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Chapter 10 - Race

from Part II - Approaches

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2020

Kristina Bross
Affiliation:
Washington University, St Louis
Abram Van Engen
Affiliation:
Purdue University, Indiana
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Summary

This chapter explores race as a prevalent theme in American puritan literature. How did puritans understand human difference in early America and how did those understandings affect the literature they produced about their interactions with black Africans and Natives? That is to say, what did puritans mean when they employed race in early America? And how might their encounters with black Africans and Natives have impeded their efforts to represent race? Despite the fact that race as an idea and social structure was not stable through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, puritans endeavored to differentiate themselves from those black Africans and Natives with whom they interacted in early America. To establish difference, they modified racialized ideas that were already circulating through Europe. This chapter highlights several of those ideas as they appear in American puritan literature. It ends with a discussion about the ways in which the material world encounters between puritans and those they deemed inferior because of their race challenged their racial notions and shaped the literature.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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  • Race
  • Edited by Kristina Bross, Washington University, St Louis, Abram Van Engen, Purdue University, Indiana
  • Book: A History of American Puritan Literature
  • Online publication: 24 September 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108878425.014
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  • Race
  • Edited by Kristina Bross, Washington University, St Louis, Abram Van Engen, Purdue University, Indiana
  • Book: A History of American Puritan Literature
  • Online publication: 24 September 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108878425.014
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Race
  • Edited by Kristina Bross, Washington University, St Louis, Abram Van Engen, Purdue University, Indiana
  • Book: A History of American Puritan Literature
  • Online publication: 24 September 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108878425.014
Available formats
×