Chapter 4 – Section 4
The Spread of New Ideas
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Focus Question: How did ideas about religion and
government influence colonial life?
The Importance of Education
*To Puritans education was linked with religion
because everyone was expected to read the Bible.
Puritan Beginnings
*Puritans passed laws to promote education
(Parents had to teach children and servants to
read and towns with certain populations had to set
up elementary and/or grammar schools)
*These laws were the beginning of public schools
(schools supported by taxes).
*Compulsory (required) education did not start
until the late 1800s
Colonial Schools
*Most colonial schools included instruction in
religion
*Most were under religious sponsorship
*Taught basic skills like reading, writing,
and arithmetic (and religion)
*Hornbooks were used to teach
*In the South there were few schools because
of distance so wealthy hired tutors, poor often
received no education
*Some schools admitted girls and others were
taught in the summers when boys were not
*Girls could attend dame schools (schools women
opened in their homes to teach girls and boys to
read and write).
Education for African Americans
*Most colonial schools were restricted to whites
*Some churches and missionaries
taught slaves to read
*Eventually slave codes outlawed this and
learning had to take place in secret
Upper Levels
*Some boys went on to grammar school (like
modern-day high school) to learn Greek, Latin,
geography, mathematics, and English composition
*First colleges started to educate men for the
ministry
~Harvard (MA) was the first college in the
English colonies
~William and Mary (VA) was the first college
in the south
Roots of American Literature
*Earliest forms were sermons and histories
Poetry
*First colonial poet was Anne Bradstreet
(Her poems expressed the joys and hardships of
Puritan New England life)
*Phillis Wheatley was an enslaved African poet
Ben Franklin
*Best-loved colonial writer
*Started a newspaper The Pennsylvania Gazette at
age 17 – most widely read in colonies
*Most popular work was Poor Richard’s Almanac
with moral sayings like “eat to live, not live to eat”
*Franklin was an author, businessman,
community leader, scientist, inventor and
diplomat
*He founded a library and fire department, made
discoveries about electricity, invented bifocals, a
stove, and much more!
The Great Awakening
*Religion played a key role in the 13 English
colonies
*Even those founded for economic reasons (like
Jamestown) had laws requiring church attendance
*Puritan traditions and strictness declined, but
churches remained centers of faith and
community life
Religious Revival
*The Great Awakening - A period of religious
revival in the colonies in the 1730s and 1740s.
*Began as a reaction to the Christian view that
religious importance was declining in colonies
*Religious leaders such as Jonathan Edwards
called on people to examine their lives and to
commit to God
Impact of the Great Awakening
*The impact of the Great Awakening led to the
rise of many new churches: Methodists, Baptists
grew, Presbyterian, Dutch Reformed and
Congregationalist churches split between old and
new movements
*Growth of new churches led to more religious
diversity and tolerance
*The Great Awakening was one of the first
national movements in the colonies
*It reinforced Democratic ideas that if the people
could decide on their own how to worship God,
they could decide how to govern themselves
The Enlightenment
*In the late 1600s, European thinkers believed all
problems could be solved by human reasoning
*They began a movement called the
Enlightenment which looked for “natural laws”
that governed politics, society and economics
Locke
*John Locke – one of key thinkers of
Enlightenment
*1690 - Locke argued people have certain natural
rights (rights that belong to every human being
from birth). These rights include life, liberty and
property
*These rights are inalienable (can’t be taken
away)
*Locke challenged the idea of divine right (the
belief monarchs get their authority from God)
*He felt people created governments to protect
their rights and give up some individual rights for
the good of the community
*This led to the startling conclusion that if a
monarch violates those rights, the people have the
right to overthrow the monarch
Montesquieu
*A French thinker, he influenced American ideas
*He argued the powers of a government should
be clearly defined and limited
*He favored separation of powers (division of
the power of government into separate branches)
*Believed separation of powers protects the rights
of the people because it keeps one group/person
from having too much power
*Suggested dividing the gov’t into three branches:
1) legislative – to make laws
2) executive – to enforce laws
3) judicial – make judgments based on the
law
Review Questions:
1) How did education differ for boys and girls?
Boys received more education than girls and studied a
wider variety of subjects.
2) How did Ben Franklin contribute to American
literature?
He published a newspaper, an almanac, and a popular
autobiography.
3) How did the Great Awakening affect American
society?
The Great Awakening reinforced democratic ideas by
encouraging people to make their own decisions about
religion and politics.
4)
What was the goal of Enlightenment thinkers?
They wanted to solve problems by applying reason to
discover the “natural laws” that governed the universe.