Also called Age of Enlightenment

 Began in 17 th century Europe than spread to the colonies.  Science begins weakening faith in miracles, holy books, and idea of divinity of kings.  A celebration of ideas—ideas about what humans were capable of and what could be achieved through action and science.  Discussion and debate were considered healthy outlets for pent-up frustrations  Argumentation as a style of decision-making grew out of the new scientific method, which put multiple hypothesis to the test.

 The idea of a “public”—an informed collection of citizens invested in the common good and the preservation of the state—reached its fruition.  There was a surge of reading material available to the public.  Literacy rates rose dramatically.  The belief that freedom and democracy were fundamental rights and that meant the promise of fair treatment for all people began to take hold  Ironically, this did not include slaves, women & the poor.

 Faith in natural goodness. People are born without sin neither good nor bad, but are the result of experiences.  Perfectibility of a human being It is possible to improve situations of birth, economy, society, and religion  Using reason to resolve universal doubt.  Universal benevolence—the attitude of helping everyone.

 Beginning of 18 th century, colonies had one newspaper; by 1800 there were 200.  Literature was dominated by pamphlets, essays, journal articles, newspapers, speeches and the political documents we still use.  Writing was political—mainly against Great Britain and trying to break free to build a new government.

 Pamphlets were the most important outlet for political writings. Over 2000 were published between  Inexpensive “little books” that fueled the Revolution, stirring debate and action in response to growing discontent with British rule.  Common Sense by Thomas Paine was an impassioned plea for independence. The rallying cry of “No taxation without representation” was the manifestation of the Enlightenment principles of fair government.

 Many lived at the same time as the Puritans, but focused their energies on matters of government instead of religion  Thomas Paine wrote and spoke of the rights of man  Wrote Common Sense which called for independence from England; Crisis papers which argued for revolution and independence; Age of Reason which attacked religion and supported Deism  Thomas Jefferson wrote The Declaration of Independence  Benjamin Franklin wrote Poor Richard’s Almanack, and was the only American to sign the four founding documents of the new Republic  Patrick Henry’s speech against the stamp act is one of the most famous speeches of all time, “Give me liberty or give me death”

 Mainly written by Thomas Jefferson  Considered to be a primary source  Three main parts:  The preamble: This is the most famous part of the document.  A list of grievances against King George III  A formal declaration of war

 Charged Words: words used to evoke an emotional response  Tyrant, evils, abuses (negative)  Wholesome, humble (positive)  Parallelism: the repeated use of words, phrases, or clauses with similar grammatical structures or meanings.  Persuasion: writing that attempts to convince readers to accept a specific viewpoint  Uses logical appeals: a chain of reasoning to establish the validity of a proposed argument  Uses emotional appeals: writing that seeks to stir the reader’s feelings