This unit familiarizes students with major American writers and works of those writers from colonialism to the Civil War. It provides a variety of learning and teaching activities, links American literature and American history, and presents an opportunity for students to explore American values. The lessons and handouts in this text focus on the growth of American literature from the Colonial period through the Civil War era.

In Part 1, three introductory lessons link the students’ sense of their own time and place to a wider American experience. Part 2 focuses on colonial and revolutionary writers. It includes Jonathan Edwards, Benjamin Franklin, and Phyllis Wheatley. Part 3 examines an emerging national literature from folklore to the frontier hero. In Part 4, students meet great writers of the mid-nineteenth century: Edgar Allan Poe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Herman Melville. Part 5 deals with writings of the Civil War era.

Many reading selections are included within the text of the unit. Also featured in this unit is an appendix of useful Internet sites.

Use Center for Learning novel/drama units to enhance your approach to literature by including great American novels and plays.

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• The Crucible
• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
• The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail
• The Scarlet Letter

See our Novel/Drama section for additional titles.

Students read and respond to literary selections, research, make presentations, journal, chart, role-play, analyze literary elements, study language, explore the humanities, and brainstorm.