What Helped Started The American Revolution

  In class, we talked about the American Revolution and what lead to it.  One question we answered was, "how did the Enlightenment help fuel the American Revolution?"  Colonists wanted to have their own government and not be run by the british anymore.  One person who agreed with the enlightenment ideas was Thomas Paine.  Paine was a writer and he published writings based on the American Revolution and his thoughts on government.  In Biography of Thomas Paine Part 1 it says, "but once actual fighting had begun, he became convinced that only complete independence would work.", and "Once independence had been achieved, America could establish a central democratic republican form of government."  This shows that Paine agreed with the topic of consent of the governed. Later in the biography, it says, "Paine advocated a declaration of independence to secure European aid and to unite the colonies." which proves that he agreed to the concept of social contract. People in America believed that America had to break its ties with England and once independence was achieved, America could establish a central democratic republican form of government.  Paine had some influence on these enlightenment ideas that helped lead to the American Revolution.

     Another question my class answered was, "Were most American colonists ready for rebellion?"  When Paine's writings came out and people started to listen to him.  His supporters then became ready for rebellion and were willing to fight.  Some colonists did not agree with Paine and were loyal to the British.  They were not comfortable with Paine's ideas and thought he was against their beliefs of government.  People who should have loved him, hated him.  He was not known as a here because of his views attacking Christianity and organized religion, and he became politicly toxic.

     In class, we had to take excerpts from Thomas Paine's Common Sense publishing, and turn them into black out poems.  My partner and I were assigned excerpt ten.  We first read the excerpt, trying to understand the main idea, and then connect in to enlightenment.  After, we circled words throughout the excerpt to make a poem and blacked out the rest of the writing we didn't use.  The final poem is all the words that aren't blacked out and it flows throughout the excerpt.  The poems had to show that Paine agreed with enlightenment and talk about government in America.  Thomas Paine agreed with the ideas of enlightenment and it helped fuel the American Revolution.  Many colonists were on Paine's side and were ready for rebellion while others were not.