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Prof.dr.Rodica Mihaila
American Civilization - Course 4 outline
2009-2010

The revolutionary period (1763-1783)

I. The American Enlightenment (1765-1815)
(Periodization)
See Adrienne Koch: The American Enlightment - Introduction
-The period 1765-1815 (an age of revolutions and constitutions - John Adams)
-General characteristics: The age fell short of its ideals, but implanted certain ideals in the
American mind to be seen in:
- vision of unique American destiny
- belief in justice, liberty and equality as natural rights (democracy and
natural rights)
- national dedication to pragmatism and common sense
-Central figures: Franklin, Jefferson, J.Adams, J.Madison, Alexandre Hamilton
-3 Major Phases:
1. Revolutionary Phase (opened with developing arguments for separation from
Great Britain and culminated with The Declaration of Independence)=. Ideas brought from
France and England, which also gave direct support cx. Baron von Stuber, Marquis de Lafayette;
Thomas Paine, Joseph Priestley (scientist) who wrote pamphlets supporting Ame. cause
2. The Constitutional Phase (to establish securely the new political order , to
create an extensive republic)
a group of enlightened men which produced and ratified the constitutions.
The Articles of Confederation, the State Constitutions, the Federal Constitution - organic laws
3. The Final Phase - Established the first new nation in the modern sense (a
nation under a two-party system and in a setting of economic growth)
II. The revolution
The British Colonies in America
The Thirteen Colonies gave rise to eighteen present-day states: the original thirteen states (in
chronological order of their ratification of the United States Constitution: Delaware, Pennsylvania, New
Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New
York, North Carolina, Rhode Island)
a)
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By 1763, the colonies have grown in economic strength and cultural attainment
Had a practice in self government
population had increased up to 1,500,000, 6 times since 1700;
the frontier had been pushed inland (many immigrants from Europe).
Britains mercantilist policy (guiding principle)
colonies supply only raw material;
should not compete in manufacturing their own goods;

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- struggles between legislative assemblies elected by the people and the governors appointed by the
king
A drastic change in the relationship between the colonies and the mother country took place in 1770s,
following the final expulsion of the French from the North American continent (British possessions
almost doubled: Canada and the territory between the Mississippi and the Alleghenies);
- the need for a new imperial policy;
- 1763- a proclamation that reserved all the Western territory between the Alleghenies, the Florida, the
Mississippi and Quebec for the use of the Indians;
- forbids settlement in the West;
- stops expansion westwards of the 13 colonies.
b) A new financial policy. Britain needed:
- more money to support a growing empire;
- a stronger central administration at the expense of colonial self government (to extract more
revenue);
- a new system.
(1) 1764 - The Sugar Act:
forbade the importation of foreign rum;
put a duty on molasses from all sources: the molasses for New England rum distilleries was
imported from French and Dutch West Indies.
(2) 1765 The Stamp Act revenue stamps were to be affixed to all newspapers, pamphlets, licenses
and other legal documents;
Consequences:
- violent reactions from journalists, lawyers, clergymen, merchants and businessmen against taxation
without representation ;
- trade with mother country fell off in 1765;
Counter reactions from the colonies
1)
October 1765 - the first intercontinental congress, in New York:27 men from nine colonies
considered The Stamp Act a menace and mobilized colonial opinion against parliamentary interference
in American affairs;
- two regiments of redcoats were sent to Boston to protect the customs commissioners;
2)
March 5th, 1770 The Boston Massacre three Bostonians were shot dead when the
antagonism between citizens and soldiers flared up;
1770- the Townsend Act was repealed, except the duties on tea.
- the patriots or radicals led by Samuel Adams (against the principle of Parliaments rights over the
colonies => the tea tax still existed). 1773 East India Act => the British government granted to East
India Company a monopoly on all tea exported to the colonies (E.I.Company decided to sell tea at a
price well under the customary one, which made smuggling impossible and eliminated the independent
colonial merchants).
3)
The Boston Tea Party on the night of December 16th, 1773, patriots disguised as Mohawk
Indians boarded three British ships lying at anchor and dumped their tea cargo into the Boston harbor.
4)
- September 5th, 1774 => the first Continental Congress to consult upon the present unhappy
state of the colonies adopts the Declaration of Rights and Grievances addressed to the people of
Great Britain.
5)
April 1775 battles of Lexington and Concord (32 km from Boston)

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6)
May 1775 The Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia;
- Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin => the idea of complete separation from Europe ( was still
repugnant for some);
- Thomas Paine(1737-1809) (a political theorist who had come from England in 1774, asked by
Franklin) attacked the king and ridiculed the idea of hereditary monarchy;
- wrote a 50 page pamphlet => Common Sense; helped to crystallize conviction and to rally the
undecided to the cause of separation.
The Rights of Man (1791-1792) => attacks on royalty, argues democracy from the state of nature
and the Bible, abolition of property, universal education. Basic idea: man should return to a primitive
state of harmony with natural law, by eliminating corrupt government.
May 10th,1776 a resolution was adopted;
July 4th, 1776 The Declaration of Independence (prepared by Jefferson) was adopted;
- public notice of separation; King George declared the colonies to be in a state of rebellion.
- based on individual liberty;
- its political philosophy:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the
consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it
is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation
on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect
their Safety and Happiness.
- it inspired the Americans to fight for
personal freedom;
self-government;
dignified place in society.
The Independence War
- for many months, Americans suffered from severe setbacks;
- the greatest victory, in 1777, at Saratoga against general John Burgogne, who surrendered.
French support: - France welcomed Franklin after Burgognes surrender;
- treaties of Commerce and Alliance;
- French volunteers sailed to America (Marquis de Lafayette).
1783 the peace of Paris acknowledged the independence and sovereignity of the 13 colonies =>free
states ruled by the articles of confederation.
The formation of a National Government
- to give legal form to their political ideals or expressed in the Declaration of Independence through
state constitutions (the written constitution was developed in America)
- constitution = a standing law to live by (John Adams);
- most of the 13 constitutions showed the impact of the democratic ideas, built on:
It was in the actual drafting of these state constitutions that the American revolution was
accomplished.
1788 they adopted a constitution > government based on the principle of balance of power
- the Bill of Rights was added.

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Each constitution [7 articles + 26 ammendments]: We the People of the United States, in Order to
form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common
defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,
do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
1) began with a declaration or Bill of Rights (Virginias served as model): a declaration of principles
such as:
popular sovereignity;
rotation in office;
freedom of election;
an enunciation of fundamental liberties: moderate bail, humane punishments, militia instead of army,
trial by jury, freedom of the press and conscience, right of majority to reform government.
2) Each paid allegiance to the three-branch structure of government:executive, legislative and
judiciary. (system of checks and balances)
Two political parties devided along two ideological lines:
1) the Federalists (of prosperous classes, dies by 1820) favoured strong presidents and central
government; headed by Alexander Hamilton;
2) the Republicans (small farmers) defended the rights of the individual states; headed by Jefferson.
1789 George Washington became the first president (a Federalist style).
1797-1801 John Adams, second president =>Federalist:an aristocratic view of government, the
rich should rule; he exposed a great fear of snobs as of kings; in thought, he ressembled Hobbes (people
motivated by self interest). His writing was solid, logical, well designed in architecture (A Defense of
the Constitutions of the USA).
1801 Jefferson, third president.

The main features of revolutionary thought

the influence of the French revolution (liberty, equalty, fraternity);
natural rights not democracy
individualism, pragmatism influenced by Hobbs (people motivated by self interest);
faith in Americas manifest destiny (need for central government)

Ideologists of the new republic

1) The Federalists (1787-1788); the Federalists paper, written by Hamilton, James Madison from
Virginia, John Jay from New York => 85 letters signed Publius +1
- the greatest American work on political theory
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826):statesman, architect, educator, ambassador to France (after
Franklin), president of the Philosophy Society; read widely in Voltaire, Hobbes, Milton, Locke,
Montesquieu (not Rousseau).
- 1776 drafted the Declaration of Independence argues from both natural rights and English
law.Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness shows his idealism.
Declaration of Independence:
- based on the natural-rights theory of government derived from Locke and 18th century French
Philosophers.
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- proclaims that the function of government is to guarantee the inalienable rights with which men are
endowed life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
- 1801-1809 3rd president; more than any other American, except Franklin, he embodied the ideals of
his day (main tenets of deism): belief in natural rights, political equalty and natural altruism => the
father of the democratic spirit of his country: an educate electorate, advocate of laissez-faire; The
best government is one that governs the least.
- various interests: in science, architecture and agriculture => his agrarianism was sociological (cities
produced snobs pastoral ideal)
- wrote an article on prosody: Anglo-Saxon and the Philosophy of Indian languages
- his best work: Notes on Virginia.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790): printer, writer, editor, diplomat, scientist
- the embodiment of the Enlightenment: religion => scientific deism; economic => individualism;
politics => liberal.
- the story of his life is the American success story par exellence => rise from rags to riches, from
obscurity to local, national and international fame; an archetypal American => eminently practical man.
- had a many faceted genius unparalleled in American history
- intellectually => a pragmatist; with Hamilton and the other authors of The Federalist papers, one of
the first adherents of that particularly American brand of Philosophy (developed later by W. James and
John Dewey) => its main tenet : truth is to be tested by experience and with regard to the benefit of
society.
Had many careers
Literary career: his readings included Defoe, Swift, Addison, Milton, Plutarch, the classics and the
Bible, Shaftesbury, Cowper, Cotton Mather.
- Autobiography (1771, 1784, 1788) his masterpiece:
a permanent classic;
Comparison with Edwards Personal Narrative. Franklins Autobiography is its counterpart; both are
stories of conversions; Franklins is humanistic and secular but their particular consciousness of self
differs:
Comparison to Rousseaus Confessions: i) Rousseau introverted; Franklin extroverted;
ii) style: simple, concise, clear, direct, graceful; a purist who used few Americanisms; employed straight
forward Swiftian irony; cool logic, common sense, wit.
- other writings: inventor of the hoax or tall tale => short prose, funny, obvious lie, influenced
the development of story-telling in America (Twain);
- writers of almanacs: Poor Richards Almanac => short pieces which are funny and full of moral
advice.
Melville best discerned Franklins historic genius in Israel Potter (the wandering young soldier
who encountered Franklin in Paris)
Having carefully weighed the world, Franklin could act any part in it. By nature turned to knowledge,
his mind was often grave, but never serious. At times he had seriousness- extreme seriousness for
others, but never for himself. Tranquillity was to him instead of it. This philosophical levity of
tranquillity, so to speak, is shown in his easy variety of pursuits. Printer, postmaster, almanac maker,
essayist, chemist, orator, tinker, statesman, humorist, philosopher, parlor man, political economist,
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professor of housewifery, ambassador, projector, maxim-monger, herb-doctor, wit:--Jack of all trades,
master of each and mastered by none--the type and genius of his land. Franklin was everything but a
poet.

Literature in the Revolutionary Age

The Age of Reason The Enlightenment (1743-1815)
The spirit of the age: free inquiery, scientific experiment, application of the test of reason.
In 1743, Benjamin Franklin founded the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia (modeled on the
Royal Society in Great Britain) => stress on applied science , inventions, techniques (Jefferson was
president).
Genaral view of the Literature
Intellectual Background
Newtonian science strengthened deism and gave birth to the idea of progress;
Natural rights and democracy went hand in hand;
Aesthetic primitivism adopted the idea of the noble savage;
Classicism and neoclassicism gave way before the impact of science and sentimentalism (the ancient
ideas of clarity, restraint, simplicity, balance);
The influence of the political conflicts, growing nationalism.
Literary Scene
1) The decline of puritan influence and the rise of P hiladelphia, Hartford and New York as literary
capitals.
2) The appearance of the novel and drama (unity of time, place, action).
The drama religion opposition was so stubborn
- the revolution produced a number of plays on war subjects, but Royall Tylers Contrast (1787) was the
first American comedy of manners (performed in 1790).
The Novel heavily didactic derivative in techniques, influenced by Richardsons sentimental code,
Pamela , published in 1744; Gothic romance, William Godwin, imitated by Brockden Brown;
Cervantes and Swift Blackenridge. Represented by:
1) Hugh Henry Blackenridge (1748-1816) modern chivalresque, pitoresque romance(Cervantes);
2) Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810) introduced the psychological horror story => Willand,
german myth, Wayland; inspired by gothic novelists.
Prose predominantly utilitarian; ofen heavy in style; works resulting from the rationalism of the age
were predominent; travel literature and scientific work; political prose; pamphlets, letters, essays,
autobiographies.
Poetry fiction and non-fiction prose usually incorporated poetry; models of satire: Dryden, Pope,
Butler; other influences: Goldsmith, young Macpherson;
- popular forms: the satire, the epic verse, the pastoaral and the prospect poem (nationalistic
prophecy);
- poets: 1)Philip Freneau the father of American poetry, the poet of the American revolution
2) the Hartford / Conneticut wits (born in the 1750s) the earliest school of poetry in American letters;
a literary groep of the late 18th century, centered at Hartford (John Trumbull, Joel Barlow), patterned
after the Augustan wits; aims: to modernize the rigidly scholastic curriculum at Yale, to write poetry to
celebrate Americas literary independence, clung to Calvinism and Federalism => opposed deism.
Non-political prose
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Michel-Guillaume Jean de Crievecoeur, known as Hector St. John de Crievecoeur (1735-1813): came to
America in 1754. Settled in Orange County, N.Y. He returned to France in 1790. His writings: that of a
philosophical and cultivated man; a primitivist (close to primitive nature); a Rousseauist (noble savage);
a physicist (the soil is the source of wealth and virtue).
Letters from an American farmer (1782)
- 12 letters => idyllic description of various colonies, of farm life, of animals;
- 1st attempt to answer the question What is the unique American character?; created the image of
America in European eyes; not what the American is but what he concieves himself to be; a myth of
America => the new start.
- Recognized the importance of the frontier in shaping man; the progresss of the frontier repated the
socioeconomic stages of civilaization => the frontiersmen became more civilized as the frontier was
moving West;
- Sensitive to abuses of the slaves and the Indians.
Sketches of 18th century America (unpublished material) => disillusionment when the Revolution
showed that men close to nature were still susceptible to corruption.
Educational progress in the 18th century
Rising prosperity, faith in reason, greater sophistication => encouraged the founding of educational
institutions:
Colleges: William and Mary (Virginia) 1693 at Williamsbury (Jefferson, a graduate); Yale 1701;
Princeton 1746; Columbia 1754.
Newspapers and books: first printing press in the colonies at Cambridge in 1539; 18th century the
printers gained influence; first newspaper 1690 in Boston; many books brought from England;
subscription libraries.