In the 18th century, the Puritan heritage was changing and adapting to the „Age of Reason“. The population increased, and there were armed conflicts with the Indians and the rise of slavery. The public figures became more liberal and more political. The main tendencies and beginnings of the new American era are reflected in the thinking and work of Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790). 

In the years 1753–58, Franklin was publishing Poor Richard's Almanack under the pseudonym Richard Saunders. This annual brochure included advice on how to get money and keep it, popular proverbs and encouragement. The books gained a wide audience. Franklin believed that good work is more important than all-day prayers. Yet Franklin realized that preaching and moralizing did not have a large effect, he therefore decided to write an autobiography. where he would show on his own life what he means. He became the model of a new self-made man and this term forms the basis of the American dream. He is describing his faults, showing that nobody is perfect from nature. Virtue is something to be learned. He believed that everyone had the ability to recognize good from bad and after that,  no one can do anything seriously wrong. 

 For Franklin, the important thing was to be a good and useful citizen. This idea was elaborated in his essay “Information to Those Who Would Remove to America” (1784). America is in most aspects superior to England, yet there is still one thing lacking: the arts. As Franklin remarked in a letter to Miss Mary Stevenson (Philadelphia, March 25, 1763): 

Of all the enviable things England has, I envy it most its people. Why should that petty Island, which, compared to America, is but like a stepping-stone in a brook, scarce enough of it above water to keep one’s shoes dry; why, I say, should that little Island enjoy, in almost every neighborhood, more sensible, virtuous, and elegant minds, that we can collect in ranging a hundred leagues of our vast forests? But it is said that Arts delight to travel westward. You have effectually defended us in this glorious war, and in time you will improve us. After the first cares for the necessities of life are over, we shall come to think of embellishments. (Franklin, Works, 246) 

The writing of that time mostly reflected the struggle for independence. The main forms were thus essays and pamphlets. One of the essential concepts of Enlightenment was the rise of nationalism. As a good politician, Franklin realized that America needed well organized political and cultural life. He wanted to raise patriotic and nationalistic feelings. He was one of the members of the Continental Congress who drafted the Declaration of Independence and signed The Treaty of Alliance with France, The Treaty of Peace with England and the Constitution. 

 Political issues were also reflected in poetry. 

Philip Freneau (1752-1832) is called the poet of the American Revolution. In 1771 he published a long patriotic poem “The Rising Glory of America”, which was considerably revised in 1786. Yet he is mainly known for his early nature poems, especially “To a Wild Honeysuckle”, and “The Indian Burying Ground” and thus anticipated the poetry of William Cullen Bryant, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman. Freneau fought as a militiaman during the Revolutionary War. In 1780, he was captured and imprisoned in two British ships, where he almost died before his family managed to get him released. His poem "The British Prison Ship" is a bitter description of the cruelties of the British.

 After the revolution, American identity became a major issue addressed most famously by Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur (1735-1813). 

EARLY AMERICAN NATIONAL POETRY 

After the Revolution American writers felt the need to establish truly American, national culture. They felt it was time to become independent of Britain and Europe not only politically but also on a cultural level. Noah Webster (1758-1843) compiled an American Dictionary and readers and spellers for the schools. Webster's dictionaries are still commonly used. And the poets were determined to compose American national poems. 

HARTFORD WITS/CONNECTICUT WITS  

 Timothy Dwight, Joel Barlow, John Trumbull