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How Did Benjamin Rush Influence The American Revolution

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Benjamin Rush was an enthusiastic patriot who played an active role in facilitating the American Revolution. Although all of the colonists originally started off loyal to King George III, there were several reasons that influenced Rush to turn against his mother country. Benjamin Rush was a strong believer in human rights. Therefore, he was impacted by the philosophy of environmentalists such as John Locke. Two other factors that made an impact on Benjamin Rush’s patriotic views were his opposition to slavery and his friendships with other patriots such as Benjamin Franklin.
Benjamin Rush was born on January 4, 1746 in Byberry Township, Pennsylvania. In 1751, his father, John Rush, passed away and so his mother had to run a grocery shop in …show more content…

He therefore obtained his Bachelor of Arts a year after he came to college. However, Rush moved back to Philadelphia and decided to study medicine. For five years starting from 1761, he served as an apprentice to John Redman and listened to lectures at the department of medicine in the College of Philadelphia, given over by John Morgan and William Shippen Jr. At this time, Rush started to write entries in his Commonplace Book. He wrote notes that are now the only first-hand description of Philadelphia’s yellow fever epidemic in 1762. Redman advised Rush to study medicine further, therefore, in 1766 Rush traveled to Scotland to learn at the University of Edinburgh, a prominent medical school. That is where he obtained some of his medicinal …show more content…

This newfound land of America gave the opportunity for a land with liberty. Rush was bothered by the fact that the British wanted to prevent America from becoming a free land. He said, “By becoming slaves, we shall lose every principle of virtue. We shall transfer unlimited obedience from our Maker to a corrupted majority in the British House of Commons.”
Revolutionarywar.net. Benjamin Rush was fervently active in the Sons of Liberty. Since he strongly believed “in the doctrine of publish or perish,” he was adamant to record and publicize his patriotic beliefs. One place where this was shown was when word of the battle at Lexington arrived in Philadelphia late in the afternoon on April 24, 1775. When Rush found out about the deaths and injuries, he was determined to publish writings aimed at persuading the public to strengthen their passion for

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