Cornell Notes Take your notebook paper and title it “Literature of the Revolutionaries.” Then, set up the sections as shown in the illustration on the both pieces of paper.  Make a column titled “Questions and Cues” on the left.  Make a column titles “Detailed Notes” on the right.  Make a section titled “Summary Bullets” at the bottom.

Cornell Notes Make eight, six-line sections in the left-hand column of your paper (four on one piece of paper; four on another piece of paper). Write one of the following questions in each section: 1.What is the Revolutionaries’ view of education? 2.What is the Revolutionaries’ view of religion? 3.What is the Revolutionaries’ view of work and worldly success? 4.What is the Revolutionaries’ view of man? 5.What is the Revolutionaries’ view of society? 6.What is the Revolutionaries’ view of authority? 7.What is the Revolutionaries’ view of life? 8.What is the Revolutionaries’ definition of truth?

Literature of the Revolutionaries

The Enlightenment In the 1700’s, there was a burst of intellectual energy taking place in Europe that came to be known as the Enlightenment. Enlightenment thinkers had begun to question previously accepted truths about who should hold the power in government. Their thinking pointed the way to a government by the people – one in which the people consent to government limitations in exchange for the government’s protection of their basic rights and liberties.

The Enlightenment American colonists adapted these Enlightenment ideals to their own environment. The political writings of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson shaped the American Enlightenment. Soon, the American Enlightenment began to eclipse even the most brilliant European thought.

A Revolutionary Focus While it may sound strange, some of the most famous figures of the American Revolution lived at the same time as Puritans. As products of the Enlightenment, however, revolutionary writers focused their energies on matters of government rather than religion.

Pamphlets and Propaganda Many of the gifted minds of this period were drawn to political writings as the effort to launch a grand experiment in government that took shape in North America. The most important outlet for the spread of these political writings was the pamphlet.

Pamphlets and Propaganda Between 1763 and 1783, about two thousand pamphlets were published. These inexpensive “little books” became the fuel of the revolution, reaching thousands of people quickly and stirring debate and action in response to growing discontent with British rule. Through these pamphlets, the words that would define the American cause against Great Britain became the currency of the day, and the debate about independence grew louder and louder.

Common Sense One such pamphlet, Common Sense, by Thomas Paine, helped propel the colonists to revolution. Though expressing the views of the rational Enlightenment, Paine also agreed with the Puritan belief that America had a special destiny to be a model to the rest of the world. At the end of his stirring essay, he says that freedom had been hunted down around the globe and calls on America to “receive the fugitive,” to give freedom a home, and to welcome people from around the world to its free society.

Writing that Launched a Nation Thomas Jefferson also wrote pamphlets, but his great contribution to American government, literature, and the cause of freedom throughout the world is the Declaration of Independence, in which he eloquently articulated the natural law that would govern America. This natural law is the idea that people are born with rights and freedoms and that it is the function of government to protect those freedoms.

Writing that Launched a Nation Eleven years later, after the Revolutionary War had ended, delegates from all but one state gathered at the Philadelphia State House – in the same room in which the Declaration of the Independence had been signed – in order to discuss forming a new government. The delegates included many outstanding leaders of the time, such as Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and George Washington.

Writing that Launched a Nation Four months later, they emerged with perhaps the country’s most important piece of writing: The Constitution of the United States of America. Although Washington said at the time, “I do not expect the Constitution to last for more than 20 years,” it was indeed flexible enough to last through the centuries to come.

The Founding Fathers The Founding Fathers of the United States of America were political leaders and statesmen who participated in the American Revolution by signing the United States Declaration of Independence, taking part in the American Revolutionary War, establishing the United States Constitution, or by some other key contribution.

The Founding Fathers Some historians define the "Founding Fathers" to mean a larger group, including not only the Signers of the Declaration of Independence or the Framers of the Constitution, but also all those who, whether as politicians, jurists, statesmen, soldiers, diplomats, or ordinary citizens, took part in winning American independence and creating the United States of America.

The Founding Fathers Some of the most notable or most frequently referenced Founding Fathers are: –John Adams –Benjamin Franklin –Alexander Hamilton –John Jay –Thomas Jefferson –James Madison –George Washington

The Revolutionaries’ Education Many of the Founding Fathers had strong educational backgrounds at colonial colleges or abroad. Some, like Franklin and Washington, were largely self-taught or learned through apprenticeship. Others gained instruction from tutors or at academies. About half attended or graduated from college. Some had medical degrees or advanced theology training. Most of the education was in the colonies, but a few lawyers were trained at the Inns of Court in London.

The Revolutionaries’ Religion Because the Founding Fathers of the United States were heavily influenced by Enlightenment philosophies, it is generally believed that many of them were deists. Deism in the philosophy of religion is the standpoint that reason and observation of the natural world, without the need for organized religion, can determine that the universe is a creation and has a creator. Furthermore, the term often implies that this supreme being does not intervene in human affairs or suspend the natural laws of the universe. Deists typically reject supernatural events such as prophecy and miracles, tending to assert that a god (or "the Supreme Architect") does not alter the universe by (regularly or ever) intervening in the affairs of human life.

The Revolutionaries’ Religion This idea is also known as the Clockwork Universe Theory, in which a god designs and builds the universe, but steps aside to let it run on its own. The earliest known usage in print of the English term "deist" is 1621, and "deism" is first found in a 1675 dictionary. Deism became more prominent in the 17th and 18th centuries during the Age of Enlightenment mostly among those raised as Christians who found they could not believe in supernatural miracles, the inerrancy of scriptures, or the Trinity, but who did believe in one God.

Revolutionaries in Action Now, your primary source packet. Together, let’s examine Benjamin’s Franklin’s “Moral Perfection” and excerpt from Poor Richard’s Almanac to identify and evaluate the philosophical, religious, ethical, and social influence that shaped the literature of this period.