Further Influences on American “Enlightenment” Thought
earlier Puritan emphasis on reading and literacy, as well as their focus on the physical world (for evidence of God's existence), made such interests possible
Native/indigenous peoples: called "merciless Indian Savages" by Jefferson in the Declaration; later termed "noble savages" (q.v. Rousseau) less out of humanist sentiment and Quaker influence than out of need to trade and make military alliances with them;