Toleration and diversity were the singular characteristics
of the Middle Colonies. The Dutch, French, Germans,
and Swedes mixed with the English in New York,
New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, establishing for
the first time the melting pot of the American myth.
The enhancement of individual liberty was seen as a principal
goal of government by the visionaryWilliam Penn
and his Quaker followers who settled Pennsylvania. The
Quakers insisted on the preeminence of the individual
in matters of faith and extended that concept to embrace
tolerance of differing viewpoints, values, and races. This
would have an incalculable impact in shaping American
democracy and American cultural as pluralistic and
adaptive.
Given the practical difficulties of surviving in awilderness,
the early American colonists had little time to produce
works of literature or to encourage their creation.
What was written and published in the seventeenth century
was almost exclusively religious or utilitarian in nature,
with little distinction between the two. Following
an initial broadside, the Freeman’s Oath, the first significant
work printed on Boston’s new press in 1639 was
an almanac, a miscellany of practical and moral advice
that would serve as a prototype for the only kind
of reading material in most colonial households other
than the Bible.
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