America 250: "Original Promise of America Pursuit of Happiness" at Noah Webster House

Join the Noah Webster House for a new, three-part lecture series commemorating America250. Part One of this series is called “The Pursuit of Happiness.” Dr. Gene Leach, Trinity Professor of History and American Studies presents this talk which weaves historical documents and artistic works of the time period in a deep dive into the mindset of those who drafted the Declaration of Independence.
Many Puritans settled in New England and many Quakers settled in Pennsylvania seeking salvation-eternal happiness in the next world. But these religious folks sought to improve their lives in this world too, as did all other voluntary migrants to British America. Colonists and then Americans avidly pursued the earthly happiness of ensuring they always got enough to eat, of rising in society, above all of owning fertile land in a continent so lavishly stocked with it. Their America was “a place where they might have liberty and live comfortably.”
This series of lectures will explore how the Revolutionary generation-Noah Webster’s generation-defined the purposes and prospects of their new nation. Noah will make occasional appearances; he played a considerable part in creating a distinctive national culture. But the talks won’t foreground him, nor will they bask in nostalgia for a simpler, more hopeful age. Studies of the past inevitably reflect the present; they can also illuminate paths into the future. While focusing on Revolutionary Americans’ thinking about the promise of the United States in its childhood, we will consider as well how much of their vision has survived, how much ought to be preserved, and why
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