Revolutionary Period

1
Revolutionary Period

• 1760-1800

2
Reason for writing

• Understand their own lives
• Report events in those lives

3
Revolutionary War

• Single event influencing the change of spirit in
  which they wrote

4
Age of Reason

• Humans could manage themselves and their
  societies without depending on authorities and
  past traditions
• Thrived on freedoms
• speech, religion
• to question and experiment
• from arbitrary rulers

5
Leading Writers of Period

• Concerned themselves with state of life on earth
• Had little interest in the hereafter
• Wrote about science, ethics, and government
• Given chance to test ideas about freedom and
  progress by creating a new society

6
The American Revolution

• Fought not only with muskets but also with words
• pamphlets--Common Sense by Thomas Paine
• essays--
• songs
• Liberty Song (The Farmer and his Sons return
  from a visit to the CAMP
• Chester

http//www.contemplator.com/folk5/ydoodle.html
7
Evolution of Yankee Doodle

• First appeared during Fr. Indian War.
• Sung by British to poke fun at American country
  bumpkin
• Called American Jonathans
• Yankee derived from Dutch jankee or little
  John
• During Rev. War, Brits were not allowed to play
  it
• French played it to discomfort Brit. troops

8
War of words directed towards

• Stamp Act of 1765
• to pay for French and Indian War
  

• Townsend Acts 1767
• Boston Massacre 1770

9
Boston Tea Party 1773

• Protested a new tax on tea
• toss tea into harbor
• English Parliament closed Boston Harbor
• reduced food supply
• stopped trade
• enraged citizens

10
War not declared but Revolution had begun

• Meeting at Philadelphia
• Patrick Henry in Virginia Assembly
• Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of
  Independence

11
A different revolution

• War inspired people to express their feelings as
  they had never done before
• American cities grew--population doubled
• Arts flourished
• theaters first Native American actor
• first American epic poems
• first museums
• first American artists

12
Benjamin Franklin

• First American
• Philadelphia printer
• Multi-talented
• Poor Richards Almanac
• witty sayings
• most popular of early almanacs

http//www.windows.umich.edu/cgi-bin/tour_def/peop
le/enlightenment/franklin.html
13
Examples

• A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a
  slip of the tongue you may never get over.
• Fish and visitors smell in three days.
• A small leak will sink a great ship
• Dont throw stones at your neighbors if your own
  windows are glass.
• Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead.

14
The Autobiography

• Narrative in first person
• Belief that his life might serve as an example of
  behaviors to be both initiated and avoided.
• Includes how he left Boston and became a printer
  in Philadelphia
• Moral perfection

15
Patrick Henry

• Speech in the Virginia Convention
• declared respect for those who disapproved of
  revolution
• used rhetorical questions
• built a logical argument
• used parallel ideas
• We must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight!

Patrick Henry picture. Online available
http//www.a1.com/history/phenrys.jpg,April
28,1998
16
Reasons for fighting

• Country will never be stronger.
• God is on our side and He will provide allies.
• War will come, like it or not.

17
Thomas Paine

• America 1775--right place, right time
• Member of Continental Army
• Message read to defeated army
• Created an argument by analogy

http//www.dpipc.com/cdadesign/paine/home.html
18
These are the times that try mens souls. The
summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in
this crisis shrink from the service of their
country but he that stands it now deserves the
praise and thanks of man and woman.
19
Thomas Paines Cottage

• Paines final days were not spent in glory
• His final pamphlet was written here at his home
  in New Rochelle, New York

20
Thomas Jefferson

• Statesman
• Reasonable man
• Champion of rights

http//www.whitehouse.gov/WH/glimpse/presidents/ht
ml/tj3.html
21
The Declaration of Independence

• Faith in reason that the world would understand
  American actions if explained.
• Americans reasonable--King cruel and rude
• Civil and legal rights violated
• Government exists by consent of governed
• American Revolution--grand risky experiment.

22
As literature

• Good argument--clear beginning, middle, end
• Short statement of subject
• Elaboration
• Summary with conclusions

23
Letters from an American Farmer

• Written by De Crevecoeur
• Finish great circle by using knowledge and skills
  of Old World to create and build a better system.
• Gives the definition of an American

24
Phillis Wheatley

• First widely applauded American poet
• Several poems defended American cause
• To His Excellency General George Washington
• all aghast at injustices befallen America
• Washingtons army compared to storm waves
• Personifies England regretting the war

25
A Voice of Her Own

• Her first poem appeared when she was 12