The Road to Revolution
English 11
Unit 2
November 18
• Get a Kickstart and a text book
• Have your notebook ready
• On your Kickstart: What do you
remember about the American
Revolution?
Homework & Reminders
Homework
• For Wednesday, bring in two articles
from different sources about the same
topic (no pop culture or sports).
Reminders
• November 20 Poetry Out Loud
competition
Objective
Students will determine the
philosophical, political, religious, ethical,
and social influences in America in the
18th Century in order to analyze Phillis
Wheatley’s purpose for writing the poem
“On Being Brought from Africa to
America”.
Work while it is called today for you know not how much you
may be hindered tomorrow.
-Benjamin Franklin
Essential Questions
• What role did writing play in the
success of the American Revolution?
• How does change create conflict and
affect people?
• How does knowledge of multiple
perspectives change a reader’s
understanding of text?
Let’s Review
Puritanism
• strict moral or religious principles - Puritanism
was a response to these new social and
psychological conditions as well as a strictly
religious movement. It stressed the pastoral
responsibility of the clergy and thus placed an
unprecedented emphasis on the sermon as
the central rite of religious life.
Rationalism
•
the belief that human beings can arrive at
truth by using reason, rather than by relying
on the authority of the past, on religious
faith, or intuition.
What led
to the writing of
the
Declaration
Of
Independence
and the
Revolutionary
War?
1743
Jonathan Edwards
delivers “Sermon on
an Angry God”
All Hail, King George!
1760 - The population
of colonists in America
reaches 1,500,000. In
October, George
III becomes the new
English King.
French and Indian War
(1763)
• Britain helped
colonists defeat
French in war
• Britain needed
money to pay for
war expenses
• Taxed colonists,
restricted
settlements and
limited self-govt.
Stamp Act 1765
• Any item that was
made of paper
required a stamped
tax payment to be
made
Colonists react…
“No Taxation Without
Representation!”
Townshend Acts 1767
• Tax on glass, lead,
paper, paint and
tea
• Colonists smuggle
goods, boycott
British goods, and
fight with British
troops
1770
• The population of the American
colonies reaches 2,210,000 persons.
• Violence erupts in New York between
members of the Sons of Liberty and
British soldiers over the posting of
broadsheets by the British.
Tea Act 1773
• Tax on tea, it is a
plan to bail out
East India Tea
company
• Boston Tea Party
and smuggling of
tea
Intolerable Acts 1774
• The Royal Navy
blockades the Boston
Harbor so no colonial
goods could be sent
out until tea was paid
for.
• Colonists had to
quarter the British
soldiers.
• The King assigned
British General Gage
to be Massachusetts
governor.
First
Continental
Congress
meets in
Philadelphia
1774
September 5 to
October 26, the First
Continental Congress
meets in Philadelphia
with 56 delegates,
representing every
colony, except
Georgia.
March 1775
• In Virginia, Patrick Henry
delivers a speech against
British rule. You will study this
next week.
• The New England Restraining
Act is endorsed by King George
III, requiring New England
colonies to trade exclusively
with England and also bans
fishing in the North Atlantic.
April 18, 1775
General Gage orders 700 British soldiers
to Concord to destroy the colonists'
weapons depot. That night, Paul Revere
and William Dawes are sent from Boston
to warn colonists. Revere reaches
Lexington about midnight and warns
Sam Adams and John Hancock who are
hiding out there.
1775
The Next Morning
At dawn, about 70 armed
Massachusetts militiamen
stand face to face on
Lexington Green with the
British advance guard. An
unordered 'shot heard
around the world' begins
the American Revolution.
Second Continental
Congress
Representatives
brought money
to help
establish…
…the
Continental
Army
(i.e. pay soldiers,
buy guns, bullets,
food, and
uniforms
declaration : (n)
an official statement
independence : (n)
the freedom to govern on
one’s own.
Monarchy vs. Representative
Government
• In a monarchy the
governing power lies
with a king and those
that he appoints to
office
• Parliament was the
lawmaking body in
England
• Citizens elect their own
representatives who will
represent them in
government
• People create their
government and have
the right to make
changes when they see
fit (laws, elections)
How’d We Get This Far?
The American Revolution was fueled by
influential political writings supporting
independence.
The writers who inspired the colonists’
revolt based their arguments on the
ideals of rationalism.
Rationalist thinkers believe that
humans:
• Can discover truth using reason
• Can use reason to understand natural
laws and guide their lives
• Need not rely only on religious faith or
intuition
• The rationalist movement marked the
beginning of Europe’s Age of Reason in
the 17th Century
The Influences
Early American political writing was influenced
by philosophy, beliefs, events, and even the
spread of technology.
• Ideas and principals from Europe
• Emergence of deism and its influence on
America's leaders and writers
• Conflict between British rule and American
desire for independence
• Spread of self-published writing
More on Rationalism
Read pp. 117 - 118 and 8 - 9 in EOL to
add to your notes about Rationalism.
On the back of your Kickstart:
• How did the political and social turmoil
of the 1700s influence the choices of
the American people? Provide
examples from the presentation, and
the readings to support the effects of
the literary movements.