The Radicalism of the American Revolution

The Enlightenment, or the Age of Reason (1685-1815), was an intellectual and philosophical movement that focused on the idea that rationality could improve the human condition. The movement’s beginnings have been traced back to the writings of John Locke and Isaac Newton. These works suggested that knowledge was cumulative and based on the senses, and different rational methods could help to achieve change. While the movement took hold in many places throughout Europe and the American colonies with different approaches, they all upheld the ideals of reason and rational conversation. The period also spurred a shift in religious ideals, promoting the idea of a separation of church and state, leading to the flourishing of groups such as the Freemasons and Rosicrucians. The movement inspired many writings, wars, and revolutions.

John Locke was an inspiration for Thomas Jefferson’s writing of the Declaration of Independence. Locke’s Two Treatises of Government argues that for man to live in a civil society he must agree to be governed. Locke said that man lives by a natural law that is defined by a pursuit of life, liberty, and property, and when this law is broken, a war begins that is unending. Therefore, men require an unbiased judge—in the form of the state—to protect the natural law. At the same time, Jefferson is thought to have been influenced by William Wollaston’s The Religion of Nature Delineated, in which Wollaston places a focus on happiness and morality. Benjamin Franklin was inspired to write his own pamphlet on Wollaston’s book, and although he became disillusioned with it later, he continued to be inspired by Wollaston’s ethical standards.

During the Enlightenment, there were many writers and public figures who embraced the ideas of reason and the advancement of human happiness; they introduced these ideas into society, consequently changing the way in which citizens looked at those governing them. Looking at these changes through a modern lens, Wood suggests that these changing ideas were republican in nature and helped shape the documents that would form the United States in the aftermath of the Revolutionary War.