Two of the key founders and shapers of this country (Benjamin Franklin and Frederick Douglass) give us their stories in autobiographical form while works from other key authors like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville illustrate how unique literary traditions were developed in this country.  Students work on writing skills like persuasive writing, tone and mood, and conflict.  This course is written from a secular perspective, though we do touch on the religious concepts of sin, penance, and redemption in the discussion of Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.