PEOPLE

John Adams

. Boston lawyer, then Federalist Party leader and second president of the United States

. Helped draft Declaration of Independence

. Unitarian, did not believe in divinity of Christ

. Not very popular as president, but history has been kinder to him

Benjamin Franklin

. Inventor, scientist, printer, politician, and diplomat

. Helped draft both Declaration of Independence and Constitution

. Champion of thrift and hard work

David Hume

. Scottish philosopher and friend of Benjamin Franklin

. Said men develop society on their own, from sensory impressions

. Believed in rationality, not revelation, as foundation of human experience

. Inspired the phrase "self-evident" truths (rational, not religious, in nature)

Thomas Jefferson

. Virginia planter, then Republican Party leader and third president of the United States

. Primary drafter of Declaration of Independence

. Heavily influenced by philosophies of John Locke

King George III

. King of England throughout Revolutionary period

. Approved disastrous policies such as Stamp Act, Townshend Acts, Intolerable Acts, etc.

. Oversaw the loss of the American colonies

John Locke

. English philosopher, believed in empiricism and reason

. Said all people are born equal and people are shaped by their environment

. Developed notion of the natural rights of man

. Influenced thinking of Founding Fathers

Thomas Paine

. British-born author of Common Sense, the most influential pamphlet in turning American public opinion in favor of independence

. Was an atheist; his attacks on religion later made him object of scorn in America

Daniel Shays

. Revolutionary War captain

. Led attack of 1,200 farmers against Massachusetts arsenal in protest against heavy taxes and debts imposed on ordinary people, 1786-87

. Shays's Rebellion convinced many of the need for stronger national government

George Washington

. Virginia planter, Revolutionary War general, and first president of the United States

. Established democratic norms for American presidency

. More important as stabilizing force than as an original thinker

EVENTS

1776 Publication of Common Sense

. Thomas Paine's pamphlet suggested that colonists' rights had been violated and independence was only solution

. Thousands of copies sold in the first days of publication in January

. Hugely influential in pushing colonists toward independence

1776 Declaration of Independence

. Continental Congress adopted Jefferson's text, announcing freedom from British rule

. Armed conflict of Revolutionary War had already begun a year earlier at Lexington and Concord

1781 Articles of Confederation Ratified

. First national government designed with weak central authority to prevent development of anything similar to British tyranny

. Events like Shays's Rebellion convinced many that stronger national government was needed

1786 Virginia Statue of Religious

Freedom

. Law pushed forward by Madison and Jefferson to ban established churches in Virginia

. Established legal principle of religious freedom later incorporated into Bill of Rights

GROUPS

Radical Whigs

. British parliamentary faction that despised bribery and patronage

. Suggested that arbitrary power of monarch and ministers infringed on personal liberty

. Writings influenced American colonists as they moved toward independence

Tories

. Loyalist American colonists had strong economic ties with Britain, opposed independence

. South Carolina and New York were Tory strongholds in America

CONCEPTS

"Power"

. In eighteenth-century conception, power led to corruption

. Considered the opposite of liberty

. King George III was seen as an example of the way power corrupted

. Fear of power produced deliberately weak Articles of Confederation

Republicanism

. Ideology of government in which authority derives from consent of the people

. Success of system depended on virtue of its citizens

. Republican citizens were property-owners willing to subordinate their own interests to that of the community as a whole

Deism

. Spiritual faith shared by many of the Founding Fathers, most famously by Jefferson

. Believed that God created the universe and then did not interfere

. Intensely personal and rational, opposed organized and emotional religion

Salutary Neglect

. English stance toward colonies from 1676 to 1763, allowed colonies essentially to govern themselves

. Enforcement of strict trade regulations such as Navigation Acts generally avoided, allowing smuggling to become rampant and allowing independent economic growth in colonies

. After French & Indian War, British attitudes changed and Parliament reasserted its right to tax and regulate colonies, leading to conflict

PLACES

Springfield, Massachusetts

. Site of armory unsuccessfully attacked by Daniel Shays's ragtag band of insurgents during Shays's Rebellion, 1786-87