You Say You Want A Revolution ?!?

1. YouSay You Want ARevolution?!?

2. No, no, no…Not us!

3. Patriot Road The Founding Fathers Us!

4. Inquiring minds want to know… • The Enlightenment (1650-1800) • The Age of Reason, was a time when man began to use his reason to discover the world, casting off the superstition and fear of the medieval world. • Rejects the idea of the absolute monarch • All men have rights to life, liberty and property • Embraces religious tolerance

5. Betsy Ross Inquiring Minds Want to Know… Abigail Adams Second Continental Congress tells Ben His Sam Adams

6. "These are the times that try men's souls." • Jan. 10, 1776, Paine published Common Sense • Sold 125,000 copies in the first three months (only 2.5 million living in America at that time) • Donated all his profit from the sale of Common Sense to the Patriot cause

7. Main Arguments of “Common Sense”: • It was absurd for an island to rule a continent. • America was not a "British nation"; it was composed of influences and peoples from all of Europe. • Even if Britain was the "mother country" of America, that made her actions all the more horrendous, for no mother would harm her children so brutally. • Being a part of Britain would drag America into unnecessary European wars, and keep it from the international commerce at which America excelled. • The distance between the two nations made governing the colonies from England unwieldy. If some wrong were to be petitioned to Parliament, it would take a year before the colonies received a response. • Britain ruled the colonies for its own benefit, and did not consider the best interests of the colonists in governing them.

8. What was the big deal? • Paine’s pamphlet allowed even the most common of commoner to enter the political dialogue: • It was written in a straightforward and simple way • Complex ideas were made tangible • Even the illiterate could hear it and understand it! • It was “off the hook”…didn’t mince words – INDEPENDENCE NOW!