Answer:
Because it emphasized human reason, the Enlightenment led to the establishment of colleges and libraries in Europe and America. These institutions usually served a tiny elite, but newspapers and pamphlets made science and literature available to the masses.
What was striking is that some African Americans, whose advantages were far more limited, also became scientists and authors.
Most African Americans who gained intellectual distinction during the late eighteenth century owned more to the Great Awakening than to the Enlightenment. The best known of these is Jupiter Hammon, a Long Island slave who published religious poetry in the 1760s. But Phillis Wheatley and Benjamin Banneker, who were directly influenced by the Enlightenment, became the most famous black intellectuals of their time.
