American Enlightenment

Examples of American Enlightenment in the following topics:

• The Political Revolution

  • The American Enlightenment promoted ideas of individual liberty, republican government, and religious toleration.
  • The American Enlightenment is the intellectual period in America in the mid-to-late 18th century (1715-1789), especially as it relates to the American Revolution and the European Enlightenment.
  • The most important leaders of the American Enlightenment include Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson .
  • In his famous essay "What is Enlightenment?
  • Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin were among the five, and their leadership was central to the American Enlightenment.

• The American Enlightenment

  • The American Enlightenment was an era of prolific discourse in which Anglo-American intellectuals studied human nature, society, and religion.
  • The American Enlightenment is used to describe a period of prolific intellectual writing and discussion during the mid- to late-18th century, 1715–1789, mirroring similar circumstances in Europe.
  • Employing common language rather than the more academic prose employed by other Enlightenment writers, Paine argued that the North American colonies had a sacred duty to violently overthrow corrupt, monarchical British rule.
  • Essentially, the Declaration of Independence, heavily inspired by Enlightenment political theory, proclaimed that the American people were fighting to maintain their essential freedoms and liberties by overthrowing despotic, irrational tyranny.
  • Summarize the central commitments of the Enlightenment, particularly as it appeared in the colonies

• Land and Liberty

  • While fewer than 1% of British men could vote, a majority of white American men were eligible.
  • In the American colonies, many different interest groups were represented in political decision-making.
  • The ideological movement known as the American Enlightenment was a critical precursor to the American Revolution.
  • Chief among the ideas of the American Enlightenment were the concepts of liberalism, democracy, republicanism, and religious tolerance.
  • Discuss the burgeoning legal characteristics of the British Colonies that eventually gave rise to Republicanism, the American Enlightenment, and, eventually, the American Revolution.

• The Rights of Englishmen

  • "The rights of Englishmen" refers to unwritten constitutional rights and liberties, originating in Britain peaking in the Enlightenment.
  • "The rights of Englishmen" is a concept used to describe a tradition of unwritten constitutional rights and liberties, originating in Britain, from which many Anglo-American declarations of rights have drawn inspiration.
  • These rights evolved and developed over several centuries and stages of Anglo-American history--peaking with the Enlightenment era.
  • In the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the high intellectual Enlightenment was dominated by philosophes who opposed the absolute rule of the monarchs of their day, and instead emphasized the equality of all individuals and the idea that governments derived their existence from the consent of the governed.
  • For instance, in 1690, John Locke (one of the fathers of the English Enlightenment) wrote that all people have fundamental natural rights to "life, liberty and property," and that governments were created in order to protect these rights.

• The Concept of Civic Duty

  • The highly intellectual Enlightenment was dominated by philosophers who opposed the absolute rule of the monarchs of their day and instead emphasized the equality of all individuals and the idea that governments derived their existence from the consent of the governed.
  • For instance, in 1690, John Locke (one of the fathers of the English Enlightenment) wrote that all people have fundamental natural rights to "life, liberty, and property" and that governments were created in order to protect these rights.
  • While British intellectuals and leaders formulated a concept of "British identity" in the 17th and 18th centuries, Anglo-American colonists in North America also developed an identity that drew heavily on both British liberalism and the colonial American experience.
  • American colonial politics revolved around the notion of public civic life and responsibility, an ideology that included:
  • This markedly only applied to equality for white men and excluded slaves, American Indians, and women.

• The Language of Liberty

  • The American "language of liberty" refers to individuals' right to life, liberty and property, and the duty to participate in civic affairs.
  • The American language of liberty is a concept deeply rooted in the Anglo-American colonial experience as well as the American Revolution.
  • Therefore, Anglo-American colonies were extensive communal cultures, centered on the civic and political sphere.
  • Such widespread participation in local community governments was characteristic solely of the Anglo-American colonies.
  • In the aftermath of the American Revolution and the establishment of the United States republic, many contemporaries lauded the Bill of Rights and the Constitution as the legacies of Enlightenment and liberal British principles that would safeguard the rights and liberties of American men.

• France and Spain in the Revolutionary War

  • Following the 1778 Treaty of Alliance, France openly provided arms and funding to the Americans and engaged in full-scale war with Britain.
  • Following the Declaration of Independence, the American Revolution was well received in France, perceived by many to be the incarnation of the Enlightenment spirit.
  • The French were keen on ensuring that the British did not tip the balance of power further in their favor, and many in France perceived the American Revolution as an opportunity to strip Britain of their North American possessions in retaliations for French losses a decade previously.
  • Individual French volunteers, moved by the prospect of glory in battle or animated by sincere ideals of liberty and republicanism, joined the American army.
  • In mid-August 1781, Washington and Rochambeau led the Celebrated March of combined Franco-American forces towards Virginia and the siege of Yorktown.

• Deism

  • Deism played a major part in inspiring enlightenment philosophy and in the creation of the principle of religious freedom.
  • In the United States, Enlightenment philosophy (which itself was heavily inspired by Deist ideals) played a major role in creating the principle of religious freedom, which is expressed in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
  • American Founding Fathers, or Framers of the Constitution, who were influenced by such philosophy include Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Cornelius Harnett, Gouverneur Morris, and Hugh Williamson; their political speeches show distinct Deistic influence.
  • Another major contributor to Deism was Elihu Palmer (1764–1806), who wrote the "Bible" of American deism in his (1801) and attempted to organize Deism by forming the "Deistical Society of New York.
  • Another major contributor to Deism was Elihu Palmer (1764–1806), who wrote the "Bible" of American deism in his Principles of Nature (1801) and attempted to organize Deism by forming the "Deistical Society of New York. "

• Slavery in the South

  • Cotton did not become a major crop until after the American Revolution.
  • In the 1730s, Enlightenment principles prompted the founding of a new colony: Georgia.
  • Despite its proprietors’ early vision of a colony guided by Enlightenment ideals and free of slavery, by the 1750s, Georgia was producing quantities of rice grown and harvested by slaves.

• Unifying Experiences among the Colonies

  • This social upper echelon built its mansions in the Georgian style, copied the furniture designs of Thomas Chippendale, and participated in the intellectual currents of Europe, such as the Enlightenment.
  • The French and Indian War (1754-1763) was the American extension of the general European conflict known as the Seven Years' War.
  • The war increased a sense of American unity in several ways.
  • Throughout the course of the war, British officers trained American ones for battle, who would later fight their mentors in the American Revolution.
  • This dispute was a link in the chain of events that soon brought about the American Revolution.