DB 4b

ENG 205 Week 4 Unit B: Thomas Paine and John Adams (250 words)

1. Discussion board:

Reading 1: Thomas Paine

Read textbook page 548-52

Also, read:  The Age of Reason, Part First, Section 1

http://www.ushistory.org/paine/reason/singlehtml.htm

Reading 2: John Adams on PBS

In 2008, PBS ran a really well-done mini-series on the life of John Adams. You can (almost certainly) find the full series at your local public library, and a number of excerpted scenes on YouTube.

It won 4 Golden Globes (Best Performer Actor in a Miniseries, Best Performance Actress Miniseries, Best Supporting Actor Miniseries, Best Miniseries) and a number of additional awards (Emmys, Screen Actors Guild, etc.).

For this class, please WATCH: 

John Adams - "The Declaration of Independence" / 7 minutes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNOTozVp_i4

DB question:

Below is an artist's rendering of the "Liberty Tree" in  Boston, where colonists gathered to protest the Stamp Act in 1765.  Note that the "Sons of Liberty" (i.e., the colonists) are tarring and feathering an excise man, or tax collector. 

"When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizen."  T. Paine http://www.bostonteapartyship.com/sons-of-liberty

  Which of the definitions of "liberty" from Week 3 is being exercised here?  Is this the same meaning of "liberty" that Paine talks about in his writings? 

2. Write responses for another student’s work. (75 words)

Crevecoeur explains on page 541, “We are people of cultivators, scattered over an immense territory, communicating with each other by means of good roads, and navigable rivers, united by power because they are equitable.” He sees Americans as relatively equal economically, compared to the invisible powers of Europe given to a very few. He explicitly explains that Americans are from French, English, Scotch, Irish, Dutch, German and Swedes.

He likes to explain Americans as the European poor. Going into great detail about how once on American soil a new social system is born. One in which could leave a farmer left with nothings after being taken by the English Monarchs. The American Farmer is Crevecoeur’s choice American because he is the “freeman,” the landowner. Religion in Crevecoeur ‘s view is not demanded on each citizen as heavily as it is in Europe. Broadly over his entire letter he sees an American farmer as the once oppressed in Europe, now flourishing in the new boundless land without the cripples of “imaginary” European Power.