American Independence Movement

1. American Independence Movement

2. British History of Freedom • Magna Carta • Rights of Nobility. Helped create a strong sense of ownership amongst those that owned property (nobles). • British rejection of the Divine Right of Kings with the execution of Charles I and the British Republic with Oliver Cromwell in 1650s. • Interesting note: Most Americans did not originally want to split from Britain; they considered themselves British. But their sense of ownership was being threatened.

3. From Early Colonists we learn: • Life was extremely hard – more difficult than anyone in England could have predicted. • Colonists made it without much help from England. • This created a sense of accomplishment and ownership. They had made a wilderness into a home.

4. Religious Influences on Politics • Puritans & Catholics • Both had a sense of hierarchy HOWEVER – both came to America to avoid government persecution. • Quakers were highly different because they accentuated the equality of all people on a spiritual level. • William Penn, “Holy Experiment” and Philadelphia • Puritans and Quakers believed that education was a defense against evil • The result was an above average literate society that could respond to written and spoken arguments. • THE GREAT AWAKENING! New religious sects

5. The Great Awakening 1730-50s • Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God • Pierced to the heart of the NE hypocrisy; “The sermon for which New England never forgave Edwards.” • Jonathan Edwards & George Whitefield (Middle Colonies) were the two most influential men in America at the time. • From the GA came the breaking up of Puritanism into new sects of Methodist, Presbyterians, & Baptists

6. Benjamin Franklin and Innovation • Franklin personified the colonists’ ability to raise above hierarchy. • Franklin lead the way in Innovation: If you want something done, do it yourself instead of relying on government to do its job. • Started: Fire & Police companies, library, a college, a hospital, and insurance association. • Innovation birthed a sense in the colonists that they could do things for themselves.

7. Rhetoric of the Revolution • Speakers and writers like Jefferson, Paine, and Henry were key motivators in moving public opinion in favor of the revolution. • Persuasion: Uses three types of appeals • Logos: appeal to reason, logic, and evidence • Pathos: appeal to emotions, such as fear, pride or hate. • Ethos: appeal to ethics, or persuasion based on what we ourselves or the majority of our culture thinks is right.

8. Persuasion Rhetoric Devices: • Figurative Language: imagery, symbols, etc • “The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country.” • Hyperbole: extreme exaggeration • “The heart that feels not now is dead…” • Rhetorical Questions: emphasize the obvious answer. • “They tell us, sir, that we are weak…But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed at every house?”

9. Persuasion Rhetoric Devices Con’t • Parallelism: Uses a series of words, phrases, or sentences that have similar grammatical form to show emphasis on a point. • “Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne.” • Connotative Language: Using specific words that have a negative implied meaning in description of a situation or action. • “He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives our of our people.”