1717 to 1727

Society

1717. Great emigration to Pennsylvania among German Dunkers, Mennonites and Moravians.

1718. San Antonio founded in Texas. Call chapel the Alamo, meaning cottonwood.

1718. French chemist Geoffroy shows how various chemicals react to each other.

1718. England's Lady Mary Wortley Montagu pioneers acceptance of inoculation against smallpox.

1718. Pirate Edward Teach, Blackbeard, is killed. Says no one will find his buried treasure.

Literature

Robinson Crusoe. Daniel Defoe. British. 1719/20. Novel. Shipwrecked. Leads solitary existence for 24 years. He and Friday battle cannibals. Qualities: courage, patience, ingenuity and industry. Based stories on adventures of Alexander Selkirk. Allegory of his own life?

Society

1720. 50,000 die of plague in Marseilles, Europe's last major epidemic of Black Death.

1720. Nursery rhyme "Little Jack Horner" based on pie for Henry VIII.

1721. London smallpox epidemic takes heavy toll. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu has daughter inoculated.

1721. Broccoli introduced into England.

Literature

Moll Flanders. Daniel Defoe. British. 1722. Novel. Full title summarizes her life; one of the earliest social novels in England. The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, Who Was Born at Newgate, and During a Life of Continued Variety for Threescore Year, Besides her Childhood, Was Twelve Year a Whore, Five Time a Wife (Whereof Once to Her Own Brother), Twelve Year a Thief, Eight Year a Transported Felon in Virginia, at Last Grew Rich, Liv'd Honest, and Died a Penitent.

A Journal of the Plague Year. Daniel Defoe. British. 1722. Nonfiction (?) Account of an epidemic of bubonic plague in England during the summer and fall of 1665. Remarkably convincing.

La Henriade. Voltaire. French. 1723. Epic Poem. Struggle of Henry IV of Navarre to gain the throne. Condemns civil strife and religious fanaticism.

Society

1724. Rhode Island establishes property ownership qualification for voters.

1724. Black slaves outnumber whites 2-1 in South Carolina colony.

Literature

Gulliver's Travels. Jonathan Swift. British. 1726. Satire. Bitter denunciation of mankind. Man's corruption of his highest attribute, reason. Form of journal. Ship's physician. Lilliput (pigmies), Brobdingnag (giants), Laputa (wise men), Houyhnhmland (horses). Satirizes man's abuse of human reason, reflected in political, social and academic institutions.

The Seasons. James Thomson. British. 1726/30. Poetry. Belief in progress. Fascination with the idea of a golden age. Ordered universe is symbolized by the seasons.

The New England Primer. Anonymous. American. 1727. Textbook. Textbook to teach New England children the alphabet. Verses, illustrations, rules for behavior, hymns and prayers. "Now I lay me down to sleep."