Irving and the Predecessors of the American Story

“The Speech of Miss Polly Baker” by Benjamin Franklin (p. 20)

• What do you already know about Benjamin Franklin?

What is Miss Polly Baker in trouble for?

• For having children out of wedlock

How does Miss Baker criticize the charges? What evidence does she

offer to prove that she has done nothing wrong?

• The men who got her pregnant were irresponsible for abandoning their children and ought to be the ones in trouble.

• She has raised all her children herself without asking for help/charity

What social values are being made fun of in this story?

• The ones that say it’s immoral to have children out of wedlock

• And the idea that the woman should be punished, not the man

The first paragraph tells the ending of the story. How is this different

from most stories you read today? • Authors might build more suspense to the

ending

Would the ending be better if it were actually revealed at the end of

the story? Why or why not? • answers will vary

“Adventure of a Young English Officer among the Abenakee

Savages”by Anonymous (p. 22)

Many stories in this section are by anonymous authors. What does this

suggest about the reputation of short story writers?

• Writing probably wasn’t a very respectable profession/hobby

How does the young English officer come to be with the old Abenakee

man?• He is captured in battle after the old man

saves his life.

Why does the old man take no pleasure in the beauty of nature

anymore?

• He is grieving for his son, lost in war.

Why does the old man let the young officer go?

• He feels bad for the young officer’s father

• He doesn’t want anyone to suffer like he has for a lost son.

What is the author trying to say about Native Americans?

• They are also human and capable of admirable human emotions/qualities like sympathy, generosity, etc.

“Anecdote [An Argument against the Ownership of Slaves]”

by Anonymous (p. 53)

Explain Cesar’s argument that the white man is a thief as much as

Cesar is. • The white man has bought slaves who

were stolen from their families.

What point is the author trying to make?

• Slavery is wrong

• Slavery destroys families

• People who buy slaves are thieves

• Black people are as intelligent as white – they are HUMAN.

Put the story in context – when was it first published? When was slavery

abolished in the USA? • Published: 1790

• slavery abolished: prohibited in Northwest Territory 1787; in most northern states by 1804; Emancipation Proclamation 1863; Thirteenth Amendment 1865