An American revolutionist, political philosopher, historian, poet, playwright and founding mother of the United States of America, Mercy Otis Warren was one of the most important insurers of the success of the American democratic experiment. Her legacy resides in her force of insight in challenging both the excesses of British rule and the incompleteness of the Constitution as it was first written. Her greatest hope was that freedom would encourage virtue; her greatest fear was that leaders would become removed from the people, and that both would become enslaved by greed. Her stature, genius, and intellectual energy is reflected particularly in two of her writings, History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American …

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Citation: Dykeman, Therese Boos. "Mercy Otis Warren". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 March 2011 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4611, accessed 31 October 2024.]

4611 Mercy Otis Warren 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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