This week, we'll make a change to an earlier era of American Literature. You have been reading Romantic literature, and most of what you have read was written from about the 1830s-1860s. As you've come to know, Romantic literature placed value on emotion, the individual, genius, the individual's sensibility or ability to feel for and with others, and the ability to act through these feelings to bring about positive change in one's own life and in society. Like the Romantic, the Enlightenment thinker valued the individual, but Enlightenment authors valued the individual's ability to observe, reason, discuss, and debate. In many respects, Enlightenment authors were afraid of emotions and tended to associate high emotion with the religious passions which had led to the religious wars following the Reformation. They were all about using reason and personal insight to bring about positive personal and social change.
This week you'll get to know Thomas Jefferson. He is a good, solid example of the best of the Enlightenment. Many of you grew up in Virginia or have been taught Jefferson all your lives. As someone who has spent a life studying the man and his thought, let me assure you he is one of the few men whose politics is always on the money. He believes in three things: 1) the potential of humankind; 2) reason; and, 3) fighting to further one and two.
There are reasons Jefferson authored the documents you'll read and celebrate this week. He only published a few books over the course of his lifetime, so most of his literature comes to us in the form of notes, Acts, Statues he helped to draft, through a few books, like Notes on the State of Virginia, and through a huge correspondence. Most American Literature anthologies do a poor job of handling Jefferson, and our anthology is no exception, so this week your reading on Jefferson will be online and not from the text.
The best way to get to know Jefferson is through excerpts and small works. Read around in the Jefferson Blog, put together by Colonial Williamsburg, and through the quotations put together by the Monticello Foundation. These quotes are sorted by topics. Don't try to read them all. Find a few topics in which you are interested, read the quotations and discussion, and then sit back and think. Don't forget the sitting and reflecting part. The theme for this week is reflection; as you read through Jefferson's first draft of the "Declaration of Independence" and compare it to subsequent drafts, like the one Franklin helped Jefferson author or those authorized by the constitutional convention, you'll see how reflection led to change. The period of literature we are entering now--the Enlightenment--was all about personal reflection, sharing the results of the reflection with others, and creating change. And this is the period of greatest change for America. The Enlightenment is when the American Revolution happened, when our two constitutions were written, and when the West started the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions. Personal reflection, discussion, almost always leads to positive change, as you will discover when you read the literature of the Revolution and Age of Enlightenment.
As you read Jefferson's "Virginia Statue of Religious Freedom," and pay particular attention to the bottom, where Jefferson points us to a foundation of his thought and that of the founders, namely, a belief that truth can be gotten at if free debate and reason are given free rein. Think here of all you've learned as you've read the blogs of your peers, wrote yourself, and discussed in the General Assembly forum. We celebrate the Declaration as Jefferson's greatest contribution to the world, but I would suggest that the Statue is his greatest contribution. It is not only an argument for letting go of centuries of bloodshed and prejudice over religion; it is the first public document to make reason and rational debate--Enlightenment cornerstones--the foundation of public policy and our social contract. This is the true foundation of our democracy. In my opinion, Jefferson's "Virginia Statue for Religious Freedom" is one of the five most important moments in Western thought. Unfortunately, it is written in long, parallel, Latinisque, grammar school--the first schools many attended in the colonial era were schools which taught Latin grammar and were, hence, called grammar schools--sentences. It is not Jefferson's best writing in terms of style, but read the Statue carefully; it's a blueprint for how to solve any public dispute and arrive at truth. It is Jefferson at his best in terms of thinking.
Last but not least, listen to or read the *draft* of the Declaration of Independence and compare it to the Declaration passed by the Second Continental Congress. Find the links to pursue this exercise below. It will give you some insight into Jefferson's and the nations's complicated relationship to slavery and how he and Franklin, who helped him polish the draft, differed from the other founders. If Jefferson's owning slaves bothers you, you might also want to look at the latest research on Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemings. Figuring out that great people can do wrong things, still be great people, and still be admired and used for inspiration is one of the final steps in reaching full adulthood.
There are reasons Jefferson authored the documents you'll read and celebrate this week. He only published a few books over the course of his lifetime, so most of his literature comes to us in the form of notes, Acts, Statues he helped to draft, through a few books, like Notes on the State of Virginia, and through a huge correspondence. Most American Literature anthologies do a poor job of handling Jefferson, and our anthology is no exception, so this week your reading on Jefferson will be online and not from the text.
The best way to get to know Jefferson is through excerpts and small works. Read around in the Jefferson Blog, put together by Colonial Williamsburg, and through the quotations put together by the Monticello Foundation. These quotes are sorted by topics. Don't try to read them all. Find a few topics in which you are interested, read the quotations and discussion, and then sit back and think. Don't forget the sitting and reflecting part. The theme for this week is reflection; as you read through Jefferson's first draft of the "Declaration of Independence" and compare it to subsequent drafts, like the one Franklin helped Jefferson author or those authorized by the constitutional convention, you'll see how reflection led to change. The period of literature we are entering now--the Enlightenment--was all about personal reflection, sharing the results of the reflection with others, and creating change. And this is the period of greatest change for America. The Enlightenment is when the American Revolution happened, when our two constitutions were written, and when the West started the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions. Personal reflection, discussion, almost always leads to positive change, as you will discover when you read the literature of the Revolution and Age of Enlightenment.
As you read Jefferson's "Virginia Statue of Religious Freedom," and pay particular attention to the bottom, where Jefferson points us to a foundation of his thought and that of the founders, namely, a belief that truth can be gotten at if free debate and reason are given free rein. Think here of all you've learned as you've read the blogs of your peers, wrote yourself, and discussed in the General Assembly forum. We celebrate the Declaration as Jefferson's greatest contribution to the world, but I would suggest that the Statue is his greatest contribution. It is not only an argument for letting go of centuries of bloodshed and prejudice over religion; it is the first public document to make reason and rational debate--Enlightenment cornerstones--the foundation of public policy and our social contract. This is the true foundation of our democracy. In my opinion, Jefferson's "Virginia Statue for Religious Freedom" is one of the five most important moments in Western thought. Unfortunately, it is written in long, parallel, Latinisque, grammar school--the first schools many attended in the colonial era were schools which taught Latin grammar and were, hence, called grammar schools--sentences. It is not Jefferson's best writing in terms of style, but read the Statue carefully; it's a blueprint for how to solve any public dispute and arrive at truth. It is Jefferson at his best in terms of thinking.
Last but not least, listen to or read the *draft* of the Declaration of Independence and compare it to the Declaration passed by the Second Continental Congress. Find the links to pursue this exercise below. It will give you some insight into Jefferson's and the nations's complicated relationship to slavery and how he and Franklin, who helped him polish the draft, differed from the other founders. If Jefferson's owning slaves bothers you, you might also want to look at the latest research on Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemings. Figuring out that great people can do wrong things, still be great people, and still be admired and used for inspiration is one of the final steps in reaching full adulthood.
The main point in your reading this week is to realize that few of the founders--Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, and Madison especially--thought the nation they helped to create was perfect, nor did they think the Constitution set in stone. They thought of the nation and democracy as a process of experimentation, national reflection, debate, and change. They attempted to create a dynamic equilibrium between social stability and change, one with change built around an educated public and reasoned debate--and occasionally revolution and, as a last resort, violence--and stability disturbed by frequent elections and the ability to throw out those gaining too much authority and power. Even with its safeguards built in, Jefferson never trusted the Constitution and the powers it gave to legislators, the executive, and the bureaucracy; Jefferson worked to limit power giving to those who are entrusted with administrating the government with the introduction of the Bill of Rights. As you read in Franklin's Speech, Franklin thought we would have long since replaced our government with something else, either because society had deteriorated to the point where we needed and would accept a tyrant or because reason and further insight would have revealed a much less cumbersome means of government which still allowed personal liberty to be maximized.
This week is also about reflection and personal observation. You'll be writing an essay/blog post in which you bring together and explain what you have learned, to yourself, to me, and to your committee. This is an exercise which smacks of Enlightenment thinking. You reflect on your own personal growth, and--in the process of sharing your observations--you help me learn about what you are learning (or not), and you help the group learn about others and their selves.
Steve
Steve
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