Culture and Language at Crossed Purposes: The Unsettled Records of American Settlement

284 Pages·2022·5.099 MB·

by  Jerome McGann

Culture and Language at Crossed Purposes

C ulture and Language
at Crossed Purposes
The Unsettled Records
of American Settlement
Jerome McGann

Th e University of Chicago Press Chicago and London
Th e University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
Th e University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2022 by Th e University of Chicago
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without writt en permission, except in the case of brief
quotations in critical articles and reviews. For more information, contact
the University of Chicago Press, 1427 East 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637.
Published 2022
Printed in the United States of America
31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 81845- 0 (cloth)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 81846- 7 (paper)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 81847- 4 (e-b ook)
DOI: htt ps:// doi .org/ 10 .7208/ chicago/ 9780226818474 .001 .0001
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: McGann, Jerome J., author.
Title: Culture and language at crossed purposes : the unsett led records
of American sett lement / Jerome McGann.
Description: Chicago ; London : Th e University of Chicago Press, 2022. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifi ers: LCCN 2021050920 | ISBN 9780226818450 (cloth) |
ISBN 9780226818467 (paperback) | ISBN 9780226818474 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: American literature—Colonial period, ca. 1600–1775—
History and criticism. | Treaties in literature. | Ethnic relations in literature.
Classifi cation: LCC PS195.T74 M34 2022 |
DDC 810.9/001—dc23/eng/20220217
LC record available at htt ps://lccn.loc.gov/2021050920

Th is paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1 992

(Permanence of Paper).
For Fiona, Skylar, and Luca
and Sofia and Owen, because they asked
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free
Emma Lazarus (1883)
but not the Canaanites
“A modell of Xtian Charity” (1630)
Speak truth to truth.
Charles Bernstein, “Th e Truth in Pudding” (2013)
Contents
List of Figures ix Preface xi
Introduction
1: Scope and Method 3
2: Th e Exceptional Encounter 8
3: On Native Grounds: North American Treaty- Making
(ca. 1609– 1721) 15
Part I: Puritan Enlightenment: Via Dolorosa
Prologue 31
4: William Bradford: Th e Diary (1620– 21), the History

(Of Plymouth Plantation), and the Hebrew Studies 35

5: John Winthrop: From Journal to History 50
6: Anne Bradstreet: Th e World Elsewhere 67

7: Cott on Mather’s Magnalia 79

Interchapter 1. Covenant Chain Treaty- Making
and Franklin’s Folios 102

Part II. Secular Enlightenment: Th e Importance of Failure
8: Franklin’s Autobiography: Composition as Explanation 129
9: Th e Education of Th omas Jeff erson 150
viii contents
Interchapter 2. Th e End of Kaswentha:
A Brief History 166
Part III. Truth and Method
10: Th e Arbella Sermon: A Case Study 183
11: Th e American Scholar in the Twenty- fi rst Century 200
Acknowledgments 219 Notes 221 Index 257
Figur es
1: Th e Skidi Sky Chart (seventeenth century?) xii
2: William Bradford, “Hebrew Exercises” (ca. 1652) 48
3: Th omas Parkhurst, An Exact Mapp of New England
and New York (1702) 84
4: John Th ornton, et al., A New Map of New England, New York,
New Iarsey . . . (1685) 85
5: John Sellers, A Mapp of New England (1675) 85
6: Benjamin Franklin, Th e Treaty Held with the Indians
of the Six Nations . . . (1742) 103
7: Vandalia (late- eighteenth century) 143

8: “A modell of Xtian charity” (late seventeenth century?) 184

9: Francis Bayard Winthrop, “Donation List” (1809) 191

10: John Cott on, Gods Promise to His Plantations . . . (1634) 192

11: Isaac Ambrose, Redeeming the Time. A Sermon . . . (1674) 194