1. Intellectual Change Enlightenment - Age of Reason – rationalism over superstition - Scientific Revolution established Natural Laws - Political theorists tried to define the ‘natural laws’ of politics and human interaction

2. Benjamin Franklin - most prominent American of the Enlightenment - printer, scientist, inventor, writer, statesman - Poor Richard’s Almanac, library, fire company, bifocal glasses, Franklin Stove, lightning is electricity, American Philosophical Society

3. Freedom of the Press John Peter Zenger Case (1735)

5. Religious Change - Halfway Covenant (1690’s) - Great Awakening (1730’s-1750’s) - Change in denominations - from old lights, Congregational and Anglican, - to new lights, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian - New Colleges to teach ministers (Ivy League schools) - Jonathan Edwards – “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” - George Whitefield – visiting English minister - Questioning Authority - disputing the authority of churches made it easier to question the authority of the British government