Literature during the American Revolution and Joel Barlow

1. Literature during the American Revolution and Joel Barlow

2. “In establishing American independence the pen and the press had merit equal to that of the sword.” -The History of the American Revolution (1789)

3. Pamphlets and Newspapers • The pamphlet was the most important method for spreading propaganda during the Revolution. They were easier to print, more cost effective, quicker, and less likely to be prosecuted for libel than newspapers. • The newspaper was also an important form of propaganda.

4. In both pamphlets and newspapers the Loyalists were at a disadvantage as far as production. Between 1774 and 1783 there were between 25 and 42 newspapers that circulated. Of these only 5-8 were Loyalist in affiliation. • In 1775 12 pamphlets out of 25 were Loyalist. In 1776 that number decreased to only 2 out of 26.

5. Poetry was often embedded into these pamphlets and newspapers either in completion or often times as short catchy phrases as satire. • “Undrawn, unbroken, and unpryed,Unfelt, unsmelt, untasted, and uneyed. Unboil'd, unbaked, untoasted and unfried, Protecting them from all abuse And keeping them unus'd for use.” -from Connecticut Gazette concerning the securing of the first shipment of stamps on an island off the Boston Harbor until the uproar from citizens died down.

6. “Verse was the servant of morality and politics, capable of making their precepts ‘more deeply felt and more lastingly remembered.’”

7. Joel Barlow Barlow understood the use of verse as a tool for getting a point across and remembering it later. In The Hasty-Pudding he writes, “with molasses line the luscious treat / And mix, like Bards, the useful with the sweet.” Many writers felt that poetry had the same patriotic work to do in America as it had done in classical eras. Barlow rewrote his poem Vision of Columbus as The Columbiad in an attempt to rival the Iliad and the Aeneid and provide America with a heroic narrative.

8. Joel Barlow • Biographical Information Barlow family came over from England to New England in the mid-seventeenth century. He grew up on a large farm in Connecticut which he remembered later in life as a continuous round of chores “from morn to noon, from noon to night.” He attended Dartmouth College in 1773 and then Yale in 1774. The Yale curriculum during Barlow's student days consisted of the study of classical languages, mathematics, natural philosophy, and religion. Students recited, in Latin, Cicero's orations and parts of Virgil's Aeneid. In his freshman year at Yale some students boycotted British-taxed tea, the college malitia provided George Washington an escort as they passed through New Haven.

9. In his sophmore year the college community had read and endorsed Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. He volunteered with the governor of Connecticut issued a call to arms to defend Long Island and New York. The battle was lost and Barlow returned to college life at the end of the summer. Due to financial strain from the war at Yale, Barlow graduated after only four months of his last year. While at Yale he wrote a few mock-epics and found encouragement for his poetry. He valued Lord Kame’s Elements of Criticism (1762) which integrated ideas on art with those on morality and ethics and followed his poetry as moral guidance convictions in his later life. He was named class poet and at graduation read The Prospect of Peace (1778) which contained optimistic views about America’s future. After graduation he taught school and attended Yale as a graduate student since he was unable to find work as a writer.

10. In 1780 he accepted the position as chaplain for the Third Massachusetts Brigade which allowed him time to visit acquaintances and work on his poetry. He was invited to dinner by George Washington after Washington heard a sermon Barlow preached on patriotism after the disclosure of Benedict Arnold’s treason. He became secretly engaged to Ruth Baldwin in 1779 and later married her in 1781. In 1788 he went to France as an agent of the Scioto Land Company who unlawfully sold land to immigrants. He was unaware of this fraudulent venture and was later exonerated of blame. He spent several years abroad and helped Thomas Paine publish The Age of Reason while he was imprisoned during the Reign of Terror. He became a citizen of France in 1792, and when the republican government fell he amassed a fortune by shipping goods to France. In 1796 he accepted the role as consul to help persuade the ruler of Algiers to honor a treaty with America that stipulated that America be free from piracy in the Mediterranean, have rights to Algiers ports, and the release of American prisoners who were enslaved and tortured.

11. In 1801 a letter written by Barlow to his brother about his concerns that the Federalist government would cause a confrontation between France and America was published and Barlow was considered by many a traitor. When the Jefferson presidency began his reputation was restored (Jefferson and Barlow were old friends) and he returned to America. He purchased an estate in Washington D.C. named Kalorama. In 1811 he was asked to travel to France by President Madison in order to negotiate a treaty with Napoleon to bring America and France closer allies. He never made it due a retreat of the French Army where he was at and died from exposure in a village in Poland.

12. The Columbiad (1807)is based on Barlow’s poem The Vision of Columbus. It combines his engineering activism with his the millennial conviction that America must be guided through its transformation to the New Earth. *American Millennialism held that the thousand years of peace would originate in America and the colonists were responsible for site preparation. In The Columbiad Barlow secularizes the “American Millennialism” by replacing the Christian themes with political ones…for example…the Christian trinity is replaced with a “holy triad” of “equality, free election, and a federal band.” By writing The Columbiad he hoped to “‘encourage and strengthen’ republican institutions in the new nation in order ultimately to improve ‘the condition of human nature.’” His purpose was both “moral and political…this is the moment in America to implant true and useful ideas of glory…and give direction to poetry, painting, and the other fine arts.” Many readers found the epic poem very pretensious and it was not very well received.

13. http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/firsts/cartoon/ • Olson, Allison Gilbert.Political Humor, Deference, and the American RevolutionEarly American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal - Volume 3, Number 2, Fall 2005, pp. 363-382 • Joel Barlow. Gale Literary Database Dictionary of Literary Biography. • www.wikipedia.com