1700 AD Mostly American Authors

1700, "The Selling of Joseph" (The first anti-slavery tract in America) Judge Samuel Sewell (b.1673, d.1729) An excerpt reads: Forasmuch as Liberty is in real value next unto life: None ought to part within themselves, or deprive others of it, but upon most consideration...The numerousness of slaves at this day in the Province, and uneasiness of them under their slavery, hath put many upon thinking whether the foundation of it be firmly and well laid...It is most certain that all men, as they are the Sons of Adam, are; and have Equal Rights unto Liberty, and all other outward comforts of life...so that originally, and naturally there is no such thing as slavery. Joseph was rightfully no more a slave to this breathren, then they were to him; and they had no more authority to sell him, then they had to slay him...There is no proportion between Twenty Pieces of Silver, and LIBERTY...CAVEAT EMPTOR!"
"All things considered, it would conduce more to the Welfare of the Province, to have white servants for a term of years, than to have slaves for life. Few can endure to hear the Negro's being made free; and indeed they seldom can use their freedom well; yet their continual aspiring after their forbidden, renders them unwilling Servants. And there is such a disparity in their conditions, color and hair, that they never embody with us, and grow up into orderly families, to the Peopling of the Land..." (Very interesting reading!)
Samuel Sewall was the only judge at the Salem Witchcraft trial to acknowledge and confess his wrong doing. His diary is well worth reading!

1704 "Private Journal of a Journey from Boston to New York" (published 1825) Sarah Kemble Knight (b.1666, d. 1727) Sarah was the daughter of a Boston merchant, Thomas Kemble. After her father died in 1689, Sarah assumed full responsibility for being the head of the household. Later she married a sea captain and was referred to as "Madam Knight" to those who were kept in her boarding house and to her students in her school. Because of her shrewd investments, she later was able to travel. Her diary is a fine read: "Tuesday, Oct. 3rd -- About 8 in the morning, I with the post proceeded forward without observing anything remarkable; and about two afternoon, arrived at the post's second stage, where the western most post met him and exchanged letters. Here, having called for something to eat, the woman brought in a twisted thing like a cable, but something whiter; and laying it on the board, tugged for life to bring it into a capacity to spread; which having with great pains accomplished, she served in a dish of pork and cabbage, I suppose the remains of dinner. The sauce was of a deep purple, which I thought was boilded in her dye kettle; the bread was Indian and everything on the table service agreeable to these. I, being hungry, got a little down; but my stomach was soon cloyed, and what cabbage I swallowed served me to a cud the whole day after.
"Having here discharged the ordinary for self and guide (as I understood was the custom), about three, afternoon, went on with my third guide, who rode very hard, and having crossed the Providence ferry, we come to a river which they generally ride through. But I dare not venture; so the post got a lad and canoe to carry me to t'other side, and he rid through and led my horse. The canoe was very small and shallow, so when we were in, she seemed ready to take in water, which greatly terrified me, and caused me to be very circumspect, sitting with my hands fast on each side, my eyes steady not daring so much as to lodge my tongue a hair's breadth more on one side of my mouth than t'other nor so much as think on Lot's wife; but was soon pulled out of this pain, by feeling the canoe on shore, which I saluted with my feet; and rewarding my sculler, again mounted and made the best of our way forwards. The road here was very even and the day pleasant, it being now near sunset. But the post told me we had near 14 miles to ride to the next stage (where we were to lodge). I asked him of the rest of the road, foreseeing we must travail in the night. He told me there was a bad river we were to ride through, which was so fierce a horse could sometimes hardly stem it: but it was narrow, and we should soon be over. I cannot express the concern of mind this relation set me in: no thoughts but those of the dangerous river could entertain my imagination, and they were as formidable as various, still tormenting me with the blackset idea of my approaching fate -- sometimes seeing myself drowning, otherwhiles drowned, and at best like a holy sister, just come out of a spiritual bath in dripping garments..."

1705 "History of Virginia" Robert Beverly (b.1673 d.1722) Robert was born on his father's plantation in the colonies but sent to England for grammar school. He returned to the colonies in 1687 when his father died. At 23 years of age he was a clerk for the Virginia Assembly and at 26 years of age was a Burgess. In 1697 Robert married the daughter of William Bryd, Sr. but his wife died while in childbirth. Robert became the largest landowner in the Virginia Assembly. He wrote an accurate and appealing description of the land of the colonists. Excerpt follows:
"Here I omit a strange rarity in the female possum, which I myself have seen. They have a false belly, or loose skin over the belly; this never sticks to the flesh of the belly; but may be looked into at all times, after they have been concerned in procreation..."
"The soil is of such variety, according to the difference of situation, that one part of the other of it seems fitted to every sort of plant, that is requisite either for the benefit or pleasure of mankind."
"Virginia, as you have heard before, was a name given to all the northern part of the continent of America; and when the original grant was made, both to the first and second colonies, that is, to those of Virginia, and New England, they were both granted under the name of Virginia...but in the process of time, the name of Virginia was lost to all, except to that tract of land...in which are included Virginia and Maryland; both which, in common discourse are still very often meant by the name of Virginia."
"I shall in the next book give an account of the Indians themselves..."

1706 "Good Old Way" (a book that laments the declining Puritan influence in America) Cotton Mather

1707 "The Redeemed Captive" John Williams (b.1664 d.1729) Rev. John Williams was the minister at the time of the Deerfield raid in Massachusetts in 1704, and wrote a captivity narrative when he returned to New England. He was held captive for two and a half years in Quebec. The excerpt follows:
"The history I am going to write proves, that days of fasting and prayer, without reformation, will not avail to turn away the anger of God from a professing people...the holy and righteous God brought us under great trials, as to our persons and families...to resolve, by his grace, not to be sent away without a blessing..."
"On Tuesday, the 29th of February, 1703-4, not long before the break of day, the enemy came upon us; our watch being unfaithful..."

1708 "The Sot-Weed Factor" satirical poem by Ebenezer Cook excerpt follows:
" ...In Shirts and Drawers of Scotch-cloth Blue.
With neither Stockings, Hat, nor Shooe.
These Sot-weed Planters Crowd the Shoar,
In Hue as tawny as a Moor:
Figures so strange, no God design'd,
To be a part of Humane Kind:
But wanton Nature, void of Rest,
Moulded the brittle Clay in Jest.
At last a Fancy ver odd
Took me. this was the Land of Nod.
Planted at first, when Vagrant Cain,
His Brother had unjustly slain:
then conscious of the Crime he'd done,
From Vengeance dire, he hither run;
And in a Hat supinely dwelt,
The first in Furs and Sot-weed dealt.
And ever since his Time, the Place,
Has harbour'd a detested Race;
Who when they cou'd not live at Home,
For Refuge to these Worlds did roam;
In hopes by Flight they might prevent,
The Devil and his fell intent;..."

1709 to 1712 "The Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover" William Byrd (b. 1674 d.1744) William was the son of a wealthy landowner and travelled in sophisticated circles. His home in Westover, VA is still standing. Excerpt follows:
"December 31, 1710: I arose at 5 am and read a chapter in Hebrew and four leaves in Lucian. I said my prayers and ate boiled milk for breakfast. My daughter was sick and vomitted all night but was a little better this morning. I danced my dance. Then I read a sermon in Dr. Tillotson and after that walked in the garden until dinner. I ate roast venison. The weather was very warm still. My wife walked with me after dinner. About 8 o'clock the wind came to northwest and it began to be cold..."

1719-41 The Boston Gazette -- In 1719 William Brooker launched the "Boston Gazette" (newspaper) and hired Benjamin Franklin's older brother, James, as the printer. In 1733 the headline read, "The Boston Tea Party."
In 1721 James Franklin started the "New England Courant." Benjamin Franklin worked for his brother, but the brothers quarreled and Ben moved to New York and then to Philadelphia.

1722 "Dogood Papers" Benjamin Franklin (Mrs. Silence Dogood, alias Ben Franklin) The dogood papers were written after Cotton Mather's essays of how to do good. An excerpt follows:
"To the Author of the New England Courant: Dir Sir, It is no unprofitable though unpleasant pursuit, diligently to inspect and consider manners and conversations of men, who, insensible of the greatest enjoyments of human life, abandon themselves to vice from a false notion of pleasure and good fellowship. A true and natural representation of any enormity, is often the best argument against it and means of removing it, when the most severe reprehensions alone, are found ineffectual. I would this letter improve the little observation I have made of the vice of drunkenness, the better to reclaim the good fellows who usually pay the devotions of the evening to Bacchus. I doubt not but moderate drinking has been improved for the diffusion of knowledge among the ingenious part of mankind, who want the talent of a ready utterance, in order to discover the conceptions of their minds in an entertaining and intelligible manner. 'Tis true, drinking does not improve our faculties, but it enables us to use them; and therefore I conclude, that much study and experience, and a little liquor, are of absolute necessity for some tempers, in order to make them accomplished orators..."

1727 "History of the Five Indian Nations" Dr. Cadwallader Colden. Colden was a historian of the Iroquois Nation and also a botanist living in New York in 1715. He had a large estate "Coldenham, where he collected many of the plants native to this area. An excerpt of the history follows:
"It is necessary to know something of the form of Government of the People, whose history one is to know, and a few words will be sufficient to give the Reader a conception of that of the Five Nations, because it still remains under original simplicity, and free from those complicated contrivances, which have become necessary to the Nations, where Deceit and Cunning have increased as much as Knowledge and Wisdom..."

1728 "God's Mercy Surmounting Man's Cruelty, Exemplified in the Captivity and Redemption of a Quaker woman, Elizabeth Hanson. An excerpt: "...At this was a time of plenty, I felt the comfort of it, together with the rest of my family; having a part sent to me and my children; which was very acceptable. I was now ready to think the bitterness of death was past for a time, and my spirit grew a little easier; yet this lasted not long before my master threatened my life again. But of this, I notice, that whenever this ill temper predominated, he was always pinched with hunger; and then when success attended his hunting, he was naturally hot and passionate, and often threw sticks and stones at me, or whatever else lay in his way, by reason whereof my life was continually in danger; but that God whose providence is over all his works, so preserved...for which I am thankful to my Creator..."

1729 The Pennsylvania Gazette which later becomes The Saturday Evening Post -- Benjamin Franklin

1732 "Poor Richard's Almanac" Benjamin Franklin. An excerpt follows: "The plain truth of the matter is, I am excessive poor, and my wife, good woman, is, I tell her, excessive proud; she cannot bear, she says, to sit spinning at her tow, while I do nothing but gaze at the stars; and has threatened more than once to burn all my books and rattling traps (as she calls my instruments) if I do not make some profitable use of them for the good of my family. The printer has offered me some considerable share of the profits, and I have thus began to comply with my dame's desire..." Friend and Servant, R. Saunders (Franklin often used pen names)

1741 "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God", one of the most famous sermons of the Great Awakening -- Jonathan Edwards. Edwards was a minister in Northampton, MA. He was inspired by the works of John Locke and believed that we must do more than comprehend religious idea, but also conviction should be felt. Beginning in

1734, the spirit of revivalism (The Great Awakening) lasted for 15 years and transformed many lives. However, Edwards went too far by naming the backsliders to the congregation and would not give the "so named" communion. He was dismissed from that church and became a missionary to the Indians in Stockbridge MA. He eventually became the President of the College of New Jersey, later dying of smallpox from a bad inoculation.
Excerpt from the famous sermon: "...The reason why they are not fallen already, and do not fall now, is only the God's appointed time is not come. For it is said, that when that due time or appointed time comes, their foot shall slide. Then they shall be left to fall, as they are inclined by their own weight. God will not hold them up in these slippery places any longer, but will let them go; and then, at the very instant they shall fall into destruction; as he stands on such slippery declining ground, on the edge of a pit, he cannot stand alone, when he is let go he immediately falls and is lost."

 "Some Account of the Fore-Part of the life of Elizabeth Ashbridge" (b.1713 d.1755) Elizabeth led a somewhat wild life in England and left home early to live in Ireland. Later she was sent to America as an indentured servant needing to purchase her freedom. She married three times -- and became a Quaker preacher in her third marriage to Aaron Ashbridge in 1746. An Excerpt from her account: "...My life being attended with many uncommon occurrences, some of which I brought on myself, which I believe were for my good, I have therefore thought proper to make some remarks on the dealings of Divine Goodness with me, having often had cause with David to say 'It is good for me that I have been afflicted,' and I most earnestly desire that whosoever reads the following lines may take warning and shung the evils that through the deceitfulness of Satan I have been drawn into..."

1750-1 "New Experiments and Observations on Electricity" Benjamin Franklin The book is based on letters which Franklin sent from Philadelphia to two British correspondents, Peter Collison and John Mitchell. Collison was an English Quaker Merchant who was a patron of the new intellectuals and scientists of Philadelphia. He sent the Philadelphia Library Company (a subscription library founded by Franklin) an electrical apparatus with instructions on how to use it. Mitchell was a British trained doctor who lived in Virginia, where is was also known as an amateur botanist."

1760 "A Discourse on the Christian Union" Ezra Stiles. Stiles’ influence on his Congregational community grew from this sermon, preached in 1760 and published in 1761. He pleads for a unity that had divided during the Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s. He calls for an end to the factional tensions between "Old" and "New Light" congregations.

1764 "The Sugar-Cane, A Poem in Three Books" James Grainger (1721? to 1766) An excerpt:
What soil the Cane affects; What care demands; Beneath what signs to plant; What ills await; How the hot nectar best to christallize And Afric's sable progeny to treat A muse, that long hath wander'd in the groves of myrtle-indolence, Attempt to sing."

REVOLUTIONARY AGE 1765 TO 1790
1765-6 "Travels" William Bartram (b.1739 d.1823) Born in Philadelphia, William was the son of a famous botanist and loved his father's interest. William traveled and kept journals of his discoveries in plant and animal life. And excerpt follows:
"...We rise again, passing over sand ridges of gentle elevation, savanna's and open pine forests. Masses of groups of rocks present to view on every side, as before mentioned, and with difficulty we escaped the circular infundibuliform cavities or sinks in the surface of the earth; generally a group of rocks, shaded by palms, live oaks and magnolias, is situated on their limb: some are partly filled up with earth, whilst others and the great number of them are partly filled with transparent cool water, which discover the well or perforation though the rocks in the center. This day being remarkably sultry, we came to camp early..."

1768 "A Short Narrative of My Life" Samson Occom (b1723 d1792) Occom was an American Indian of the Mohegan tribe. This narrative explains his conversion to Christianity. Other of his writings deal with his teaching methods and conducting church services. Occum had learned numerous languages and became an ordained minister, the first Indian to preach in New England. Occum also co-founded Dartmouth College. An excerpt follows:
"Until I was about 10 years old, my people, the Mohegans, had experienced little direct contact with Europeans. We depended on hunting, fishing, and fowling for subsistence and we lived our traditional ways, customs and religions. When I was about ten, a minister from New London visited us. He used to travel around our tribe, throughout the wigwams, giving us blankets and trying to teach the children to read. Sometimes he would catch me and try to teach me the alphabet, but I tried my best to keep away from him! Several years later I was sixteen, more ministers came to the Mohegans. This time instead of trying to teach us the English language, they shared the Word of God with us..."

1768 "Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania" John Dickinson (b. 1732 d. 1808) An excerpt follows: "I will now tell the gentlemen the meaning of these letters. The meaning of them is to convince the people of these colonies that they are at this moment exposed to the most imminent dangers; and to persuade them immediately, vigorously, and unanimously, to exert themselves, in the most firm, but most peaceable manner, for obtaining relief.
"The cause of liberty is a cause of too much dignity, to be sullied by turbulence and tumult...
"To such a wonderful degree were the ancient Spartans, as brave and as free a people as ever existed, inspired by this happy temperature of soul, that rejecting even in their battles the use of trumpets, and other instruments for exciting heat and rage, they marched up to scenes of havoc and horror with the sound of flutes, to the tunes of which their steps kept pace -- exhibiting as Plutarch says, 'at once a terrible and delightful valor, full of hope and good assurance, as if some divinity had insensibly assisted them...'"

1768 "The Female Patriots. Address'd to the Daughters of Liberty in America" Milcah Martha Moore b. 1740 d. 1829) Moore wrote a popular commonplace book of moral instruction titled "Miscellanies" for use in Pennsylvania Quaker schools, the proceeds from which went to endow a school for indigent girls. Moore was a prominent Quaker of her time. Moore's books are still sold today.

1770 "The Candidates; or, The Humours of A Virginia Election" Robert Munford -- wrote witty and satirical plays. He also wrote "The Patriots" in 1777. I am unable to find as yet an excerpt of his works.

1773 "Poems on Various Subjects" Phyllis Wheatly was born in 1753 in Senegal, Africa. (d. 1784) When she was seven years old, she was taken from Africa to Boston and sold to John and Susannah Wheatley. She was picked to be a servant but instead she was raised as one of the Wheatley's children. They taught Phyllis how to write and read English, and at age12, and she was reading Latin and Greek classics and the Bible. Most people of that time didn't think the Africans could be educated. When Phyllis was given her freedom she married a freedman, John Peters. Eventually she died in poverty, but her poems live on. One poem follows:
LO! for this dark terrestrial ball
Forsakes his azure-paved hall
A prince of heav'nly birth!
Divine Humanity behold,
What wonders rise, what charms unfold
At his descent to earth!
The bosoms of the great and good
With wonder and delight he view'd,
And fix'd his empire there:

Him, close compressing to his breast,
The sire of gods and men address'd,
"My son, my heav'nly fair!
"Descend to earth, there place thy throne;
"To succour man's afflicted son
"Each human heart inspire:
"To act in bounties unconfin'd
"Enlarge the close contracted mind,
"And fill it with thy fire."
Quick as the word, with swift career
He wings his course from star to star,
And leaves the bright abode.
The Virtue did his charms impart;
Their G-----! then thy raptur'd heart
Perceiv'd the rushing God:
For when thy pitying eye did see
The languid muse in low degree,
Then, then at thy desire
Descended the celestial nine;
O'er me methought they deign'd to shine,
And deign'd to string my lyre.
Can Afric's muse forgetful prove?
Or can such friendship fail to move
A tender human heart?
Immortal Friendship laurel-crown'd
The smiling Graces all surround
With ev'ry heav'nly Art.

1771 Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin -- "Dear son: I have ever had the pleasure in obtaining little anecdotes of my ancestors...it may be equally agreeable to you to know the circumstances of my life...Having emerged from the poverty and obscurity in which I was born and bred, to a state of affluence and some degree of reputation in the world...That felicity, when I reflected on it, has induced me sometimes to say, that were it offered to my choice, I should have no objection to a repetition of the same life from the beginning, only asking the advantages authors have in a second edition to correct some faults of the first..."
"Hereby too, I shall indulge the inclination so natural in old men, to be talking of themselves obliged to give me a hearing...now I speak of thanking God, I desire with all humility to acknowledge that I owe the mentioned happiness of my past life to His Kind Providence, which led me to the means I used and gave them success..."

1772 "The Progress of Dullness" John Trumbull (b.1750 d. 1831) "...Tom Brainless, at the close of last year, had been six years a rev'rend Pastor, and now resolved, to smooth his life, to seek the blessing of a wife. His brethren saw his amorous temper, and recommended fair Miss Simper. Who fond, they heard, of sacred truth, had left her levities of youth, grown fit for ministerial union, and grave, as Christian's wife in Bunyon. On this he rigg'd him in his best, and got his old grey wig new dress'd, fix'd on his suit of sable stuffs, and brushed the powder from his cuffs, with black silk stockings. Yet in being, the same he took his first degree in; Procured a horse of breed from Europe, and learn'd to mount him by the stirrup, and set forth to court the maid..."

1774 "The Journal of John Woolman" John Woolman (b. 1720 d. 1772) was born in Burlington County, New Jersey, a Quaker who tried to warn others of the dangers of a materialistic society, of the exploitation of workers and of military debts to support wars, and above all, the corruption of slavery. He kept many of his opinions in his journals. An excerpt follows:
"...I kept steady to meetings, spent first days after noon chiefly in reading the scriptures and other good books, and was early convinced in my mind that true religion consisted in an inward life, wherein the heart doth love and reverence God the Creator and learn to exercise pure justice and goodness, not only toward all men but also toward the brute creatures; that as the mind was moved on the same principle it was moved to love Him in all the manifestations in the visible world; that as by His breath the flame of life was kindled in all animal and sensitive creatures, to say we love God as unseen and at the same time exercise cruelty toward the least creature moving by His life, or by life derived from Him, was a contradiction in itself.
"I found no narrowness respecting sects and opinions but believed that sincere, upright - hearted people in every Society who truly loved God were accepted of Him. As I lived under the cross and simply followed the opening of Truth, my mind from day to day was more enlightened; my former acquaintance was left to judge of me as they would, for I ground it safest for me to live in private and keep these things sealed up in my own breast.
"While I silently ponder on that change wrought in me, I find no language equal to it nor any means to convey to another a clear idea of it. I looked upon the works of God in this visible creation and an awfulness covered me; my heart was tender and often contrite, and a universal love to my fellow creatures increased in me. This will be understood by such who have trodden in the same path. Some glances of real beauty may be seen in their faces who dwell in pure meekness. There is a harmony in the sound of that voice to which divine love gives utterance, and some appearance of right order in their temper and conduct whose passions are fully regulated. Yet all these do not fully show forth that inward life to such who have not felt it, but this white stone, and new name is known rightly to such only who have it."

1774 "Letters of a Westchester Farmer" Samuel Seabury (b. 1729 d. 1796) was an American Tory writer, born in Connecticut, and was the Reverend of St. Peters Church in Westchester, New York. He was a loyal Tory and wrote: "You know my friends, that the sale of your seed not only pays your taxes, but furnishes you with many of the little conveniences and comforts of life: the loss of it for one year would be of more damage to you than paying the three penny duty on tea for twenty..."

1773-1776 Travels throughout the Southeast -- journals by William Bartram --see: http://www.bartramtrail.org/

1774 -- A letter from Abigail Adams to her husband-- "My much loved friend, I dare not express to you at three hundred miles distance how ardently I long for your return. I have some very miserly wishes; and cannot consent to your spending one hour in town 'till at least I have had you twelve. The idea plays about my heart, unnerves my hand whilst I write, awakens all the tender sentiments that years have encreased and matured, and which with me were every day dispensing to you..."