How Did The Enlightenment Principles That Influence Late Colonial America

The Enlightenment principles that influenced late colonial America and were reflected in the drafting of the Declaration of Independence did not automatically yield the freedom and equality annunciated in the document which is established by the existence of slavery, the absence of rights for blacks and women, and the portrayal of historical events during the time period set forth in The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing. The Enlightenment was a time of reason and intellectual thought in world history. Philosophers began looking deeper into human reason and principles and proposed new ideas that were radical but also well thought out. These ideas focused on personal freedom of all people and individual rights of citizens that were inalienable.

The purpose of this document was to provide a reason and declare independence from Britain making America its own country. The formulation of this document was a result of the American people growing continuously more discontented with the unfair treatment from the British crown. The basis of this document was to deliver personal freedoms to all citizens and declare a new government based on the people's rights to have a voice, these are main ideas of the enlightenment. The ideas of John Locke and other Enlightenment thinkers are found within the second paragraph of the document where it is written, “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 amongst these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” (Declaration). This shows John Locke’s heavy influence of Enlightenment principles over some of the authors of the document, mainly Thomas Jefferson. Continuing in the paragraph the document reads, “That whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government…” (Declaration). This is another one of John Locke’s main ideas put into writing on our Declaration of Independence,

Throughout different parts Octavian questioning what is going on and the mistreatment by these Enlightenment thinkers shows how the Enlightenment principles did not yield the freedom and equality that was laid out in their founding form. In the later part of the story Octavian escaped from the college and briefly served in the army, at this point is where it is made very obvious that he is questioning the principles of freedom and equality. The book reads, “Mr. G-ing talked with fire of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, a noble experiment in human dignity; we heard it was people with slave-lords, men who bewailed their enslavement to Britain while in their rice fields, thousands of their bonded servants toiled without pay in the mud, the sun above, the air swarmed with insects, and the water red with scum” (Octavian Nothing, P. 325). At this point Octavian is thinking on whether or not his effort given for Independence would actually do him any good, he realizes that freedom does not really apply to him. These Enlightenment principles of men having inalienable rights were being written by men who owned slaves, they did not think of the slaves as people just as property, those rights they were writing about did not apply to slaves at all. Earlier in the novel this is also depicted by a conversation