Who was King Philip?

I was born in the year 1638 either in the Massachusetts area or Rhode Island, but I really cannot say.  I am the second son of Chief Massaoit many may know me as Metacomet and Philip of Pokanoket and the leader of Wampanoag Confederacy in 1662. I married my lovely Indian wife Wootonekanuske who was born in Pocasset, Massachusetts.  Together we have made a family having several sons and daughters who people cannot seem to know the actual amount that my wife and I had.  It was a rough year when I had to bury my son on April 1, 1671 and when my wife and other 9 year old son were captured and sold into slavery in the West Indies. One event that I say that I am proud of is that my daughter Lucy managed to get away to Canada. Once my fathered died in 1661 and my oldest brother in 1662 I became “chief of the Wampanoag Confederacy as Wamsutta was laid to rest.”http://www.westbrookfield.org/kingp-bio.htm I have seen so many disease take ahold of my father and brother and it was so unreal that that several things had to be questioned as to “if not intentionally poisoned as the Indians believed, at least from disease contracted when Wamsutta was summoned before colonist officials for questioning.”http://www.westbrookfield.org/kingp-bio.htm

While being the new Chief of the Wampanoag tribe it was a little uneasy because there were rumors that had been circulating around. Two of my men were put on to trail for the murder on John Sassamon.   The trial was held and they found my men to be guilty and on June 8, 1675 the men executed.  With all of the turmoil that was going on between the English and my tribe what came into existence was known as King Philip’s War. Here is a link that will better help explain the war and how it became to be. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qTqdxP2qVo  The War began June 1675 with us attacking the English settlers first. With the War ending in August of 1676, food was becoming scares so many of my relatives, my wife, son and I returned back to New Hope.  Once the War was over the aftermath was that, “Members of the Wampanoag, Nipmuc and Narragansett tribes were gathered and sold into slavery. Those who escaped fled from tribe to tribe as each in turn was destroyed”http://www.westbrookfield.org/kingp-bio.htm

Did Benjamin Franklin make Thomas Paine Successful?

Thomas Paine was born 1737, in England where he lived with his father.  Around the age of nineteen Paine started to become rebellious and made him an outcast of England. Paine was an outcast and he stood up for what he felt was right, that caught the attention of Benjamin Franklin while the both were in London. Being impressed by the ideas that Paine expressed Franklin called him an “ingenious worthy young man,”http://www.clio.k12.mi.us/user/rmclinch/chpt6ThomasPaineHistMakers.pdf and felt the need that he should come to America. Coming to America Paine was in good hands and was able to pick up a job at Pennsylvania Magazine with the help of Benjamin Franklin writing letters to numerous people.  Writing in the Pennsylvania Magazine jump started his career as being one of the most influential journalists in America.  Paine would go on to write about issues that were being faced at that point and time.  In writing one of his influential pieces, “Common Sense,” caught the attention of General George Washington.  George Washington felt as though Thomas Paine’s article is, “working a powerful change in the minds of many men.” http://www.clio.k12.mi.us/user/rmclinch/chpt6ThomasPaineHistMakers.pdf In reading just that quote, it entails that Paine is making a difference in the army and America as a whole in a positive way.  Not only did George Washington feel the need that it was good for himself, but he wanted all of his soldiers to hear what Paine had to say in his pamphlet out loud.

As you can see if it was not for Benjamin Franklin where would Thomas Paine be today in history or would he still have been in the public eye for his rebelliousness? By reading the article, Benjamin Franklin was the one that started Paine’s career by meeting him in London. Discovering his uncanny since of intelligence, Paine stood out from others that Franklin might have seen or heard of before. Bringing him from England to America, it shows the Franklin had a part of Paine being successful and becoming one of the Four Fathers in our time.

Preaching In Puritan Times

              

  During the Puritans Era preaching was considered their type of entertainment.  In an article by Joseph Steele he explains that there are different ways which sets puritans preaching from others.  The first ways was grammar in the Puritans preaching. In the text the puritans, “viewed Scripture as God speaking to them as their Father, giving them the truth they could trust for all eternity"(Steele 1). http://www.reformation21.org/articles/a-classical-analysis-of-puritan-preaching.php Their Bible was what they slept, ate and breathed every day because the words that were coming off of the page were near and dear to their hearts.  The second way is dialect of how the preacher would convey his sermon to the audience of listeners. Puritans like for the sermon that is being taught to them to be well understood. If it is understood then they are able to apply what they have learned to everyday life.  The finally stage about Puritan preaching is rhetoric. This stage shows that what the pastor has written for the congregation were it was supposed to be. It did not matter about the length of time of the sermon; it mattered on the material that would be taught.http://www.reformation21.org/articles/a-classical-analysis-of-puritan-preaching.php

                As for Jonathan Edwards many people including myself feel as though his sermons were kind of scary but at the end of the sermon, you would be able to understand the point that he was trying to get across. In his sermon “Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God” portrayed his passion for the love of preaching.  From the reading and listening to the sermon he repeated a lot of the concepts over again so that you would be able to comprehend what he was saying.  Also, in that sermon it made you a little scared to know that if you are a sinner what can happen to you. Jonathan Edwards made you open your eyes to the world in today’s time and in past time. Connecting Steele's article to what we know about Jonathan Edwards, you are able to see that he may have used all three different steps in Puritan preaching.

 "Jonathan Edwards' - Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." Listener's Audio Bible with Max McLean. Web. 12 Feb. 2012. <https://www.listenersbible.com/products/mp3-downloads/famous-sermons-speeches/jonathan-edwards-sinners-in-the-hands-of-angry-god?cPath=3>.

Who is Anne Bradstreet?

Having a love for poetry and writing, Anne Bradstreet has taken the title as being the first American woman poet. Born in the year 1612 in Northampton, England, she was the loving daughter of Thomas Dudley and Dorothy Yorke.  Being the tender age of 16 she married her father’s assistant Simon Bradstreet who was 25 years of age. http://www.annebradstreet.com/anne_bradstreet_bio_002.htm Within the next two years the two of them and her parents moved to America in 1630 with a Puritan group settling down in Ipswich, Massachusetts.  After settling down for a few years, Bradstreet and her husband brought in the world eight beautiful children that they cared for the deeply. The text mentions in the text she was considered a religious person and loved Christ with all her heart and that came to help her write some of her poetry.

As for Bradstreet’s writings, she never shared any of it publicly because they were near and dear to her heart. If she were to share them it would be with a close set of family and friends . As for close family and friends they went behind her back and published the work that she had done. Anne’s brother-in-law brought one of her poems called   "The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, By a Gentlewoman of Those Parts" to England and it was published in 1650. http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/428 It did well in England, but she was still unhappy that he had done that to  her.  This writing was considered the only writing that was published of her works while she was alive. 

Anne and her family moved to Andover, Massachusetts, until her death in 1672 at the age of 60. She was battling with tuberculosis, and when she caught the disease another tragedy happened with the death of her daughter Dorothy.  Anne was strong and believed that since her daughter was in a better place she would become even stronger fighting her disease to stay alive. Anne fought to the end until it was her turn to pass away and see her daughter. 

Nina Baym, ed. Anne Bradstreet. The Norton Anthology of American Literature: Seventh Edition:

       Volume A. New York: Norton, 2007. 187-188.