Question

Points reward!!!! How did the enlightenment and american revolution changed the way people viewed their relationship to their rulers?

Answer 1

That's an interesting question, because that correlation between the Enlightenment and the American Revolution is often overlooked, or is subordinate to the specific Acts and taxes imposed by the British.

The Enlightenment had an enormous impact on America, and went far beyond religion. The founders of the colonies drew to the teachings of astronomer Galileo and Philosopher Newton, among other thought provoking leaders of the Enlightenment. The colonial societies understood that impersonal, scientific laws governed the behavior of all matter, and that they were in charge of their destines. Their ideas produced the Age of Reason. Ministers lost their hold on intellectual thinking. Lawyers and physicians based their intellectual thinking on scientific fact, not religious beliefs.

A famous influence of public participation came from Ben Franklin, who founded the Junto club (later the American Philosophical Society) in which intellectuals met to discuss "any point of morals, politics, and natural philosophy". Below are a couple of the questions posed weekly:

"Have you lately observed any defect in the laws, of which it would be proper to move the legislature an amendment? Or do you know of any beneficial law that is wanting? "

"Have you lately observed any encroachment on the just liberties of the people? "

With members form all walks of colonial life in New England, it is easy to see how this influenced their thinking about the governing powers of their far-away mother country.

Franklin's scientific and cultural contributions, such as the study of electricity, the circulating library, bi-focals, the first hospital in Philadelphia, and his essays brought him the attention of all the colonies, which drew them closer together. They not only shared the kowlegde of new resources, but contemplated their own destinies in world affairs. No longer were their destinies tied to their religious beliefs, but to the factual laws of science, and their own abilities. Their intellectualism was growing, and was one of eagerness and curiosity.

Comtemplating the questions posed by Franklin's Junto Club it is easy to draw the line between those questions and the ides of self-government, especially in light of their unhappiness with Britain's colonial policies.

It is worthy to nate that nine signers of the Declaration of Independence—Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Rush, Francis Hopkinson, Robert Morris, George Clymer, John Morton, James Wilson, Thomas McKean, and George Ross— owned shares in the Library Company of Philadelphia, (founded by Franklin, based at the library) and that some of them served as directors. The Library Company served virtually as a Library of Congress until the national capital was established in 1800. Pamphlets and papers of the day exploring colonial life and government wouod have found their colonial circulation through the library.