Section A Flashcards
Primary/Secondary source recall
Quotes from Tom Paine’s Common Sense?
- ‘Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one’
- ‘The state of a king shuts from the World, yet the business of a king requires him to know it thoroughly’
- ‘We have it in our power to begin the world over again’
- ‘Let the names of Whig and Tory be extinct’
Quotes from the Resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress (1765)?
- ‘That it is inseparably essential to the Freedom of a People, and the undoubted Right of Englishmen, that no Taxes be imposed on them, but with their own Consent, given personally, or by their Representatives.’
Quotes from Robert Ferguson?
- ‘no other written production in American culture quite like Common Sense. No other text by a single author can claim to have instantly captured and then so permanently held the national imagination. At a time when the largest colonial newspapers and most important pamphlets had circultations under 2,000, Common Sense reached between 120,000 and 150,000 copies in its first year alone.’
- ‘Hundreds of thousands of Americans, perhaps a fifth of the adult population in all, either read Common Sense or had it read to them during the course of the Revolution.’
- ‘When modern scholars test these earlier assessments, they tend to agree that Paine “transformed the terms of political debate” and “forged a new political language.”’
Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, when published?
January 1776
When was the Declaration of Independence formed?
July 1776
Quotes from Benjamin Franklin hearing George Whitefield?
(Great Awakening)
- '’it seem’d as if all the World were growing Religious’
- ‘for his Eloquence
had a wonderful Power over the Hearts and Purses of his Hearers’
What has J. Butler noted about George Whitefield/The Great Awakening?
- Historians argue that the awakening severed intellectual and philosophical connections between America and Europe - it was the major vehicle of early lower-class protest
- First “inter-colonial movement”
- Concluded that the revivals of religion in pre-revolutionary American seldom became proto-revolutionary, and they failed to change the timing, causes or effects of the revolution in any significant way.
What does Jerome Mahaffey discuss on George Whitefield/The Great Awakening?
- ‘the Awakening had already provided a convenient way to understand oppression and liberty…By merely changing whom the dialogue of reform was directed at, that vocabulary was fit for duty in the Revolution’
- *‘One writer has asserted that Whitefield was the “Forgotten Founding Father.” But it might be more accurate to say that Whitefield personified an idea and promoted a message. He produced a message that outlived him, as all good ideas should.’
- ‘It is this message that helped bridge the gulf between the Awakening generation and the Revolutionary generation.’
Quotes on Historiography?
- Revolution tend to fall into two groups, constitutional cause and economic cause
- Economical: Charles Beard and T.H. Breen
- Constitutional: Edward Countryman and Alfred F. Young = ‘Constitutional rights mattered and motivated people, but they meant different things to different people in different places, so we should pay more attention to regional variations and to the ordinary people who made the Revolution possible.’
Plan for Section A essay?
- Intro
- Para 2/3 = Tom Paine’s Common Sense
- Para 3/4 = Historiographical debate, both on Paine (P1) and in general from Staughton Lynd (P2).
- Para 4 = The Great Awakening
- Para 5 = The Stamp Act, (if applicable/in time frame).
What/when was the Stamp Act and what was its implications?
- 1765, enacted by Parliament
- Britain needed to recover from the Seven Years’ War effort
- was next on from the Sugar Act of 1764 (a precursor to the Stamp Act revolts)
- caused widespread revolt across country spreading to New York, Charleston and Philadelphia
- ‘No Taxation Without Representation’
- Stamp Act Congress, October 1765 (9 colonies)
- crucial turning point in the relationship between Britain and America
What is the detailed plan for the Section A essay?
Intro - The American revolution, from 1765 to 1783….
Para 1: Tom Paine suggests breakage from the British. PS: Tom Paine leading to Declaration. SS: Robert Ferguson ‘change political debate’ and forged ‘new political language’
Para 2: Tom Paine geographical influence/impact. PS: Washington ‘working a powerful change in the minds of many men’. SS: Robert Fergusen ‘120,000-150,000’, ‘1/5 adult pop’.
Para 3: Historiography, i.e. constitutional historians (Edward Countryman and Alfred Young) v. Economic historians (Charles Beard and T.H. Breen). ‘also regional about ordinary people’
Para 4: Awakening. PS: Benjamin Franklin. SS: J. Butler ‘intellectual and philosophical’ and Jerome Mahaffey ‘Forgotten Founding Father’
Para 5: Stamp Act led to congress and also revolts. PS: Stamp Act Congress 1765 - ‘it is inseperably essential to the Freedom of a People, to the undoubted Rights of Englishman…’
Conclusion - overall big impact but Tom Paine marked the shift from anti-parliament to anti-king.
