(Q1) -Which statement provides the best definition of the Enlightenment of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe and America? A)  "Enlightenment!" is what Benjamin Franklin exclaimed to his son, the day he discovered how electricity works by observing a lightning strike. Thereafter, that became the expression used by scientists and inventors.  B)  The Enlightenment is the burst of intellectual activity in Europe and the colonies that, among other things, caused an increase in the respect for education and value of information. C)  When settlers arrived on the shores of the American colonies, they were said to have reached an "Enlightened" place. Therefore, the mass migration of immigrants to the colonies is known as the Enlightenment.  D)  The Enlightenment refers to "seeing the light," as many colonists did in the eighteenth century as a Protestant religious revival swept through the colonies.  (Q2) - What was the purpose of Poor Richard's Almanack ?  A) Poor Richard's Almanack shared weather and other information relevant to farmers, and also entertained readers with stories and wise sayings.  B) Poor Richard's Almanack targeted toward the poor of society, attempted to help them accept the truth of their position.  C) Poor Richard's Almanack recorded the births and marriages that occurred in the city of Philadelphia during the colonial era.  D) Poor Richard's Almanack is the written record of all Enlightenment era inventions and ideas.  (Q3) - When Poor Richard discusses the invention of the telescope and the orbits of planets around the sun, what does he assume about his readership?  A)   Poor Richard assumes his readers may be in the market for telescopes, and he is an investor in the company that makes them.  B)    They are ignorant and need to be taught how the world works.  D)     His readers are open to discussions of Natural Law and astronomical sciences.   D)    Americans have always loved the occult, and Poor Richard's Almanack was the first place a wide group of people had access to that type of literature.  (Q4) - To the historian, the printed sermon by Jonathan Edwards (Document 2) provides evidence that  A)  Colonial Americans firmly believed in reason and scientific observation as a way of understanding and surviving in their world. B)   there was a demand for transcripts of powerful sermons among the colonial population. C)  Jonathan Edwards was a religious fanatic. D)  only preachers held the power of the written word and the gospel in their hands. (Q5) - Compare the "Urban Web" and the development of print culture in colonial America discussed in Chapter 3 to the way that information is spread and acquired in the twenty-first century. Was information a more valuable resource then because it was so much more difficult than it is now to access so much information?  Quiz Instructions Think about: In what ways did the Enlightenment and Great .

1. (Q1) -Which statement provides the best definition of the
Enlightenment of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe
and America?
A)
"Enlightenment!" is what Benjamin Franklin exclaimed to his
son, the day he discovered how electricity works by observing a
lightning strike. Thereafter, that became the expression used by
scientists and inventors.
B)
The Enlightenment is the burst of intellectual activity in
Europe and the colonies that, among other things, caused an
increase in the respect for education and value of information.
C)
When settlers arrived on the shores of the American colonies,
they were said to have reached an "Enlightened" place.
Therefore, the mass migration of immigrants to the colonies is
known as the Enlightenment.
D)
The Enlightenment refers to "seeing the light," as many
colonists did in the eighteenth century as a Protestant religious
revival swept through the colonies.

2. (Q2) - What was the purpose of
Poor Richard's Almanack
?
A)
Poor Richard's Almanack
shared weather and other information relevant to farmers, and
also entertained readers with stories and wise sayings.
B)
Poor Richard's Almanack
targeted toward the poor of society, attempted to help them
accept the truth of their position.
C)
Poor Richard's Almanack
recorded the births and marriages that occurred in the city of
Philadelphia during the colonial era.
D)
Poor Richard's Almanack
is the written record of all Enlightenment era inventions and
ideas.
(Q3) - When Poor Richard discusses the invention of the

3. telescope and the orbits of planets around the sun, what does he
assume about his readership?
A)
Poor Richard assumes his readers may be in the market for
telescopes, and he is an investor in the company that makes
them.
B)
They are ignorant and need to be taught how the world works.
D)
His readers are open to discussions of Natural Law and
astronomical sciences.
D)
Americans have always loved the occult, and
Poor Richard's Almanack
was the first place a wide group of people had access to that
type of literature.
(Q4) - To the historian, the printed sermon by Jonathan Edwards
(Document 2) provides evidence that
A)
Colonial Americans firmly believed in reason and scientific

4. observation as a way of understanding and surviving in their
world.
B)
there was a demand for transcripts of powerful sermons among
the colonial population.
C)
Jonathan Edwards was a religious fanatic.
D)
only preachers held the power of the written word and the
gospel in their hands.
(Q5) - Compare the "Urban Web" and the development of print
culture in colonial America discussed in Chapter 3 to the way
that information is spread and acquired in the twenty-first
century. Was information a more valuable resource then because
it was so much more difficult than it is now to access so much
information?
Quiz Instructions

5. Think about: In what ways did the Enlightenment and Great
Awakening shape American thought?
The first printing press arrived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in
1638, at the recently founded Harvard College. It is hard to
imagine that this wooden machine could wield enough power to
change a culture and affect the history of a place and its people.
By the mid-eighteenth century, the existence of printing presses
in the colonies helped inform, entertain, and bring American
colonists together culturally. We live in the world of instant
communication, where the written word has the ability to be
dispersed to millions of people instantaneously. However, the
force of shared printed materials during the colonial period, and
the ideas they conveyed, cannot be underestimated. The printed
word provided wide public access to very powerful ideas.
Benjamin Franklin, thought of as the founder of the
Enlightenment in America, famously believed in the ability of
educated men to gain understanding of the natural world
through scientific observation. Via his printing presses and
publishing business, Franklin himself did much to spread
Enlightenment sensibilities throughout the colonies in the form
of a Farmer's Almanac. The power of the press was also put to
use in service of the spread of new religious ideas, such as
those espoused during America's first Great Awakening, a
religious movement that caught fire in the colonies, in large part
due to a literate population, receptive to learning about
preachers who challenged the established British churches. They
learned about those preachers and their sermons because of the
growing access to printed materials from multiple sources, not
just the established churches
DOCUMENTS
Document 1(
https://d1lexza0zk46za.cloudfront.net/coursepacks/history/amna

6. r11/imgs/ch03_poorrichard.png
) is from
Poor Richard's Almanack
. Benjamin Franklin began publishing the almanac, under the
pseudonym Richard Saunders, in 1732. By 1753, the date of the
attached excerpt, nearly every household in colonial America
had a copy. The humorous sayings, advice, and educational
information became part of the shared experience in the
colonies, due to the availability of printed materials. The fact
that Benjamin Franklin was the author and publisher of these
almanacs helped spread Enlightenment sensibility, reason, and
values.
Document 2 (
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=105
3&context=etas
) is an excerpt of a sermon given by Jonathan Edwards in 1741
that was later transcribed and distributed as pamphlets, allowing
the words of Edwards to reach far beyond his congregation.
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Read Chapter 3 of the textbook, with special attention to the
section on the Enlightenment in America, pages 144-147.
2. Analyze the documents for this exercise.
3. Answer the questions that follow these documents.