1. TWO GREAT MOVEMENTS The Great Awakening and the Enlightenment in the Colonies

2. The Enlightenment • Science and mathematics begin to overthrow ideas of religion and miracles. • Earth is not the center of the universe as expected. • WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? • Rejection of religion • These ideas traveled from Europe to the Colonies • BEN FRANKLIN- Obtain truth through experimentation and reason • Lightning Experiment! • New ideas led to new ways of thinking, and new inventions

3. ENLIGHTENMENT • These new ways of thinking also led to alternate ideas…ideas of Revolution. Power of reason  Transform society  Advance knowledge • John Locke: Life, Liberty, and Property • Question the authority of Britain over the colonies • Certain individual rights of every individual • Literacy rates were higher than in England, allowed for a more expansive spread of thought. • The Enlightenment transformed society; put an emphasis on liberty, democracy, and religious tolerance.

4. The Great Awakening • Jonathan Edwards- wanted to revive intense Puritan thought and practices • Church attendance is not enough for salvation! • You must feel sinfulness and God’s love. “The God that holds you over the pit of Hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; … and yet it is nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment.”

5. AWAKENING • Travel from village to village, asking people to re-dedicate themselves to God. • George Whitefield- attracted thousands at meetings • Brought many colonists into organized churches—also challenged the authority of churches. • Abandoned churches, refused to pay taxes • Increased interest in higher education Questioning of traditional authority… • What is right and wrong? • Who can tell me what to do?

6. HOW DOES THIS PROMOTE AN AMERICAN IDENTITY? • Opposed the notion of a single truth or a single church. As preachers visited town after town, sects began to break off larger churches and a multitude of Protestant denominations sprouted • The social effect of multitudes of new denominations was not, however, a fracturing of communities, but a unifying drive which helped to create a “national consciousness” • The chain of authority no longer ran from God to ruler to people, but from God to people to ruler—challenged British monarchy • Ideas of liberty and democracy went into the hearts and minds of all colonists.