In the 18th century, the intel- primitive cabins, were firm devotees
lectual and cultural development of scholarship, and they made great
of Pennsylvania reflected, in large efforts to attract learned ministers to
measure, the vigorous personalities their settlements .
of two men: James Logan and Benja-
Literary production in the colo-
min Franklin . Logan was secretary nies was largely confined to New
of the colony, and it was in his fine li- England . Here attention concen-
brary that young Franklin found the trated on religious subjects . Ser-
latest scientific works . In 1745 Logan mons were the most common
erected a building for his collection products of the press . A famous Pu-
and bequeathed both building and ritan minister, the Reverend Cot-
books to the city .
ton Mather, wrote some 400 works .
Franklin contributed even more His masterpiece, Magnalia Chris-
to the intellectual activity of Phila- ti Americana, presented the pag-delphia . He formed a debating club eant of New England’s history . The
that became the embryo of the most popular single work of the day
American Philosophical Society . His was the Reverend Michael Wiggles-
endeavors also led to the founding worth’s long poem, “The Day of
of a public academy that later devel- Doom,” which described the Last
oped into the University of Penn- Judgment in terrifying terms .
sylvania . He was a prime mover in
In 1704 Cambridge, Massachu-
the establishment of a subscription setts, launched the colonies’ first
library, which he called “the mother successful newspaper . By 1745 there
of all North American subscription were 22 newspapers being published
libraries .”
in British North America .
In the Southern colonies, wealthy
In New York, an important step
planters and merchants imported pri- in establishing the principle of free-
vate tutors from Ireland or Scotland dom of the press took place with the
to teach their children . Some sent case of John Peter Zenger, whose
their children to school in England . New York Weekly Journal, begun in Having these other opportunities, the 1733, represented the opposition to
upper classes in the Tidewater were the government . After two years of
not interested in supporting pub- publication, the colonial governor
lic education . In addition, the diffu- could no longer tolerate Zenger’s sa-
sion of farms and plantations made tirical barbs, and had him thrown
the formation of community schools into prison on a charge of seditious
difficult . There were only a few free libel . Zenger continued to edit his
schools in Virginia .
paper from jail during his nine-
The desire for learning did not month trial, which excited intense
stop at the borders of established interest throughout the colonies .
communities, however . On the fron- Andrew Hamilton, the prominent
tier, the Scots-Irish, though living in lawyer who defended Zenger, argued
28
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
that the charges printed by Zenger Christian churches that believe in
were true and hence not libelous . personal conversion and the iner-
The jury returned a verdict of not rancy of the Bible) and the spirit of
guilty, and Zenger went free .
revivalism, which continue to play
The increasing prosperity of the significant roles in American reli-
towns prompted fears that the dev- gious and cultural life . It weakened
il was luring society into pursuit of the status of the established clergy
worldly gain and may have contrib- and provoked believers to rely on
uted to the religious reaction of the their own conscience . Perhaps most
1730s, known as the Great Awaken- important, it led to the proliferation
ing . Its two immediate sources were of sects and denominations, which
George Whitefield, a Wesleyan re- in turn encouraged general accep-
vivalist who arrived from England tance of the principle of religious
in 1739, and Jonathan Edwards, who toleration .
served the Congregational Church
in Northampton, Massachusetts .
EMERGENCE OF COLONIAL
Whitefield began a religious re-
GOVERNMENT
vival in Philadelphia and then moved
on to New England . He enthralled In the early phases of colonial de-
audiences of up to 20,000 people at velopment, a striking feature was the
a time with histrionic displays, ges- lack of controlling influence by the
tures, and emotional oratory . Reli- English government . All colonies ex-
gious turmoil swept throughout New cept Georgia emerged as companies
England and the middle colonies as of shareholders, or as feudal propri-
ministers left established churches to etorships stemming from charters
preach the revival .
granted by the Crown . The fact that
Edwards was the most prominent the king had transferred his immedi-
of those influenced by Whitefield ate sovereignty over the New World
and the Great Awakening . His most settlements to stock companies and
memorable contribution was his proprietors did not, of course, mean
1741 sermon, “Sinners in the Hands that the colonists in America were
of an Angry God .” Rejecting theat- necessarily free of outside control .
rics, he delivered his message in a Under the terms of the Virginia
quiet, thoughtful manner, arguing Company charter, for example, full
that the established churches sought governmental authority was vested
to deprive Christianity of its func- in the company itself . Nevertheless,
tion of redemption from sin . His the crown expected that the com-
magnum opus, Of Freedom of Wil pany would be resident in England .
(1754), attempted to reconcile Cal- Inhabitants of Virginia, then, would
vinism with the Enlightenment .
have no more voice in their govern-
The Great Awakening gave rise ment than if the king himself had
to evangelical denominations (those retained absolute rule .
29