Chapter 4, Section 4 The Spread of New Ideas

Section Focus Question: How did ideas about religion and government influence colonial life? New ideas about religion and government strengthened democratic ideas among the colonist.

The Importance of Education Puritan ideas Influenced colonial education. To Puritans education went hand and hand with religion, and everybody was expected to read the Bible. They made laws requiring towns to provide public schools. Puritan schools were supported by both private and public money.

The Importance of Education (cont) These Massachusetts laws were the beginning of public schools in America. Colonial schools taught religion, reading, writing, and arithmetic. Most schools in Colonial America were in the North. In the South, members of the gentry hired private teachers. Children of poor families often had no education.

The Importance of Education (cont) Only some schools admitted girls. Dame schools were opened by women to teach girls and boys to read. Schools did not admit enslaved Africans. Some Quaker and Anglican missionaries taught slaves to read. After elementary school, some boys went to grammar school. The first American colleges were founded mainly to educate men to become ministers.

How did education differ for girls and boys? Boys received more education than girls and studied a wider variety of subjects.

Roots of American Literature The first American literature was sermons and histories. America’s first published poet was Anne Bradstreet. Her poems described the joys and hardships of life in Puritan New England. Phyllis Wheatley was an enslaved African in Boston. Her first poem was published in the 1760s when she was about 14.

Roots of American Literature (cont) Benjamin Franklin started writing the Pennsylvania Gazette when he was 17. His most popular work, Poor Richard’s Almanac, was published yearly from 1733 to 1753. He was also a scientist, businessman, and diplomat.

How did Ben Franklin contribute to American literature? He published a newspaper, an almanac, and a popular autobiography.

The Great Awakening

Preachers Jonathan Edwards George Whitefield

Jonathan Edwards 1703-1758 Interpreter of and apologist for the Great Awakening Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) was the most important American preacher during the Great Awakening. A revival in his church in Northampton, Massachusetts, 1734-1735, was considered a harbinger of the Awakening which unfolded a few years later. Edwards was more than an effective evangelical preacher, however. He was the principal intellectual interpreter of, and apologist for, the Awakening. He wrote analytical descriptions of the revival, placing it in a larger theological context. Edwards was a world-class theologian, writing some of the most original and important treatises ever produced by an American. He died of smallpox in 1758, shortly after becoming president of Princeton. 12

George Whitefield 1714 - 1770 In 1738 made 1st of 7 visits to the America Ordained Anglican “Great Itinerant” Member of Wesley’s Oxford “Holy Club” Popular as G. Washington Huge crowds: 30,000 One of the great evangelists of all time, George Whitefield (1714-1770) was ordained in the Church of England, with which he was constantly at odds. Whitefield became a sensation throughout England, preaching to huge audiences. In 1738 he made the first of seven visits to the America, where he gained such popular stature that he was compared to George Washington. Whitefield's preaching tour of the colonies, from 1739 to 1741, was the high-water mark of the Great Awakening there. A sermon in Boston attracted as many as 30,000 people. Whitefield's success has been attributed to his resonant voice, theatrical presentation, emotional stimulation, message simplification and clever exploitation of emerging advertising techniques. Some have compared him to modern televangelists. He had a loud voice, and it is said one conversion occurred 3 miles from where he was preaching. He was a dramatic man who it was said could pronounce the word "Mesopotamia" in such a way that it could melt an audience. He would always say it at least once in sermon, no matter the topic. One of those who heard him was Ben Franklin. Even though he was a worldly man, he had his pockets picked by Whitefield. Whitefield, with his powerful voice and famous cross-eyes (he was "Dr. Squintum" to his detractors), was a valuable complement to the organizational and counseling skills of the Wesleys. In 1737, when only a twenty-two year old Oxford graduate, George Whitefield's voice startled England like a trumpet blast. Attacked by clergy, press and mob alike, Whitefield nevertheless became the most popular and influential preacher of the age. At a time when London had a population of less than 700,000, he could hold spellbound 20,000 people at a time at Moorfields and Kennsington Common. For thirty four years his voice resounded throughout England and America. A firm Calvinist in creed yet unrivalled as an aggressive evangelist; slim in person yet storming in preaching as if he were a giant; a clergyman of the Church of England yet crossing the Atlantic thirteen times and becoming the 'apostle of the England empire'; a favorite preacher of coal miners and London roughnecks yet an equal favorite of peers and scholars; weak and broken in body yet preaching his last sermon until the candle which he held in his hand burned away and went out in its socket'; the name of George Whitefield scarce knows a parallel." 05/09/2010 13 13

Message Personal relationship with God Revival Meetings No clergy to channel prayers Emotional Mission to Indians

Change in religions Baptists and Methodists grew Church of England and Puritan churches declines

AMERICAN RELIGION BECOMES MORE DEMOCRATIC

Baptists In America since 17th century Galvanized by Great Awakening Baptists (Separate Congregationalists) in New England (Connecticut) expands to Separate Baptists in N. Carolina From 6,000 – 20,000 in 3 years, foundation of Southern Baptists Although Baptists had existed in the American colonies since the seventeenth century, it was the Great Awakening that galvanized them into a powerful, proselytizing force. Along with the Methodists, the Baptists became by the early years of the nineteenth century the principal Protestant denomination in the southern and western United States. Baptists differed from other Protestant groups by offering baptism (by immersion) only to those who had undergone a conversion experience; infants were, therefore, excluded from the sacrament, an issue that generated enormous controversy with other Christians. 17

How did the Great Awakening affect American society. It reinforced democratic ideas by encouraging people to make their own decisions about religion and politics.

The Enlightenment -Starting in the late 1600s, a group of Enlightenment thinkers believed that all problems could be solved by reason. -They look for “natural laws” that governed politics, society, and economics. -Englishman John Locke contributed some of the movement’s key ideas.

One of the great philosophers of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. An Oxford scholar, medical researcher and physician, political operative, economist and ideologue According to Locke, we can know with certainty that God exists. We can also know about morality with the same precision we know about mathematics, because we are the creators of moral and political ideas. He gives us the theory of natural law and natural rights which he uses to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate civil governments. John Locke

Liberalism and the Age of Reason Foundations of the Liberal Tradition Any single man must judge for himself whether circumstances warrant obedience or resistance to the commands of the civil magistrate; we are all qualified, entitled, and morally obliged to evaluate the conduct of our rulers. - John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, 1689

Montesquieu Montesquieu - The Spirit of the Laws 1748 - favored separation of powers - this would prevent any on group from gaining too much power. - checks / balances - this became the basis of government in the United States.

New Core Values The general trend was clear: individualism, freedom and change replaced community, authority, and tradition as core values in Europe and Colonial America.

Enlightenment in America Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, many of the intellectual leaders of the American colonies were drawn to the Enlightenment. Jefferson, Washington, Franklin, and Paine were powerfully influenced by Enlightenment thought.

Heritage of the Enlightenment (3) Yet in many ways, the Enlightenment has never been more alive. It formed the consensus of international ideals by which modern states are judged. Human rights Religious tolerance Self-government

What was the goal of Enlightenment thinkers? They wanted to solve problems by applying reason to discover the “natural laws” that governed the universe.