Literature of the usa. Colonial period literature

Questions

1. 
   What features are characteristic of American Enlightenment?
   
2. 
   Who were the outstanding writers of the time?
   
3. 
   Why is the period of Enlightenment also called the Age of Reason?
   
4. 
   What were the progressive ideas of the time revealed in literature?
   

1^ Henry Hudson – English navigator, made two voyages to America in 1609-1611 hoping to find a sea path to China. He was the first to discover what is now Hudson River. On his second voyage his crew rose in mutiny, put their captain and his son in an open boat in Hudson Bay and left them there to perish.

2^ most meet – suitable to the conditions or situationtheocracy – a system of government in which the laws of the state are made by priests because they are supposed to be the representatives of god

3^ squatter – one who settles on land without official rights to ownership

4^ Deism – belief in existence of a Divine Being which reveals itself in nature and not in religious dogma