AP® United States History review sheet from Aim for Five (aimforfive.com/us-history/units/3/3-4)
Unit 3 · Topic 3.4
3.4 Philosophical Foundations of the American Revolution
Enlightenment ideas, especially John Locke's arguments for natural rights and government by consent, together with the ideal of republicanism, gave colonists a philosophy for resisting Britain. Thomas Paine's Common Sense turned many toward independence, and the Declaration of Independence (1776) put these ideas into a founding document.
Key terms
- Enlightenment
- John Locke
- natural rights
- republicanism
- Common Sense
- Declaration of Independence
John Locke and natural rights
John Locke was an English philosopher whose Two Treatises of Government (published 1689) argued that people are born with natural rights to life, liberty and property. These rights come from nature, not from kings.
Locke said people form governments through a social contract, an agreement to give up some freedom in exchange for protection of their rights. A government's power comes from the consent of the governed. If a government violates people's rights, the people have the right to change or overthrow it.
Colonists also drew on the traditional 'rights of Englishmen' from the Magna Carta and the English Bill of Rights (1689), and on British writers who warned that power corrupts and that standing armies threaten liberty.
Republicanism
Republicanism is the belief that government should be run by elected representatives rather than a king, and that a republic survives only if its citizens have civic virtue, meaning they put the public good ahead of private interest. Americans admired the ancient Roman republic as a model.
Republicanism made colonists suspicious of concentrated power, hereditary privilege and corruption. When British ministers seemed to be taking away colonial liberties step by step, many colonists saw a deliberate plot against freedom. Religion added force to these ideas: many Protestant ministers preached that God had blessed Americans with liberty and that defending it was a sacred duty.
Common Sense (1776)
In January 1776, months after fighting began, many colonists still hoped to reconcile with King George III. Thomas Paine, a recent immigrant from England, changed the debate with his pamphlet Common Sense. Written in plain, forceful language for ordinary readers, it attacked the very idea of monarchy and hereditary rule, argued that it made no sense for a small island to rule a whole continent, and said independence would free America from Britain's wars and open trade with the world.
It sold extraordinarily well and was read aloud in taverns and homes, pushing public opinion toward independence.
The Declaration of Independence
The Second Continental Congress voted for independence on July 2, 1776, and approved the Declaration of Independence, written mainly by Thomas Jefferson, on July 4.
Its preamble restates Locke's ideas: 'all men are created equal', people have 'unalienable Rights' including 'Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness', governments get 'their just powers from the consent of the governed', and people may 'alter or to abolish' a government that destroys those rights. Most of the document is a list of grievances against the king, meant to justify the break to Americans and to win foreign support.
The Declaration's promise of equality did not apply to enslaved people, women or Native Americans in 1776. But its words became a tool later groups used to demand their rights, from abolitionists to the women at Seneca Falls in 1848 (4.11).
Worked examples
Try each one yourself first, then open the solution.
- Example 1
Connecting an idea to a document
Short-answer practice: Briefly explain ONE way Enlightenment ideas influenced the Declaration of Independence.
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- Step 1: Name the thinker and the idea.
- Step 2: Quote or paraphrase the part of the Declaration that reflects it.
- Step 3: Explain how the idea justified independence.
Answer: Model answer: John Locke argued that government gets its power from the consent of the governed and exists to protect natural rights, and that people may overthrow a government that violates those rights. The Declaration of Independence repeats this reasoning when it says governments derive 'their just powers from the consent of the governed' and that people may 'alter or to abolish' a destructive government, which justified the colonists' break from George III.
Common mistakes
- Writing that the Declaration says 'life, liberty and property'. Locke said property; the Declaration says 'the pursuit of Happiness'.
- Saying Congress declared independence as soon as the war began. Fighting started in April 1775; independence came in July 1776, after Common Sense shifted opinion.
- Confusing republicanism (government by elected representatives and civic virtue) with the later Republican Party.
On the exam
- Questions often show an excerpt from Common Sense or the Declaration and ask about its ideas or its purpose. Know the audience: Common Sense spoke to ordinary colonists; the Declaration addressed Americans and the world.
- The gap between the Declaration's ideals and the reality of slavery and women's exclusion is a frequent theme. It sets up 3.6.
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Check yourself
4 questions on 3.4 Philosophical Foundations of the American Revolution. Pick an answer to see if you got it, and why.
"The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind. . . .
In England a king hath little more to do than to make war and give away places; which in plain terms, is to impoverish the nation and set it together by the ears. . . . Of more worth is one honest man to society and in the sight of God, than all the crowned ruffians that ever lived. . . .
Small islands not capable of protecting themselves, are the proper objects for kingdoms to take under their care; but there is something very absurd, in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island."
Source: Thomas Paine, English-born writer who had arrived in Philadelphia in 1774, Common Sense, pamphlet published January 1776.
Paine's argument in the passage most directly challenged
Source 1: "[Man] seeks out, and is willing to join in society with others . . . for the mutual preservation of their lives, liberties and estates, which I call by the general name, property. . . . The great and chief end, therefore, of men's uniting into commonwealths, and putting themselves under government, is the preservation of their property. . . . [W]henever the legislators endeavour to take away, and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any farther obedience . . . ."
Source 2: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it . . . ." Among the charges against the king: "For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent."
Source 1: John Locke, English philosopher, Second Treatise of Government, 1690. Source 2: Declaration of Independence, adopted by the Continental Congress, July 4, 1776.
Which idea do the two sources most clearly share?
The similarity between the two sources best reflects
"The petition of a great number of Blacks detained in a state of slavery in the bowels of a free and Christian country humbly showeth that your petitioners apprehend that they have in common with all other men a natural and unalienable right to that freedom which the great Parent of the Universe hath bestowed equally on all mankind and which they have never forfeited by any compact or agreement whatever . . . ."
"[Your petitioners] cannot but express their astonishment that it has never been considered that every principle from which America has acted in the course of their unhappy difficulties with Great Britain pleads stronger than a thousand arguments in favor of your petitioners. They therefore humbly beseech your honours . . . [to] cause an act of the legislature to be passed whereby they may be restored to the enjoyments of that which is the natural right of all men—and their children who were born in this land of liberty may not be held as slaves after they arrive at the age of twenty-one years . . . ."
Source: Petition to the Massachusetts legislature from Prince Hall, a free Black Bostonian, and other Black men, January 13, 1777. Original in the Massachusetts Archives. Spelling and punctuation modernized.
The petitioners' argument relies most directly on
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