Similarities Between The Enlightenment And The Great Awakening

When Thomas Jefferson wrote that we were ‘dissolving the bands’ between Britain and the United States, he was putting into practice the political philosophies born from centuries of people being mistreated and ignored by tyrants, and stating unalienable rights given by God. The free-thinking sparked by The Enlightenment and The Great Awakening helped change society’s thinking about the power of government and people’s own power over political, religious and personal freedoms.[1] This all culminated in a bloody family feud, and two separate but equal nations.

The Enlightenment was an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. One of the most powerful thinkers and greatest philosophers of

They wore British clothes and ate with British dinnerware. They saw themselves as entitled to the “natural, essential, inherent and inseparable rights” as fellow British subjects. “Salutary neglect” helped fuel economic growth in the colonies, since Britain had never instituted a coherent program of imperial reform for them.[7] This neglect allowed each colony to create an Assembly which assumed the duties of taxing, and managing spending. After the Seven Years’ War, the Crown began to make reforms on the colonies (such as new laws and taxes) which isn’t what the colonists were expecting- they were being treated differently than the

The Anti-Federalists despised the Crown, and preferred to seek alliances with the revolutionary French. Those were individuals such as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. The Federalists wanted strong ties with Britain, and argued that without a strong Federal government which was pro-wealthy business people, the nation’s economy would suffer. [15] In the end, the Federalists would only hold one presidency, that of John Adams. After that, the Jeffersonian Anti-Federalists would guide the country through the next turbulent phase of the nation’s growth.

There were several Constitutional Compromises which had to be made in order for the Constitution to be ratified by the several states. The Great Compromise (also known as the Connecticut Compromise) combined the Virginia and New Jersey Plans which concerned the representation the States would receive. In the end, the two chambers of Congress, the House of Representatives and the Senate were created. The number of representatives a State would be able to send to the House would be determined by population, and each state would get two seats in the