CED 2.7 Part Two

Hello APushers. Thank you for tuning in.

This is part two of the 2.7 lecture.

In this episode I'll be taking a look
at the impact

of the Enlightenment and the
First Great Awakening

on the English North American
colonies.

The Enlightenment was an intellectual
movement

that originated in the European world
in the 1700s.

The main focus of the Enlightenment
was to elevate the power

of human reason and rationality.

You see, the Scientific Revolution in the
previous century had taught

European intellectuals that the universe
and the natural world

were anything but unexplainable.

In fact, people like Isaac Newton,
Galileo Galilei, and Johannes Kepler

proved that the application of scientific
principles

could help explain many wonders of
the universe.

So by the 1700s, European intellectuals
started to wonder whether or not a

scientific approach could be taken to
society, or government,

the economy, or even religion.

Philosophers like John Locke and
Jean Jacques Rousseau were some

of the most influential thinkers of the
Enlightenment,

and their application of reason and
science to government and society

would ultimately serve as the basis for
American calls

for independence from England.

The European philosophers wrote
extensively and published

many volumes of work that would
eventually make their way

to the New World.

Pennsylvanian John-- Benjamin Franklin
is one of colonial America's

most prominent supporters
of the Enlightenment.

Franklin embraced the Enlightenment focus
on rationalism and was a firm believer

that the knowledge is gained through
experiments and observation.

This makes sense considering he was an
avid inventor and is probably best known

for his experiments with electricity.

He was also a writer and promoter of
education.

In fact, he established the Philadelphia
Library and provided the foundation

for the University of Pennsylvania and
Pennsylvania Hospital.

Franklin - like many Enlightened
Philosophers -

believed in the existence of God.

And this is important.

They believe in God.

However, Franklin and other
philosophes, as they were known,

did not see God as omnipresent,

meaning he didn't think God guided
the daily activities

of believers and sinners.

Rather, Franklin saw God as being like a
clockmaker.

He put together the elements
of the Earth,

and then walked away and allow humankind
to work out their own affairs

and pathways to salvation.

This way of looking at God and religion is
known as Deism.

Although the central tenets of the
Enlightenment

supported the existence of religion,

it was somewhat problematic for
established churches.

Much of religion and people's belief in
God rest on principles that can't always

be proven with empirical evidence and
religious truths are not always

logical to the outside observer.

As we discussed in a previous lecture,

the religious fervor of the original
Puritans had cooled over time.

By the late 1600s, New England ministers
felt pressured into accepting

Half Way Covenants, which gave partial
church membership to churchgoers

who were baptized,

but unwilling to submit to the
Conversion Experience.

New Enlightened ideas about religion
convinced some Puritans

that-- that they should question
the doctrine of predestination

and ultimately theorize that a life

of good works might just be good
enough to get them into heaven.

Over time, this decline in piety started
to leave a spiritual void,

thus creating space for a spiritual
revival in the American Colonies.

The Great Awakening, as it was called,

was touched off by a talented preacher
in Massachussets.

Jonathan Edwards delivered impassioned
sermons from his pulpit and explained

to his parishioners exactly what could
happen to their souls if they continued

to stray from Puritan beliefs.

He admonished those who questioned
predestination

for being so vain as to think that they,
themselves,

had a better way of getting into heaven
than by simply trusting God.

His most famous speech was
"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"

during which he painted a terrifying
view of a furious God

dangling the damned above the fiery
pits of hell.

Now rather than scare Puritans away
from the Church,

Edwards and others who copied his style
were able to ignite

new religious passions in New England
towns.

Even more significant to the

Great Awakening was George Whitefield.

He was a visiting English preacher who
travelled his way up and down

the Atlantic coastline.

Whitefield was known for intensely
dramatic and theatrical sermons

and was hailed as one of the best
speakers of his generation.

He delivered his sermons outdoors and
would sometimes attract thousands

of people to hear him speak.

The crowds were made up of rich and poor,
men and women,

American Indians and enslaved Africans
alike.

His religious revivals would often inspire
spontaneous

conversion experiences amongst attendees.

Whitefield was so effective that even
the Deist Benjamin Franklin was moved

to empty his pockets into the collection
plate after hearing him speak.

Now it didn't take long for other
preachers to emulate Whitefield's style.

However, traditional Congregationalist
preachers were very wary,

or unsure, of the theatrics involved
in these revival meetings.

These preachers came to be known as
"Old Lights".

Now those preachers who favored heavy
emotionalism came to be known

as "New Lights".

New Light preachers tended to find their
place in Baptist churches

after this first Great Awakening.

A number of "New Light" centers for higher
education were founded as a result

of the Great Awakening including
Princeton, Dartmouth,

Rutgers, and Brown.

The first Great Awakening is significant
because it represented

the first mass movement of American
people.

By the mid 1700s, American culture was
still in it's infancy and heavily

influenced by Britain.

However, there were inklings of a
provincial, or local, culture developing

and Benjamin Franklin's
"Poor Richard's Almanack"

is an excellent example of this.

Behind the Bible, it was the second most
read publication in America.

This yearly almanac, edited by
Franklin from 1732 - 58 was filled

with helpful, yet witty statements and
quotes.

Some of the best known are

"God helps those who helps themselves"
and

"Early to bed and early to rise makes a
man healthy, wealthy, and wise".

Poor Richard's Almanack would not have
been successful

without a reading public in numbers that
rivaled

many parts of the European world.

Although the colonists could not always
afford to purchase books,

nor did they have the time to read them,

they did read their locally printed
leaflets, and journals, and newspapers.

By the time the Revolution broke out
in 1775,

there were around 40 colonial newspapers.

Colonists read these religiously,

as they were a way to stay in touch with
the goings-on of Mother England

(even though the news would be weeks old
by the time they read it).

The case of newspaper printer
John Peter Zenger

provides a good look into the
ever-revolving relationship

between England and the colonies in the
early to mid 1700s.

Zenger was from New York .

And his paper published a story that
called out the corruption

of the colonial governor and he was
promptly charged with seditious libel.

His case went to court and he was defended

by a former indentured
servant-turned lawyer.

Zenger's case rested on the fact the news
he printed was true.

The prosecution's case,
on the other hand,

rested on the assertion that truth was
less important

than the events of publicly criticizing
a royal official.

The jury bravely handed down a verdict
of "not guilty" in the Zenger trial

and thus set a precedent for freedom
of the press in America.

This wraps up 2.7.

I'll see you next time when we talk
about a pivotal event in the history

of the colonial relationship with
Mother England -

The French and Indian War.