The American

Enlightenment
18th century

The decline of the Puritan

tradition

economic stability
individualism
unlimited property of land
milder theological principles: Halfway Covenant 1662
Revival: The Great Awakening 1730s
1740s (Jonathan Edwards)

Johnathan Edwards
(1703 1758)
born in Connecticut, son of a clergyman
and a grandson of Solomon Stoddard
great education and intelligence, splendid
erudition (graduated Harvard at 17)
founder of a religious movement The
Great Awakening (1735 1750):

the aim was to revive the original Puritan

spirit and to oppose the Half-Way Covenant; to
awaken the believers spiritually and scare
them back to Puritan faith
stressed the eternal damnation and Gods
wrath upon sinners, as well as the necessity of
spiritual rebirth, repentance and conversion
claimed that truth cannot be gained through
rational thinking, but through mystical
experience; Edwards stressed the importance
of emotion in the religious life

finally Edwards rejected by his

congregation in Northampton; he moves to
a remote parish to preach to Indians
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
sermon

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

-Their foot shall slide in due time- Deut. 32:35
In this verse is threatened the vengeance of God on
the wicked unbelieving Israelites, who were God's
visible people, and who lived under the means of
grace; but who, notwithstanding all God's
wonderful works towards them, remained void of
counsel, having no understanding in them. Under
all the cultivations of heaven, they brought forth
bitter and poisonous fruit; as in the two verses
next preceding the text. The expression I have
chosen for my text, Their foot shall slide in due
time, seems to imply the following doings,
relating to the punishment and destruction to
which these wicked Israelites were exposed.

We find it easy to tread on and crush a worm

that we see crawling on the earth; so it is easy
for us to cut or singe a slender thread that
any thing hangs by: thus easy is it for God,
when he pleases, to cast his enemies down to
hell.
They are now the objects of that very same
anger and wrath of God, that is expressed in
the torments of hell
The wrath of God burns against them, their
damnation does not slumber; the pit is
prepared, the fire is made ready, the furnace
is now hot, ready to receive them; the flames
do now rage and glow. The glittering sword is
whet, and held over them, and the pit hath
opened its mouth under them.

The God that holds you over the pit of hell,

much as one holds a spider, or some
loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and
is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you
burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of
nothing else, but to be cast into the fire
it is nothing but his hand that holds you from
falling into the fire every moment
O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are
in: it is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and
bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that
you are held over in the hand of that God,
whose wrath is provoked and incensed as
much against you, as against many of the
damned in hell. You hang by a slender thread,

European and American

Enlightenment
European

American

development of science: man is

able to discover the secrets of
nature not by mystical
experience, but by empirical
observation; pragmatism

science and philosophy: 1743

American Philosophical Society
in Philadelphia; Franklins
inventions; Jeffersons scientific
description of Virginian nature:
Notes on the State of Virginia

deism God created the perfect

world; human beings will be
perfect if they live according to
the laws of nature; God does not
interfere in our lives; new vision
of man

new vision of man: self-made

man, occurs to be something
more than a worm (Calvin),
success achieved by his own
effort, not by providence of God;
deism

popularization of press:
circulation of ideas (Spectator)

first libraries; education; press:

first newspapers and magazines
in America; not only news, but
also essays, pamphlets, literary
pieces; The Boston Newsletter
1704

Struggle to create the

national literature

political and socio-economical issues were

pushing literature into the background
there were still only few people who did
not consider belles letters a waste of time
those, who were interested in literature,
were still looking for the already
acknowledged British writers
Copyright Law 1790: publisher had to pay
royalties to an American author; no
compensation was paid to a British author

Enlightenment genres

autobiographies (e.g.
Franklins)
argumentative essays and
speeches, pamphlets (e.g.
Thomas Paine)
state papers

Declaration of Independence
1776
Constitution of the United
States of America 1788

poetry (satires, ballads and

epics), P. Freneau, P. Whitley
drama (The Battle of
Bunkerhill)
novel (Wieland)
journalism

Thomas Paine (1737

1809)

Born in Thetford, Norfolk; followed his father into corset-making; then

an officer
emigrated to Philadelphia in 1774, with introductions from Benjamin
Franklin; edited the Pennsylvania Magazine; attacks on slavery and
advocacy of women's rights
1776, Common Sense: called for the colonies to become independent
of Great Britain and to establish a republican government; sold more
than 500,000 copies
during the War of Independence: he wrote The American Crisis (a
series of pamphlets); read to American troops to improve their morale
returned to Great Britain in 1787
1791-1792 he published The Rights of Man: it replies to Reflections
Upon the French Revolution by E. Burke; an analysis of the
weaknesses of European society
emigrated to France; 1794 published The Age of Reason there.
Although it favours deism while opposing both atheism and
Christianity, the book gained him a reputation as an atheist and
alienated most of his old friends
he died in New York in 1809, having been largely shunned or ignored
during his final years.

Philip Freneau (17521832)

Poet of American Independence: incentive and

inspiration to the revolution - "The Rising Glory
of America, "Pictures of Columbus"
Journalist: editor and contributor of The
Freeman's Journal (Philadelphia) from 17811784; Jeffersonian democracy - decentralization
of government, equality for the masses, etc.
Freneau's religion: deist - a believer in nature
and humanity but not a pantheist; interest and
sympathy for the humble and the oppressed.

The first literary pieces by

Afro-Americans:

Olaudah Equiano (1745 1797):

autobiography

vivid narrative and concrete details;

picaresque style;
a detailed account of his kidnapping, his
trek through the jungles, his arrival at
the sea coast, and the arduous crossing
of the Atlantic in the belly of a slave ship

Phillis Wheatley (1753 1784): poetry

The first African-American to publish a

book of imaginative writing.
started the African-American literary
tradition.
use of meter and rhyme-scheme is
precise and correct.
combined the influences of religion and
neo-classicism in her poems.
the theme of freedom

The rise of drama

early 18th century: English plays acted by amateurs

1752: first professional company, playing standard plays
first American drama: The Battle of Bunker Hill (1776)
by Hugh H. Brackenbridge
first theatres in New York, Philadelphia, Annapolis and
Charleston

The rise of the novel

first novel written in America:

(1789) The Power of Sympathy
by William Hill Brown (Sarah
Morton?)
first published novel: (1790)
Sarah Rowsons Charlotte
Temple
Charles Brockden Brown
(1771 1810)

first gothic novels in America,

great influence on Poe and
Hawthorne
greatest works: Wieland (1798),
Arthur Mervyn, Edgar Huntley
psychological complexity; the
incomprehensible and the horrible;
mysteries and crimes

Benjamin Franklin (1706

1790)

his father comes to America in 1680, married twice, 17

children (Benjamin 15th); hes a soap boiler
at the age of 12 - an apprentice with his older brother
James, a printer
at the age of 17 flees to Philadelphia
unfortunate protection of governor Keith; stay in London
getting on in life: The Pennsylvania Gazette,
representative of the Pennsylvania Colony in London,
author of the Union at the Albany Congress, U.S.
Ambassador in France, representative during the talks
with the British, drafting Declaration of Independence;
innovations (lightning rod and binoculars)

Franklin as an archetype of
the American (American
Dream)

self-made man
hard work and selfdiscipline
from rags to riches
political
individualism
pragmatism
inventiveness
facing the
misfortunes

Benjamin Franklins
Autobiography

not finished does not include the War of Independence and

Franklins growing importance
written as a personal diary for his son, but also to influence
American conscience
composed of 4 parts, written at a different time and place:

Part I: 1771 in England

Part II: 1783 in France
Part III: 1788 in America
Part IV: 1789-90

it stood from the typical examples of its genre the hero is not
superior to his readers, but gives them the recipe for
successful life
Franklin understood success in secular terms; spiritual
development is important as a part of an overall perfection
American Dream:

material success and social recognition

spiritual and moral self-perfection

Literary significance of
Franklins Autobiography

An important historical document

A picture of 18th century America: details of life in
America; philosophy; art and business of the printers
trade
One of the most popular examples of the genre ever
written
Personal story of success with an aim to educate the
reader the hero is not superior
Shows a strategy for self-made success in the context
of emerging nationhood = the first example of the
fulfillment of the American Dream in the literary form

J. Hector St. John de

CREVECOEUR

b. in Normandy in 1731-1809/1813. He finished his

education in England, and embarked for America in 1754.
He purchased an estate in the neighborhood of New York,
and married the daughter of an American merchant.
During the wars of the Revolution his farm was frequently
ravaged, and he himself forced to seek safety in flight.
Imprisoned under the suspicion of being a spy; French
consul in New York, 1783; house in America burnt by
savages, wife died a few weeks before, kids rescued by a
merchant.
1782 published in London Letters from an American
Farmer, 3 volumes, laudatory of American climate, land,
life. 500 families left Europe on the faith of his statements
and settled on the Ohio, most of them perished.

Letters from an American

Farmer

useful information and understanding of the "New

World" that helped to create an American
identity in the minds of Europeans by describing
an entire country rather than another regional
colony.
American as a Melting pot
The American Dream
celebrated American ingenuousness and its
uncomplicated lifestyle
American society as characterized by the principles
of equal opportunity and self-determination.

The Melting Pot

whence came all these people? they are mixture of

English, Scotch, Irish, French, Dutch, Germans, and
Swedes. From this promiscuous breed, that race now
called Americans have arisen.
What then is the American, this new man? He is either
an European, or the descendant of an European, hence
that strange mixture of blood, which you will find in no
other country. I could point out to you a family whose
grandfather was an Englishman, whose wife was Dutch,
whose son married a French woman, and whose present
four sons have now four wives of different nations. He is
an American, who leaving behind him all his ancient
prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new
mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys,
and the new rank he holds. (from Letter III)