Benjamin Lee Whorf

In 1775, Patrick Henry convinces the colonists in his “Speech to the Virginia Convention” to fight for independence. Prior to Henry’s speech, a significant amount of colonists desired to stay under Britain’s rule, especially in regions such as New England, filled with loyalist populations. Patrick Henry effectively integrates several rhetorical devices into his speech to sway colonial loyalists towards opposing their mother country, Great Britain. The devices of allusion, logos,…

The American Revolution produced drastic changes within the culture and norms of the American people to shape what is now known as the modern United States. The Rationalists were a group of writers, speakers, and philosophers of the mid to late 18th century and had a huge impact on this era because suading the American people to stand up to the overpowering rule of the British. Rationalists such as Patrick Henry the speaker of the “Speech to Virginia Convention”, Thomas Paine the author of…

Colonial Period in American Literature The Colonial Period in American history consisted of many different key events and ideas, along with many different cultures. The Colonial Period covers the phase of when the European settlers came to America, the colonization of America, and the incorporation of the Europeans in the United States. Certain things like American Indians and European settlement, Puritans and rationalists, important political documents and speeches, were all a part of the…

Colonists were treated unfairly by England, during the Revolutionary war period. England kept passing acts and placing taxes on everything; eventually colonists grew hostile and fought to become a free country. Patrick Henry’s “Speech to the Virginia Convention” and Thomas Jefferson’s “The Declaration of Independence” are great examples of Revolutionary literature. “Speech to the Virginia Convention” is trying to convince colonists to rebel England. The Declaration of Independence is letting…

SETTING The setting was based in Colonial Virginia (George Washington and John Parke Custis are the only two people in the story that are from Colonial Virginia). Most Americans talked with a british accent during the revolutionary war. Mainly because a lot of the Americans came from Britain. GEORGE WASHINGTON George Washington did not wear a wig. Even though wigs were fashionable, Washington kept his own hair, which he wore long and tied back in a queue, or ponytail. Washington did,…

The Seven Year’s War had caused a major conflict between the British and us, colonists. George Grenville, the Prime Minister of Britain, had blamed us for starting the war and that Britain was in debt because they fought against the colonists. Grenville came up with a series of taxes and to set laws for our side, called “Acts.” “Stamp Act” In March 22, 1765, the “Stamp Act” had been another Act that the British had passed. This Act required that us, colonists need a stamp on every document and…

Franklin, based on the title alone, supposedly wrote “The Way to Wealth” to tell Americans what steps they must take to become wealthy. Yet the question remains whether or not that was truly what Franklin was trying to achieve. Was Franklin being serious, that following the steps outlined in “The Way to Wealth” would lead to wealth? Was he joking, being sarcastic, or perhaps trying to achieve something else entirely? While Franklin did not seriously believe that his advice would lead to wealth,…

In the 18th century, growing tension between England and the American colonies led to a desperate need for a solution. America was ready to fight for reconciliation, or in other words, taxation with representation. Paine released his work Common Sense to convince America to change their cause from reconciliation to independence. In this pamphlet, Paine utilizes, word choice, capitalization, and a problem-solution structure to contribute to his overall purpose of convincing America to go to war…

The Enlightenment was a period of philosophical advancement in Western Europe. The four main enlightenment thinkers were Voltaire, Rousseau, Locke, and Montesquieu. Voltaire emphasized the freedom of speech by writing attacks towards the Catholic Church even though he knew he would get punished for his writings. Rousseau was a French philosophe who emphasized the idea that all people are equal. Locke was an English writer during the Age of Enlightenment. His mostly focused on the issue of…

accounts from when Europeans first settled on the land and when America truly began to form its culture. Due to this search for identity, the views of Europe, Native Americans, and religion have been expressed in both positive and negative lights. In Benjamin Franklin’s Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America and Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, Franklin’s positive views of Native Americans and negative views of England and religion are expressed while Paine’s negative view of all aspects…