During the 1700s, American writers moved towards (= si mossero) their independence from British examples.
The poets felt the necessity to produce a serious national poetry which celebrated their democratic ideals and America
David Humphreys, John Trumbull, and Joel Barlow, called the Connecticut Wits (or Hartford Wits) continued the tradition of satirical poems. They produced The Anarchiad (1786-1787), a mock epic poem (= poema epico satirico) which warned (= metteva in guardia) against the chaos that would develop if a strong central government, as supported by the Federalists, was not put into practice (= messo in pratica) in the United States
Philip Freneau’ poems are about America
As to prose, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson supported the American Revolution and, together with a committee made up of Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman and Robert R. Livingston. wrote The Declaration of Independence (1787), an important realization in both politics and American prose.
In the document there were key statements (= frasi chiave) of American freedom. But there were also compromises and the most evident was the absence of any mention (= menzione) of slavery (= schiavitù) to maintain the unity with the Southern colonies, whose economy was rooted (=era radicata) in slavery.
It was a great contradiction in document that affirmed that “all men are created equal”.
African American poets wrote about American Revolution, liberty, independence, equality, and identity. Just as the white Americans experienced the division between their new American identity and their European past, the African Americans, looked always to their African past and to their problematic American present.