Benjamin E. Bates

Despite, or perhaps because of, this country’s short history, the American identity is one of the most highly contested and undefinable of intangible ideas. Many of the highly debated abstract concepts are so often and sometimes needlessly argued over because they are indefinable. So much can fall under the categories of these types, like art, love, and poetry, that deems them impossible to narrow down into workable definitions. A blank canvas can be considered art and free verse is somehow…

this is what I hope the University of Pennsylvania can serve as for me, a transcending mechanism to aid my efforts towards my dreams. Relating to Penn with a general anecdote is that I have a Quaker background in my family tree, though I am aware Benjamin Franklin and George Whitefield are the founders, I am related to William Penn by marriage. Another anecdote of my family history is my relation to Paul revere as he is my grandfather of eight generations past, my mother actually has a piece of…

the American Revolution. The entire shift from a society influenced greatly by God and puritan values to a society influenced by Enlightenment concepts helped to influence prominent writers. These writers influenced by Enlightenment ideas included Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine who contributed their own voices concerning Enlightenment philosophy and thinking in their respective writings of “The Way to Wealth” and “The Crisis,…

1776, the dawn of the American Revolution saw merchant sailors being authorized to walk a fine line between Privateer and Pirate. Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), famous American founding father used British politics and laws in an effort to break America from British rule. In 1779, Franklin, an elderly man of seventy-three traveled across the Atlantic from America to France to seek aid and assistance from France in an effort to break from the British empirical rule over America. Franklin’s…

Intro/Thesis: The Great Awakening and the American Enlightenment sparked the American Revolution by creating a revolution of ideas about equality and a common identity. The importance of oneness and an egalitarian Nation was prominent in both movements, and helped shape the American identity. Through the Great Awakening and the American Enlightenment, social barriers broke down. The common people held the power; traditional authority dissolved, and America’s society no longer resembled Great…

Define and give the significance of the following Key Terms: The Dominion of New England: The Dominion of New England was a coalition of New England colonies in 1686 created by King James II. It originally consisted of New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Plymouth, Massachusetts, and Connecticut and had its capital in Boston. Later, in 1688, James II added the Jerseys and New York. Individually operated state legislative branches were dissipated, and Sir Edmund Andros took over as the governor of the…

Book Report on A tale of Three Kings A tale of three kings is an in depth story about King David, King Absalom, and King Saul. G. Edwards has mastered the authorship of styles and techniques of leadership. He describes how the process they went through to become king, the brokenness they experienced and the familiar question was raised about what type of king you are or will become. At least once in everyone’s lifespan will experience a form or pain and brokenness. Whether from loss of family…

Introduction During the American Revolution and in the years leading up to the war, thousands of colonists in the royal colonies fought back against the injustice of Great Britain, this eventually led to the fight for independence. From the beginning of the war the colonists looked at the French for assistance and the French did secretly help the colonists by sending hundreds of thousands of guns, ammos, and clothing for the soldiers. Initially, the French didn’t want to intervene in the war…

In “Narrative of Commercial Life,” T. H. Breen explores economic and cultural changes in eighteenth century British North America that came about after the French and Indian War. Breen argues that those changes informed colonial protest movements, most notably nonimportation agreements, and that those “specific styles of resistance” caused colonists to unite and “...to reimagine themselves within an independent commercial empire” (Breen 472). Staughton Lynd and David Waldstreicher’s article…

From Resistance to Revolution, by Pauline Maier is an analysis of the ideological evolution of American radicals from 1765 to 1776. Maier primarily focuses her study on those who were leaders in opposition to the Stamp Act of 1765 leading up to independence from Britain, and how their instruction over protestors were very much in line with real Whig thought of the 17th and 18th century. She claims that with this knowledge of previous exposure to the rules and tradition of English…