American Enlightenment

American Enlightenment: Summary

American Enlightenment (1714-1815) was an era in American intellectual history. It impacted society, culture, science, religion, and politics. This period was also directly linked to the ideology of classical Liberalism and the American Revolution of 1776. Major Enlightenment figures in the New World included:

• Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
• George Washington (1732-1799)
• Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
• James Madison (1751-1836)
• John Adams (1735-1826)
• Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
• and others

American Enlightenment was also rooted in its earlier European counterpart. In turn, European Enlightenment influenced the French Revolution of 1789 and its ideals.

These ideals included:

• religious tolerance
• rationalism
• individualism
• egalitarianism
• social and scientific progress
• secularism
• critique of social institutions

In Europe, Enlightenment thinkers challenged absolutist monarchies, whereas American intellectuals disparaged the institution of aristocracy and reflected upon the European political experience. Both the European and American Enlightenment variants also point to broader trends in modern history:

1. the development of capitalism as a socioeconomic system
2. the growth of classical Liberalism (ideology)
3. the rise of modern representative democracy (political system and form of government)

American Enlightenment: Dates

Some noteworthy dates for the American Enlightenment are:

Background: European Enlightenment

European Enlightenment impacted the American variant significantly.

Fig. 2 - Louis XIV Visiting the Royal Academy of Sciences, by Sébastien Leclerc, 1671.

• In the Old World, Enlightenment (17th-18th centuries) found its intellectual and cultural roots in Renaissance humanism as it replaced the Middle Ages and the powerful influence of the Church.
• Culturally, European Enlightenment may be divided along language lines as an international movement.
• French-speaking philosophes included such thinkers as Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet, 1694-1778), Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), Denis Diderot (1713-1784), and Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (1689-1755).
• Immanuel Kant and Moses Mendelssohn were some of the notable German-speaking intellectuals at this time.
• English-speaking thinkers from the Scottish tradition included Adam Smith and David Hume.
• At its height, European Enlightenment borrowed ideas from earlier modern intellectuals, including the political philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), scientific thinker René Descartes (1596-1650), philosopher John Locke (1632 - 1704), and innovative scientist Isaac Newton (1642-1727) among others.

Driven by intellectual curiosity and the spirit of rationality, these thinkers analyzed and described the world around them in novel ways. They reevaluated key issues in politics, religion, and science for the purpose of improving society. Many of their works directly impacted the American Enlightenment.

The Enlightenment in America

Scholars define the period of the American Enlightenment broadly. However, they often point to a specific event—Jeremiah Dummer’s (1681-1739) donation of hundreds of books to Connecticut’s Yale college in 1714. These books subsequently influenced the curriculum in that institution and the thinking of the American historian and philosopher Samuel Johnson (1696-1772). His subsequent role in the field of education—in which he disseminated Enlightenment ideas—made him an important contributor to American Enlightenment.

American Enlightenment: Benjamin Franklin

The Scientific Revolution began in the 16th century with scientists like Nicholas Copernicus. By the 17th century, natural sciences were at the center of the Enlightenment period both in the Old and New Worlds. In Europe, several important scientists operated at this time.

In colonial America, Benjamin Franklin was equally well known as one of the Founding Fathers as he was as a scientist. His work developed an understanding of electricity although scientists already knew about its existence.

Fig. 3 - Benjamin Franklin’s The General Magazine, 1741.

American Enlightenment: Thinkers

There were several essential thinkers linked to the American Enlightenment in addition to Benjamin Franklin.

Another Founding Father, Benjamin Rush (1745-1813), was a well-known physician and educator respected at that time. Rush taught many students at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. However, many aspects of his work are considered outdated today—from his emphasis on bloodletting to cure illnesses to his views on race. Rush also made a contribution to the field of psychiatry, since he was one of the first professionals to make an attempt at the classification and analysis of mental illness.

In turn, the scientist David Rittenhouse (1732–1796) made contributions to the fields of astronomy and mathematics. Rittenhouse observed and documented the 1769 transit of Venus. However, the field of science at this time was not limited to the pursuit of knowledge as such. The notion of scientific progress underpinned the necessary improvements that society required.

American Enlightenment: Literature and Political Ideas

European thinkers provided the necessary foundation for American political ideas.

• In this way, the American Declaration of Independence (1776) borrowed John Locke’s “life, liberty, and estate” and transformed it into “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” These related notions comprised basic rights in the minds of Enlightenment thinkers. Locke also repudiated the notion of the divine rights of kings and proposed a social model in which the subjects agreed upon their government should the ruler lose popular support. This concept, too, influenced Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence.

Fig. 4 - The Declaration of Independence, by John Trumbull, 1819.

One of the most important American political thinkers of this period was Thomas Paine because of his impact on the American Revolution. Paine also supported the French Revolution (1789) and its egalitarian ideas. He was an advocate of republicanism. Republicanism, classical Liberalism, anti-corruption, and individualism—rather than the tribal collective—comprised some of the general aspects of American political thought at this time. In addition to Thomas Jefferson, other Founding Fathers such as James Madison and John Adams also developed the idea of republicanism.

American thinkers also had the benefit of critically analyzing European political models, such as the institution of aristocracy, in order to suggest better alternatives.

Religious Tolerance

John Locke’s proposal for separating the Church and state also impacted American thinking and amplified the notion of religious tolerance. Religious tolerance was already part of early colonial America, which served as the safe haven for many religious minorities fleeing discrimination and persecution in Europe within the framework of the Protestant Reformation (1517). These breakaway religious groups comprised:

• Puritans
• Pilgrims
• Huguenots
• Quackers
• Anabaptists
• Scots-Irish

Central figures in the European Enlightenment, such as Voltaire, went further than the separation of Church and state and engaged in criticizing the irrational aspects of religion. Voltaire believed in religious tolerance not just within the framework of different Christian denominations but also at large.

These ideas did not go unnoticed in colonial America. Several American Founding Fathers including:

• George Washington
• Thomas Jefferson
• James Madison

advocated for the freedom of worship to foster religious diversity and protect religious minorities. Thomas Paine proposed deism—the belief in God per se rather than linking God with a particular religious tradition. In turn, Thomas Jefferson published his own Bible (The Jefferson Bible, 1820), in which he compiled passages from the New Testament emphasizing morality. Jefferson’s omission of the passages featuring miracles was in line with Enlightenment-era rationality.