He also pointed out, when speaking France, Spain and the Netherlands, that if the Colonies won their freedom, those country's colonies in the New World would be much safer from English intrusions (Isaacson, PAGE). However, he always acted like a statesman and never lost sight of the ideals of the rebel colonists, also encouraging other countries to aid the revolution because of its high ideals of liberty and democracy. Franklin's ability to compromise and to show the various sides on an issue where the advantage lay for them in coming to a resolution served the Colonies well after the end of the Revolutionary War as the 13 budding states worked to find a way to form one federal republic (Isaacson, PAGE). It could be argued that Franklin sometimes went too far with his compromises. In a decision that history shows to be stunningly wrong, Franklin approved a Pennsylvania policy that paid for the scalps of Native Americans in an attempt to control clashes between them and Europeans (Davis, pp. 35-35). It would seem in this case that pragmatic politics won over idealism in a major and significant way. However, among those of European descent he argued for true religious tolerance, if for no other reason that everyone benefits economically when everyone works together (Isaacson, PAGE). In fact he lived to see all kinds of clergy, including Christians and Jews, walking together in parades. He helped promote the construction of Philadelphia Hall and proclaimed that anyone of any faith, including Muslim, would be allowed to preach there. When he died at the age of 84, the clergy from many different religions attended his funeral (Isaacson,...
He also promoted tolerance by using satirical writing to poke fun at those who were less tolerant, such as the Puritans (Isaacson, PAGE).
Historians are interested in a multitude of forces of influences that have led to the creation of the present status-quo and the history professors are focused on presenting those particular forces in a way that is understanding and relevant to the citizens of the contemporaneous society. 3. Does knowing our history even matter? Definitely yes! In the words of the author, "Because human development is a continuous process in which the
Founding Brothers Ellis, Joseph, J. Founding Brothers: the Revolutionary Generation. New York: Knopf, 2000. Print. The manner the American Republic was established continues to fascinate historians and the lay people alike. For a long time, historians accorded the major role in the formation of the United States to the struggles and virtues of the founding members of the republic. But in the post-Civil Rights era, historians began to pay greater attention to
Paine's decision to write of high philosophical and political issues in common speech, and of used "graphic metaphors and his simple sentence structure [to] reflect a language understood at the time by common Americans," (Moss & Wilson, ed) has much the same purpose as a translation of the Bible from Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic into Latin, which is to say the need to initiate common people into profound truths. Paine
Slavery in America The Beginning of Slavery The first year that African slaves were brought to Colonial America was reported to be 1619 (Vox, 2012). The ship that docked at Point Comfort, in Jamestown Virginia, was owned by the Dutch. The Dutch crew was said to be starving and they wanted to make a trade with the colonists -- slaves for food, Vox explains in The New York Times-owned publications About.com. There
Shelley's Frankenstien Mary Shelley and her Frankenstein Monster Mary Shelley is the author of the famous novel Frankenstein and was born in London, England the year of 1797 (Merriman, 2006). Shelley came from strong genes as both her mother (Mary Wollstonecraft) and father (William Godwin) were considered philosophers and enlightened thinkers (Merriman, 2006). Shelley is credited (believed) to have started the science fiction genre during this time period. As a writer, Shelley
It is impossible in six short pages to fully comprehend the attitudes that White Americans had to Native Indians and black Americans in the early centuries of our nation's founding. That was m not my intent. My goal rather, was to illustrate first that although we are often presented a dominant narrative as the narrative, the truth is that in surveying American attitudes towards American Indians and Blacks a single
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