Colonial Enlightenment

During the seventeenth century, colonial America was welcoming many newcomers, several from England. Quantities of these newcomers were seeking land for economic purposes as others were longing for religious toleration. Many of the English colonists settled in the New England region for religious freedoms, to escape the English king, and leave adversaries of other religions behind. Settlers who resided in the Middle Atlantic region were affected differently. Although the Middle Atlantic was more

One of the major causes for emigration from England to North America was religious persecution. Religious tolerance in Britain for other Christian sects besides the Anglican church was virtually nonexistent, resulting in many members of other sects to seek religious haven in the colonies. The vast majority of immigrants coming to New England were followers of

New England’s motive to settle there was for freedom of religion due to being in England if they worshiped other religions not been the Church of England, consequences would be imprisonment, fees, discrimination, and even execution. They had two main religious established, Pilgrims and Puritans, been two different religions. Pilgrims were the first permanent settlers on New England.1

The New England colonies consisted of puritans who wanted to purify the church because the Church in England was corrupt. They wanted a place where they could worship freely and work together to

the claim to the Crown, and he believed that individuals held the right to revolt against a

Between 1820 and 1860, Americans constructed 40,000 new churches compared to the 10,000 they constructed in the 40 years before 1820. At the end of the revival period, ”one-third of all Americans attended church regularly.”(P.400) Many of the early revival preachers embraced Christian evangelicalism, the established groups sought to take advantage of the popular enthusiasm to build their particular denominations. Methodists and the Baptists established themselves as leading American denominations as a result of the Second Great Awakening. The two faiths had a mutual sense of affinity with regard to doctrine, but the Baptists created a radically decentralized hierarchy that empowered local ministers and individual churches.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.” (The Declaration of Independence, U.S. 1776, para. 2). The Declaration of Independence is one of the most important documents in American history. The colonists said that Parliament and the king, George III, were violating the people’s natural rights. The colonies were on their own for such a long time that they got used to handling stuff their own way. Out of nowhere, the king and Parliament started giving the colonists taxes. From this taxing we got the saying “No taxation without representation.” Some of the taxes they gave the colonists were the Stamp Act, Sugar Act, and the Quartering Act. The Stamp Act was tax on every piece of paper and book published or used. The Sugar Act was a tax on sugar being imported and any food containing sugar. The Quartering Act was when the colonists were forced to house british soldiers, the soldiers were there to enforce the taxes being placed. All of these problems started the American Revolution.

During the early eighteenth century between 1730 and 1750, a resurgence in religious fervor known as the First Great Awakening developed throughout the thirteen British Colonies. As the European Enlightenment ideas of reason and logic in all things began to grow in Europe and the colonies, the First Great Awakening derived from an attempt to restore the predominance of emotion and spiritual piety in religion. Likewise, throughout the first half of the nineteenth century, the Second Great Awakening again invigorated religious zeal in the United States in response to the growing secularism in America and complacency of religious believers. The First Great Awakening’s prominent figures, Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, discredited the socially stratified religious ideology of established churches such as the Christ Church and popularized the religious ideology of fervent personal connections with God and the principles of spiritual guilt and Calvinist predestination, or the selective and predetermined salvation and damnation of people. From the First Great Awakening also arose the decrease in traditional church parish worship and the appearance of emotionally impassioned itinerant preachers in the thirteen colonies and the mass preaching to emotional crowds outside. The Second Great Awakening eroded Calvinist predestination, and instead religions such as Methodists and Baptists professed the equality of all before God and salvation for all who repent for their sins and

Largely Puritan Separatists, New Englanders left England for religious freedom. After King Henry VIII established the Church of England, Protestantism flourished in England. A large number of Protestants, however, sought complete separation from Catholicism and were thus labeled “Separatists”. These Separatists and persecuted Catholics, whom had refused to join the newly founded Church of England, sailed for New England where they could practice their religion as they wished. Therefore, unlike the economic motives of the Chesapeake residents, the New Englanders motives for leaving the motherland were solely religious in nature. Once living in New England, the settlers mocked much of England’s economy, relying skills such as carpentry, shipbuilding and

By the 18th century, there were concerns about the declining religious devotion and the increase of secularism emerging in the United States. The result of these changes was the Great Awakening, the first major american revival. There were many preachers that were outspoken from their religion. George Whitefield was one of many of those preachers. Whitefield was very compassionate during his speeches, preaching the words of God, weeping with sorrow, spreading the word of God, and hitting people on an emotional standpoint. He made numerous evangelizing tours through the colonies and attracted large crowds. Nathan Cole, like thousands of others, came to see George Whitefield. Nathan Cole wrote in “The Spiritual Travels of Nathan Cole” and said, “When I saw Mr. Whitefield come upon the Scaffold he lookt almost angelical; a young, Slim, slender, youth before some thousands of people with a bold undaunted Countenance, and my hearing how God was with him every where he came along it Solemnized my mind; and put me into a trembling fear before he began to preach; for he looked as if he was Cloathed with authority from the Great God; and a sweet sollume solemnity sat upon his brow And my hearing him preach, gave me a heart wound…” Cole had just described that hundreds upon hundreds of people came to see Whitefield and speakers like him. This greatly revived religion in many peoples’ lives. Cole said that the speech given touched him in the heart as it did with thousands of others.

The Great Awakening was a fervent religious movement that had a significant impact on the Protestant people and shaped new congregations deriving from the “’New Light’ revivalist and ‘Old Light’ traditionalists.” (Brinkley, p.83) The apex of the Great Awakening was between the 1730s and 1740s, offering the colonial people a deeper sense of spiritual improvement by preaching’s that made faith the center of personal focus. The Great Awakening was the result of neglection of spiritual guidance among the Protestant believers in the Colonies, which was revived by the teachings of Congregationalist Jonathan Edwards.

The introduction of Enlightenment ideas into colonial America during the 1700s shaped the thoughts of the general public, and these ideas would foreshadow the American Revolution. The Enlightenment idea that authority and tradition should be questioned had travelled to America. The acquittal of Zenger (a publisher arrested for writing negative things about a governor) demonstrated how the American people believe that the press should be free and able to criticize authorities. This shows how the enlightenment belief in skepticism of authorities had found its way into the American society. John Locke’s “social contract” (the idea that a government can exist only if the people consent to it) also became familiar to the American people. The belief

The first way that colonists started to see a difference was the formation of the First Continental Congress in 1774. This group responded to the Intolerable Acts that were issued as a result of the Boston Tea Party. The colonists wanted the acts repealed so a letter was written to the king to ask him to do so (Party). The group also adopted the Articles of Association. Within these articles, a boycott of British goods and a refusal to send exports to Britain would be started if the Intolerable Acts were not cancelled (Caravantes 9). In addition to the First Continental Congress being formed, a short term change that occurred was the Boston Port Act. This act declared the Boston harbor to remain closed until the costs of the tea destroyed was accounted for. In total, there was about 92,000 pounds on tea damaged in the protests. This amount of tea equates to about one million dollars (Party, 10). Britain passed the Boston Port Act to punish the colonies in general but Boston for the most part. Britain also wanted to express their power over the colonies due to the appearance of chaos in the colonies. This chaos brought the thought that Britain did not have complete control over the colonies and soon the colonies would no longer be under British reign. Besides the Boston Port Act, Britain passed the Coercive Acts. The colonists disliked the actions of Parliament and war began to look inevitable (Party). On the contrary, there was a bigger affair to come from the Boston Tea Party. This affair was the American Revolution as a whole. The tea party was the first act of defiance by the colonists and as an outcome, colonists began to feel the change of heart that said independence was possible. The king became angry when he found out that the money for the tea was not going to be received because the colonists declared their want for freedom (Klingel 7). On April 19,

The Enlightenment and Imperialism times have varied the way the world is in many ways such as determining “How free is our world today?” The world today, is not free, considering the many variations in treatment within countries everywhere. Along with this, Freedomhouse.org displays the analysis of the world’s freedom. The process of attaining freedom was influenced by the events and occasions of the Enlightenment, Imperialism, and The Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen. Problems such as racism are shown through the Rwanda genocide and Just Mercy.

The main reason for the English settlers leaving Great Britain was for the people to have more religious freedoms. Some of the colonist also did it for wealth, for some it wasn’t free to travel and get a new start on the other side of the world isolated from what they are accustomed to. There are always different reasons from a person to family as to why they came to America but for the part it was to be able to freely practice religion the way the colonists wanted to. In the meanwhile the colonist when coming into contact with the natives considered them savages and needed to be converted to a true religion, the right one, Protestantism. Even the romanticized Captain John Smith believed that Powhatan and the natives were savages, when the natives clearly stated they were fearful as to what would happen to them. Coming to the new world the colonists were extremely unprepared for the dead of winter and many had died but they had a strong reliance on the Native Americans to help, unfortunately later on quite a few colonies double crossed them and killed a lot of the Native American tribes. The English was able to take land because the Native Americans had no concept of property, they believed it was given to everyone. Of course not every colony was the same and the way they treated the land, for example people in the Chesapeake had warmer climates and more fertile soil to offer for farming whereas in New England the soil was rocky and slightly colder climates which made it