What was the American Enlightenment of the 18th Century?

The Enlightenment period of the 18th century was driven by a belief that the human mind could be expanded in knowledge, doing away with superstition and ignorance. During this time, the Catholic Church was considered too restrictive and too dogmatic and therefore at odds with true enlightenment. By embracing science, reason, human rights, morality and nature was one way to explore the hidden world and test all possibilities to arrive at the true nature of being.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, people in Europe were beginning to open their minds to new possibilities and started to question the Catholic Church and the 'divine right of kings'. Monarchs were all-powerful, as was the Church. Anyone who spoke out against either was arrested, tortured or even executed. This harsh treatment brought the people together in their quest for truth, the real truth, not the biblical truth that the Church swore by. It was a time when curiosity and experimentation took off.

Then in the 18th century when America was settled, many of the leaders were also very religious and sided with the Catholic Church, however, a change came about when America took a stand against England, the American people became united. This meant that they were willing to put aside their religious beliefs, which eventually led to the division between church and state.

Some of the greatest Americans in history prescribed to the tenets of Enlightenment. Benjamin Franklin traveled to France where he learned more about the Enlightenment. The ideas of the learned Frenchmen around him gave him the drive and desire to bring those ideas and thoughts back with him to America. He was one of the greatest statesmen and inventors because he believed strongly that all humans have natural rights and freedoms and free thinking should never be suppressed or denied. By studying nature and natural principles, one of the main ideas of the Enlightenment, Franklin invented such things as the lightning rod, the Franklin stove, and even bifocal glasses. He studied science and physics and was free to experiment.

These principals are what America was founded on, freedom for everyone regardless of who they are or what religion they believe in. The Declaration of Independence was drawn up to document the points of the Enlightenment, such as freedom of religion, speech and equality, although women were still not completely free and didn't have the right to vote for many, many years.

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/hum_303/enlightenment.html