The colonial literature of this period was influenced only in a very minor
degree by the work of these men, for a generation usually passed before the
influence of contemporary English authors appeared in American literature.
In the next chapter, we shall see evidences of the influence of Pope.
Benjamin Franklin will tell us how Bunyan and Addison were his teachers,
and the early fiction will show its indebtedness to the work of Samuel
Richardson.
LEADING HISTORICAL FACTS
Virginia and Massachusetts produced the most of our colonial literature.
There were, however, thirteen colonies stretched along the seaboard from
Georgia (1733), the last to be founded, to Canada. Although these colonies
were established under different grants or charters, and although some had
more liberty and suffered less from the interference of England than
others, it is nevertheless true that every colony was a school for a
self-governing democracy. No colonies elsewhere in the world had the same
amount of liberty. This period was a necessary preparation for the coming
republic.
We must not suppose that there was complete liberty in those days. Such a
state has not been reached even in the twentieth century.
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