2. The Birth of a Nation.
The most memorable writing in 18th century America was done by the Founding Fathers,
the men who led the Revolution of 1775-1783 and who wrote the Constitution of 1789.
None of them were writers of fiction.
Rather, they were practical philosophers, and their most typical product was a political
pamphlet.
They both admired and were active in the European “Age of Reason” or “Enlightenment”.
They shared the Enlightenment belief that human intelligence (or reason) could understand
both nature and man.
Unlike the Puritans – who saw man as a sinful failure –
the enlightenment thinkers were sure that man could improve himself.
They wanted to create a happy society based on justice and freedom.
3. Sermon is a religious discourse or oration by a preacher, usually a
member of clergy. Sermons address a scriptural, theological or
moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law, or behavior
within both past and present contexts.
A pamphlet is an unbound book. Pamphlets may consist of a single
sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half or in
thirds.
Pamphlets can contain anything from information on kitchen
appliances to medical information and religious treatises.
Pamphlets have also long been an important tool of political
protest and political campaigning for similar reasons
An essay is generally a piece of writing that gives the author’s own
argument, but definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter,
a paper, an article, a pamphlets and a short story.
4. Benjamin Franklin 's (1706-1790) contribution to the creation of
an American national identity is perhaps
the most important theme that needs to be emphasized.
Franklin's abandonment of Puritanism in favor of the enlightenment's
rationalism reflects a central shift
in American society in the eighteenth century. In addition,
his works reflect the growing awareness
of America as a country with values and interests
distinct from those of England –
a movement that, of course, finds its climax in the Revolution
5. The writings of Benjamin Franklin show the
Enlightenment spirit in America at its best and most
optimistic. His style is quite modern and, even today, his
works are a joy to read. Although he strongly disagreed
with the opinions of the Puritans, his works show a return
to their “plan style”. At the same time, there is something
“anti-literary” about Franklin. He had no linking for poetry
and felt that writing should always have a practical
purpose.
6. We can see these ideas even in his earliest work, the Do good Papers (1722),
written when he was only sixteen. These are a series of short pieces
which are very funny, but full of moral advice (praising honesty and
attacking drunkenness, etc.).
His Poor Richard’s Almanac (1732-1757) gives similar advice. Almanacs,
containing much useful
information for farmers and sailors (about the next year’s weather, sea tides, etc.),
were a popular form of practical literature. Together with the Bible and the newspaper,
they were the only reading matter in most Colonial households. Franklin made his
Almanac interesting by creating the character “Poor Richard”. Each new edition
continued a simple but realistic story about Richard, his wife and family.
He also included many “sayings” about saving money and working hard.
Some of these are known to most Americans today. In 1757,
Franklin collected together the best of his sayings, making them into an essay called
The Way to Wealth. This little book became one of the best-sellers of the
Western world and was translated into many languages.
7. During the first half of his adult life, Franklin worked as a printer of books and newspapers.
But he was an energetic man with wide interests. As a scientist, he wrote important essays
on electricity which were widely read and admired in Europe. His many inventions,
his popularity as a writer and his diplomatic activity in support of the American Revolution
made him world-famous in his own lifetime.
Although Franklin wrote a great deal, almost all of his
important works are quite short. He invented one type of short
prose which greatly influenced the development of a story-telling form in America,
called the “hoax”, or the “tall tale” (latter made famous by Mark Twain).
A hoax is funny because it is so clearly a lie.
Franklin’s only real book was his Autobiography. The first part of the book began
in 1771 as an entertaining description of his life up to early manhood.
The second part was written in 1784 when he was a tired old man and
the style is more serious. Franklin now realizes the part he played in American history.
The Autobiography can be used as a basis for examining the question of what
it means to be an American and what the dominant American values are.
Given the current debate over multiculturalism, a discussion of Franklin's
career as statesman and writer as an attempt to create a unified American
identity – and thus to suppress the multicultural elements in the emerging nation –
should prove provocative.
8. American Literature before the Revolution.
The period just before the start of Revolution saw a flood of political journalism.
This was mostly in the form of pamphlets rather than newspapers, because
the pamphlet was cheap to publish and the author, if he wished,
did not have to give his name. JAMES OTTIS (1725 – 1783) one early
propagandist who used violent language more than reason in his attacks
on British politics. Other pro-independence writers were JOHN DICKINSON
(1732 – 1808) and JOHN ADAMS (1735 – 1826). Adams became later the second
President of the United States. Other pamphlet writes like
SAMUEL SEABURY (1729 – 1796) and DANIEL LEONARD (1740 – 1829),
wrote for the pro-British side. Most of them had to
escape from the country after the revolution.
10. Thomas Paine (January 29, 1737 – June 8, 1809) was a British pamphleteer,
revolutionary, radical, inventor, intellectual, and one of the Founding Fathers
of the United States. He lived and worked in Britain until age 37,
when he emigrated to the British American colonies, in time to participate in the
American Revolution. His principal contributions were the powerful, widely-read
pamphlet Common Sense (1776), advocating colonial America's independence from
the Kingdom of Great Britain, and The American Crisis (1776–1783),
a pro-revolutionary pamphlet series.
Later, Paine greatly influenced the French Revolution.
He wrote the Rights of Man (1791), a guide to Enlightenment ideas.
Despite not speaking French, he was elected to the French
National Convention in 1792. The Girondists regarded him as an ally, so,
the Montagnards, especially Robespierre, regarded him as an enemy.
In December of 1793, he was arrested and imprisoned in Paris,
then released in 1794. He became notorious because of
The Age of Reason (1793–94), the book advocating deism
and arguing against institutionalized religion, Christian doctrines,
and promoted reason and freethinking, for which
he would become derided in America.
11. In France, he also wrote the pamphlet Agrarian Justice (1795),
discussing the origins of property, and introduced the
concept of a guaranteed minimum income.
Paine remained in France during the early Napoleonic era,
but condemned Napoleon's dictatorship, calling him
"the completest charlatan that ever existed".
At President Jefferson's invitation, in 1802 he returned to America.
Thomas Paine died, at the age of 72, at 59 Grove Street, Greenwich Village,
New York City, on June 8, 1809, alienated due to his religious views only
6 people attended. He was buried at what is now called the Thomas Paine Cottage
New Rochelle, New York, where he had lived after returning to America in 1802.
His remains were later disinterred by
an admirer, William Cobbett, who sought to return them to England
and give him a heroic reburial on his native soil. The bones were, however,
later lost and his final resting place today is unknown.
13. Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was the third President of the United States
(1801–1809), the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and one of
the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of republicanism in the
United States. Major events during his presidency include the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and
the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806).As a political philosopher, Jefferson was a man
of the Enlightenment and knew many intellectual leaders
in Britain and France. He idealized the independent yeoman farmer
as exemplar of republican virtues, distrusted cities and financiers, and
favored states' rights and a strictly limited federal government. Jefferson supported
the separation of church and state and was the author of the Virginia Statute
for Religious Freedom (1779, 1786).
He was the eponym of Jeffersonian democracy and the co-founder and leader
of the Democratic-Republican Party, which dominated American politics for a
quarter-century. Jefferson served as the wartime Governor of Virginia (1779–1781),
first United States Secretary of State (1789–1793), and second Vice President (1797–1801).
14. A polymath, Jefferson achieved distinction as, among other things, a horticulturist,
statesman, architect, archaeologist, inventor, and founder of the University of Virginia.
When President John F. Kennedy welcomed forty-nine Nobel Prize winners to
the White House in 1962 he said,
"I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent and of human knowledge that
has ever been gathered together at the White House –
with the possible exception of when
Thomas Jefferson dined alone." To date,
Jefferson is the only president to serve two full
terms in office without vetoing a single bill of Congress.
Jefferson has been consistently ranked by scholars as one of the greatest U.S. presidents.
