1. The Spread of New Ideas

2. The Importance of Education
The Puritans passed laws to promote education, they required parents to teach their children and servants to read, every town with at least 50 children had to build schools
Colonial schools originally taught religion along with other core subjects, schools in NY were controlled by the Dutch Reformer Church, schools in PA by the Quakers
Some colonial schools allowed for females to attend, and poorer families typically did not have to send their kids to school, most females attended what were called Dame Schools – schools that taught how to tend to a house
Most colonial schools were not allowed to have Native Americans, African Americans and poor white children in attendance
Quaker Meeting Houses and Anglican Churches ran secret schools to teach children of all colors and money to read and write
Harvard University was the first college in America in 1638, followed by The College of William and Mary in Virginia in 1993

3. Roots of American Literature
The first colonial poet was Anne Bradstreet, most of her poems expressed the joys and hardships of life in Puritan New England
A later poet Phyllis Wheatley was an enslaved African in Boston, her works rivaled those of European scholars and were some of the best selling literary works of the 1700’s
The best loved and most popular author of the 1700’s was Ben Franklin, he also created the 1st newspaper in America, his best known work was “Poor Richard’s Almanac”
Franklin was far more than an author, he was a businessman, community leader, scientists, inventor and diplomat, he created fire houses and post offices and made discoveries about electricity. He created bi-focal glasses and a stove to heat homes

4. The Great Awakening
From the start, religion played a key role in the development of the 13 colonies, however by the early 1700’s many people had relaxed their views on religion and no longer made it a major part of their lives
An emotional packed Christian movement swept through the colonies in the 1730’s and 1740’s, this religious revival was known as “The Great Awakening”
Forceful preachers quickly spread The Great Awakening across America, George Whitefield an English minister made several tours through the colonies and helped preach the gospel and hymns of the Christian faith
The Great Awakening was one of the 1st national movements in the colonies, it reinforced democratic ideas that if people could decide on their own how to practice religion, they could also handle how to govern themselves

5. The Enlightenment
Starting in the 1600’s, a group of European thinkers came to believe that all problems could be solved by human reason, they believed that a natural law should govern politics, society and economics, it reached it’s height in France and England during the mid 1700’s
In 1690, John Locke published “Two Treatises on Government”, Locke argued that people have certain natural rights that included life, liberty and property, according to Locke these rights are inalienable and cannot be taken away , Locke also did not believe in “Divine Right” or the belief that monarchs get their right to rule from God, he argued that people formed governments in order to protect their rights
Lord Montesquieu a French thinker also influence American ideas. By 1748, his book “The Spirit of the Laws” argued that the powers of government should be clearly defined and limited, he also favored a separation of power and division of government into separate branches
Most of the framework for our current government can be traced to the teachings of Locke and Montesquieu