What kept the American Colonists together essays

What kept the American Colonists together essays America declared independence on July 4th 1776, although America was not united when it begun, it soon became united through common hard-times and great leaders. America was discovered and settled by many different cultures and all of the cultures clashed from the start. After studying the colonies I have come to the conclusion that the "glue" that held them together was made up of: religious bonding, leadership abilities, their economic situations, the lack of communication with England, and philosophy. The colonies spread from New York to Georgia and had several ethnic groups that had nothing in common except the belief of freedom to, practice religious beliefs and political views. No one realized this until it was brought to the table by major events and leaders. Although there are hundreds of events that took place there are four major ones in particular: the Great Awakening, the Enlightenment, Revenue Acts, and the Albany Plan. There were also many great leaders such as John Locke, Thomas Paine and Ben In 1773 the emotional, spiritual, and evangelical movement labeled the Great Awakening was lead by George Witefield, Jonathan Edwards and Elija Weelock. These three leaders helped many colonist by preaching in traveling revivals spreading the word of God to the colonist. The word of god they preached was calvinism and predestination. People feared predestination and grew closer in fear of God and become more spiritual. The 18th century was an Age of Reason were the ideas of the Great Awakening were reversed. This Enlightenment was the result for the people's thirst for knowledge, the focus was the search for human knowledge, ideas, and inventions. Practical experimentation became the method of understanding. Ben Franklin was a father of the Enlightenment and a great leader because he promoted the spread of reason through out the colonies. He was...