Early Beginnings The history of American literature takes us from the records and diaries of colonial times to the full flowering of a national literature rich in writers with a powerful individuality. The story begins with the arrival of the first colonists in the New World. The first books written in America were histories of the early explorations and settlements. They were stories of Indian wars and of battles against disease and near-starvation. In the best known of these, the History of the Plymouth Plantation, William Bradford told his eyewitness story of the crossing of the May- flower in 1620 and the fortunes of the first settlers in the "wild and savage" country they had reached. Much of the literature of the early colonial times was written by Puritan ministers like Cotton Mather and Jonathan Edwards, preaching their zealous Protestantism to their New England audience. Later, the struggle for independence from the English mother country brought fame to writers who helped shape the political ideals of the new nation. They included Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Paine.