Transcript Second Great Awakening - Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High

Bien, Zachary
Period-3
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The American Revolution had largely been a
secular affair.
The Founding Fathers clearly demonstrated
their opposition to the intermingling of
politics and religion by establishing the
separation of church and state in the first
amendment to the Constitution.
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In part because religion was separated from
the control of political leaders, a series of
religious revivals swept across the United
States from the 1790s and into the 1830s
that transformed the religious ideologies of
the country.
◦ Known today as the Second Great Awakening, this
spiritual resurgence fundamentally altered the
character of American religious beliefs.
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By the late 1700s, many Americans no
longer regularly attended church services.
◦ This change in church attendance can be
contributed to:
◦ Some people believing that God did not play an
important role in everyday life.
◦ People believed that God also supposedly was not
concerned with a person's church attendance
 Rather, God would judge the person on how he or
she had lived his or her life on Earth.
◦ Also people had become too consumed with
earning a living to have time to worship God.
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The Second Great Awakening was sparked
by Presbyterians in many eastern colleges,
and was most evident in Yale under the
college president Timothy Dwight.
 The new awakening ideologies spread
throughout America and became most prevalent
in the western regions of the nation.
As a result of declining religious convictions, many
religious faiths sponsored religious revivals during
the Second Great Awakening in an attempt to
emphasize human beings' dependence upon God.
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The churches that embraced the revival- most
prominently were the Methodists, the Baptists,
and the Presbyterians. Memberships in these
churches increased greatly during this time
period.
 Methodism which was founded by John Wesley in
England spread to the Americas in the 1770s and
quickly became the fastest growing denomination in
America.
 The Baptists experienced an avid following in the
South during this time period.
 By 1800 the revivalist energies of all of these
denominations combined to contribute to the
greatest surge of evangelical fervor since the first
Great Awakening, 60 years earlier.
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Most of the religious revivals during the
Great Awakening occurred as camp
meetings.
◦ Camp meetings also served as social gatherings.
Many Americans living on the frontier did not
have regular contact with their neighbors
therefore the revivals allowed these people an
opportunity to hear God's word, but they also
provided rural families an opportunity to talk and
trade with other people.
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At Cane Ridge, Kentucky, in the summer of
1801, the first “camp meetings” were held.
 Some of these meetings consisted of over 25,000
individuals in attendance and the meetings commonly
lasted a duration of several days.
 The Methodists used the large attendance that “camp
meetings” provided to bring new members to the
church.
Cane Ridge, Kentucky
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The Second Great Awakening is best known
for its large camp meetings that led
extraordinary numbers of people to convert
through an enthusiastic style of preaching
and audience participation.
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A young man who attended the famous 20,000-person
revival at Cane Ridge, Kentucky, in 1802, captures the
spirit of these camp meetings activity by stating:
“The noise was like the roar of Niagara. The vast sea
of human beings seemed to be agitated as if by a
storm. I counted seven ministers, all preaching at one
time, some on stumps, others on wagons ... Some of
the people were singing, others praying, some crying
for mercy. A peculiarly strange sensation came over me.
My heart beat tumultuously, my knees trembled, my lips
quivered, and I felt as though I must fall to the ground.
This young man was so moved that he went on to
become a Methodist minister.”
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The revivals of the Second Great Awakening
encouraged people to return to God.
◦ Americans should dedicate their lives to God and
to living in a Godly manner. As a result, church
attendance increased during the first half of the
nineteenth century.
◦ A desire to reform America also arose among the
people.
◦ Attempts to limit alcohol consumption and to
abolish slavery came directly out of the Second
Great Awakening and its message.
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Message of the Second Great Awakening
 Individuals must readmit God and Christ into their
daily lives.
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The efforts of the Second Great Awakening did
not restore the religious ideas of the past.
 Few people continued to believe in the idea of
predestination and other ideas that arose during the
Protestant Reformation that were carried to the
Americas.
 The Second Great Awakening instead advocated for
a life of strong faith in God and full of good works.
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The Second Great Awakening increased the
growth of various sects and denominations
resulting in the increased acceptance of
various Christian faiths among people
within a particular society.
 Also provided an identity to many societies that
previously were searching for both order and
social stability in America.
 During the Great Awakening women disovered a
foundation which to build their lives around.
 As a result of the expansion of industrial work
within the household, the opportunities for
women to socialize out of the home decreased
even further; as a result religion became a
popular method of socialization and activities.
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Many African Americans embraced the
ideologies of the new religious fervor.
From this period arose a group of black
preachers, who eventually became
important figures within the slave
community.
The religious fervor of the period stirred
racial unrest in the South and led to slave
revolts.
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The widespread ideologies of the Second Great
Awakening created a sense of crisis among the
Eastern Indian tribes in America.
 The Indians blamed their troubles on the white
man (European colonists) during this time
period.
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Perhaps the most influential preacher of the Second Great
Awakening was Charles Finney.
◦ He began to spread his message in western New York
during the early 1820s. In 1835, he became a professor of
theology at Oberlin College in Ohio. He eventually served as
Oberlin College's president.
◦ Finney was an influential Presbyterian minister during the
Great Awakening. Advocating and promoting his beliefs in
regards to social reforms, such as the abolition of slavery
and equal education for women and African Americans.
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The Second Great Awakening marked a
fundamental transition in American
religious life.
◦ The belief in predestination was less supported
and individuals now embraced a more optimistic
view of the human condition.
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Finally, the Second Great Awakening also included
greater public roles for white women and much
higher African-American participation in
Christianity than ever before.
"Religious Transformation and the Second Great
Awakening." Ushistory.org. Independence Hall
Association, n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2014.
"Second Great Awakening - Ohio History Central."
Second Great Awakening - Ohio History Central.
N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2014.
Brinkley, Alan. American History: Connecting with
the past. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education,
2012. Print.