristics. An agricultural occu• pation was the experience shared by the Englishmen who settled the town of Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1630.
    [Show full text]
  • Puritan New England
    p0049-54aspe-0102s3 10/29/02 12:15 PM Page 49 Puritan New England MAIN IDEA WHY IT MATTERS NOW Terms & Names English Puritans came to The United States continues •Puritans •Roger Williams North America, beginning to use an expanded form of •John Winthrop •Anne Hutchinson in 1620. representative government •Separatist •Pequot War begun by the Puritans. •Plymouth Colony •Metacom •Massachusetts •King Philip’s War Bay Colony One American's Story In 1628, at age 16, a young English woman named Anne Dudley married Simon Bradstreet, who, like herself, was one of a group of Puritans, church members who wanted to “purify” or reform the Church of England. Simon, Anne, and her parents left England with other Puritans who hoped to create a “holy” community in New England. There Anne became America’s first English-speaking poet, whose poems would provide future generations with a glimpse of Puritan life and values. When her house burned to the ground on a July night in 1666, Anne composed a poem to express her sorrow and her resolve to remain strong. A PERSONAL VOICE ANNE BRADSTREET “ Then, coming out, beheld a space The flame consume my dwelling place. And when I could no longer look, I blest His name that gave and took.” —from “Here Follows Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House (July 10th, 1666)” Anne Dudley Bradstreet’s book of poetry, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, is regarded as one of the first important works of American literature. ▼ This picture of Anne Bradstreet is from a window in St.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter Four: the Establishment of English Colonies Before 1642 and Their Development Through the Late Seventeenth Century Contents
    Chapter Four: The Establishment Of English Colonies Before 1642 And Their Development Through The Late Seventeenth Century Contents 4.1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................... 111 4.1.1 Learning Outcomes .................................................................................... 111 4.2 THE ENGLISH BACKGROUND ......................................................................... 113 4.2.1 The Stuarts of Scotland and England: James I and Charles I ............................ 115 The Long Parliament, the English Civil War, and the Republic ................................. 116 4.3 ROANOKE, RAlEIGH’S lOST COLONY ............................................................ 117 4.3.1 Before You Move On... ................................................................................ 125 Key Concepts ................................................................................................ 125 Test Yourself ................................................................................................. 126 4.4 JAMESTOWN ................................................................................................ 126 4.4.1 The Powhatan ........................................................................................... 127 4.4.2 Captain John Smith ................................................................................... 128 The Famous Rescue of Smith by Pocahontas ...................................................... 128 4.4.3 All That
    [Show full text]
  • Historical Society Awarded $500,000 Grant from State
    r 617-923-6067 January 2005 The Newsletter of the Historical Society of Watertown 28 Marshall Street Watertown, MA 02472 HISTORICAL SOCIETY AWARDED $500,000 GRANT FROM STATE We are THRILLED to announce that the The most historically significant period of the Historical Society of Watertown has been granted a House was during the first two years of the American S500,000 award for the Edmund Fowle House Revolution, 1775-1776. Meetings of the Executive provided by recent legislation known as House Bill Council of the Second and Third Provincial #5076 and signed by Governor Romney on Congresses were held on the second floor of the September 17, 2004. This appropriation was largely House. due to the efforts of Senator Steven Tolman, a staunch supporter and advocate of historical sites in his districts. A rendering o f our vision o f the Edmund Fowle House in the future, produced and donated by Sasaki The Edmund Fow le House at 26-28 Marshall Street Associates, Inc o f Watertown in 2004 In addition, The Treaty of Watertown, a treaty As you may know, the Society has owned the of alliance and friendship between the Governors of Edmund Fowle House, which was built c.1742, since the Massachusetts Bay Colony and delegates of the 1922. It is the second oldest remaining house in St. John’s and Mi’kmaq Tribes of Indians of Nova Watertown and the only remaining property with ties Scotia and New Brunswick, was signed at the to the Revolutionary War. Edmund Fowle House on July 19, 1776. This was the 1 \ first treaty to be signed by the newly formed United Historical Commission, who has been chosen to States with a foreign power.
    [Show full text]
  • John Ramsdell, John Ravensdale, Isaac Johnson, and Nathaniel Turner Ian Watson
    John Ramsdell, John Ravensdale, Isaac Johnson, and Nathaniel Turner Ian Watson This article presents evidence to show that John Ramsdell, who was in Lynn, Massachusetts, from about 1631 to his death in 1688, was the same man as John “Ravensdale,” who was made a freeman of Massachusetts Bay on 6 May 1635, and had been named in the 1627 will of Isaac Johnson as a servant. Johnson also mentioned “cosen Nathanaell Turner” in the will. Turner can be identified as Captain Nathaniel Turner of Lynn and later of New Haven, Connecticut, whose servant about 1632 was John Ramsdell. John Ramsdell of Lynn John1 Ramsdell lived in Lynn from at least 1631 until his death on 27 August 1688, and was the father of at least eight children.[1] Two statements of his age exist: one in a court deposition,[2] the other his age at death. Neither inspires great trust, but both happen to agree on a birthdate in late 1601 or early 1602. The given name of his wife, Priscilla, is known only from the record of her death in Lynn on 23 January 1675/6.[3] She is also mentioned, but not named, in a 12 April 1675 deed of gift where John transferred his farm and land in Lynn to his son Aquila.[4] Nowhere is her age or her maiden surname given. John Ramsdell was first definitely recorded as a member of a quarterly court jury in 1638,[5] but he had been in Lynn for several years already. We know this because in 1673 he testified that he had been familiar with the Lynn-Marblehead road for forty-two years, thus since 1631.[6] Also, in 1657 he deposed that “twenty-five years ago [i.e., in 1632], when he was a servant of Captain Torner, his master and other inhabitants of Lynn, before it was a town, fenced in Nahant” and “That by reason of these householders fencing, they had put their cattle there without molestation all these years.”[7] Nahant is 1 Vital Records of Lynn, Massachusetts to the End of the Year 1849, 2 vols.
    [Show full text]
  • Phillips Genealogies; Including the Family of George Phillips, First
    Gc M.l- 929.2 I P543p 1 1235120 GENEALOGY COLLECTION "^ ll^^'l^Mi,99,yf^.T,y. PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00726 7419 ^0 c\> ^ • ; PHILLIPS GENEALQaiES INCLUDING THE FAMILY OF GEORGE PHILLIPS, First Minister of Watertown, Mass., through most of the traceable branches from 1g30 to the present generation; ALSO THE FAMILIES OF EBRNEZER PHILLIPS, OF SOUTHBORO, MASS., THOMAS PHILLIPS, OF DUXBURY, MASS., THOMAS PHILLIPS, OF MARSHFIELD, MASS., JOHN PHILLIPS, OF EASTON, MASS., JAMES PHILLIPS, OF IPSWICH, MASS. WITH BRIEF GENEALOGIES OF WALTER PHILLIPS, OF DAMARISCOTTA, ME., ANDREW PHILLIPS, OF KITTERY, ME. MICHAEL, RICHAED, JEREMY AND JEREMIAH PHILLIPS, OF RHODE ISLAND; And Fragmentary Records, of early American Families of this name. AUBURN, MASS. COMPILED BY ALBERT M. PHILLIPS . 1885. PRESS OF CHAS. HAMILTON, WORCESTER, MASS. INTRODUCTION. ' A popular historian has said that the study of history ' sets before us striking examples of virtue, enterprise, courage, generosity, patriotism ; and, by a natural principle of emula- tion, incites us to copy such noble examples." We, of the present generation, know but little of the trials, fatigues, hardships, fears and anxieties, which our fathers and mothers of early New England days experienced and willingly endured, that they might establish a government and found a nation, where the privileges of civil and religious liberty, and the benefits of general education, should be the blessed inheritance of their posterity for all time. Having been accustomed to the even temperature and mild winters of the British Isles, the abrupt change of location, with unavoidable exposure to the harsher climate and rigorous win- ters of New England, caused many of the delicate ones among the first settlers to waste rapidly away with consumption or other unlooked-for diseases, while even the most vigorous of the first one or two generations after immigration, being subjected to the unceasing toil and the perils incident to early settle- ments, rarely attained the age of three-score and ten.
    [Show full text]