American Lit: American Revolution and Enlightenment Test (+ vocab)

Abdicate

Definition: to relinquish (something, such as sovereign power), to cast off, discard

Sentence: He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

Acquiesce

Definition: to accept, agree, or comply usually by staying silent or by not arguing

Sentence: We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

Assent

Definition: to agree to or approve of something (such as an idea or suggestion) especially after thoughtful consideration : concur

Sentence: He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good

Compliance

Definition: the act or process of complying to a desire, demand, proposal, or regimen or to coercion

Sentence: He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

Convulsion

Definition: a violent disturbance

Sentence: the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

Evince

Definition: to constitute outward evidence of, to display clearly, reveal

Sentence: But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security

Inestimable

Definition: too valuable or excellent to be measured or appreciated

Sentence: He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

Insurrection

Definition: an act or instance of revolting against civil authority or an established government

Sentence: He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

Magnanimity

Definition: the quality of being magnanimous : loftiness of spirit enabling one to bear trouble calmly, to disdain meanness and pettiness, and to display a noble generosity

Sentence: We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence.

Naturalization

Definition: the course of action undertaken to become a citizen of a country other than the country where one was born

Sentence: He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

Rectitude

Definition: moral integrity : righteousness, the quality or state of being correct in judgment or procedure

Sentence: We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States

Redress

Definition: : to set right : remedy, to make up for : compensate, to remove the cause of (a grievance or complaint)

Sentence: In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms

Sufferance

Definition: pain, misery

Sentence: Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

Tenure

Definition: the act, right, manner, or term of holding something (such as a landed property, a position, or an office)

Sentence: He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

Transient

Definition: relating to or characterized by a tendency to move from place to place

Sentence: Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes

unalienable

Definition: impossible to take away or give up

Sentence: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.-

Usurpation

Definition: unauthorized arbitrary assumption and exercise of power especially as infringing on others' rights

Sentence: But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Declaration of Independence Structure

1. Intro

2. preamble

3. indictment

4. denunciation

5. conclusion

Deism

-(clock maker)

-belief in the existence of a supreme being, specifically of a creator who does not intervene in the universe.

5 enlightenment concepts used in the Declaration of Independence

1. Natural Rights

2. Social Contract and Consent of Governed

3. Individual Rights and Limited Government

4. Reason and Logic

5. Right to Revolution

Declaration of Sentiments

- Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized Seneca Falls convention were men and women signed the Declaration of Sentiments

- written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton

- instead of expressing grievances about the king of england they express grievances towards how women are treated under the law and by men

- the objective is to give woman basic rights: right to vote, own property, and have equal status under the law

On Being Brought from Africa to America

- written by Phillis Wheatley

- 1773 (3 years before the Declaration of Independence)

- Speaker: Phillis Wheatley

- Form: Heroic Couplet, Iambic Pentameter, AA, BB, CC, DD

- summary: The speaker describes being taken from her non-Christian homeland as an act of kindness and compassion. This experience gave her the opportunity to learn about Christianity and redemption through Jesus, something that had been unknown to her and as such that she would never have sought out otherwise. The speaker then addresses the fact that many people look down on African Americans and interpret their dark skin tone as a sign of the devil. The speaker reminds fellow Christians that African Americans, with their skin as dark as that of the biblical figure of Cain, also have access to redemption and salvation through Christianity.

Phillis Wheatley Bio

- first African American Woman and third American Woman to publish a book of poems

- Born around 1753 in Gambia, Africa

- First name Phillis came from the slave ship she was brought on "the Phillis" and last name from the family that enslaved her " the Wheatley family"

- could read the Bible, Greek and Latin, and British literature

- studied astronomy and geography

- first poem "An Elegiac Poem, on the Death of the Celebrated Divine George Whitefield

- first published collection "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral"

- was emancipated

- married John Peter and had 3 children who all died

- died from sickness

How did enslavers and abolitionist use phillis wheatley poems differently

Enslavers used them to convince the enslaved population to convert

Abolitionist used them as proof of the intellectual abilities of people of color

Thomas Jefferson Bio

-(1743-1826)

- Born in Albemarle County, Virginia

- Attended William and Mary College in Williamsburg, studied law

- Elected to Virginia House of Burgesses

- 1775, sent as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress

-----drafted the Declaration of Independence

- became governor of Virginia

- first secretary of state under the new Constitution

- Vice president under John Adams and a year later the president

- Louisiana Purchase

Key Term of the Enlightenment

Reason

What was happening in Europe and the American Colonies during 1649-1797

-Political transformation- changed how people were governed

- Religious upheaval and transformation- changed peoples perceptions of christianity -( literature did not have to be shaped by traditional views of religion)

- scientific and intellectual transformation- changed people's perceptions of knowledge and how its obtained- Newton

-Social and economic- changed relations between people in the domestic sphere and larger social spheres -(literacy, rise of middle class, colonialism and slavery)

What did enlightenment thinkers value?

- reason over emotion

- individuals over institutions

- skepticism over faith

- empirical science over ignorance

- social contract over monarchy

- deism over organized religion

Important literary Genres of the Enlightenment

- didactic narratives: justify the ways of God to men

- Political Pamphlets: argued for american self-governance

- social satire: ex. The Rap eof the Lock- makes the theft of a lock of hair from a socialite into a mock-epic

- personal transformation narratives: ex. Robinson Crusoe- a shipwrecked Englishman must recreate a kind of civilization on a desert island

Quakers

- settled in Pennsylvania

- built a community based on equality, religious diversity and tolerance, advocated for the abolition of slavery, and allowed women to have a voice in religious affairs

Capitalist ethics impact on American Society

- led to land being viewed as a commodity rather then a part of homestead or community

- heavy reliance on slave labor to support commercial plantations which southern states economies were reliant on

- growth in populations due to sense of opportunity (fertility reates went up and mortality rates went down

Benjamin Franklin

- Enlightenment thinker

- played a major role in the American Revolution, was apart of the continental congress, and helped established the terms for the Treaty of Paris

Enlightenment Thinkers (5)

- Isaac Newton: through reason people could discover principles that guarantee social and political harmony

- Joseph Addison: valued reason, sought to discover natural laws to achieve peace and tranquility

- Thomas Hobbes: natural rights

-John Locke: natural rights, balance of powers, right to rebellion

- Rousseau: social contract