Religion and the “Great Awakenings”
Puritan Heritage
The “Great Awakening”
The “Second Great Awakening”
Reform Movements
John Winthrop- Puritan leader
• The “elect” had a Calling
from God—
“do justly, to love mercy, to
walk humbly with our
God.”
“For we must consider that
we shall be as a city
upon a hill. The eyes of
all people are upon us.”
• American
“Exceptionalism”
Puritan Ethic
“Hard work and material success are sure signs of God’s
favor.”
Theocracy- Puritans are not tolerant of
dissent in New England.
“Old Lights”
Puritan Dissent
Roger Williams leaves intolerant
MBC to found Rhode Island,
establishes Baptist church there
and calls for improved relations
with Indians
Anne Hutchinson refuses to submit
to church clergy, claims to have
direct revelation from God.
Banished from MBC, she and
most of her family are killed by
Indians in the New York area.
Great Awakening 1730-1740
• Religious revival
– reinvigorates churches
• “New Lights” direct,
emotional spirituality
– Jonathan Edwards
“Sinners in the Hands
of An Angry God”
– George Whitefield
Effects of the Great Awakening
•
Further splintering of American churches into new denominations
•
Increased missionary work among slaves and Indians
•
New Lights founded Princeton, Brown, Dartmouth, Rutgers
•
Considered the first mass movement of Americans
Phillis Wheatley
•
He pray'd that grace in ev'ry heart might
dwell,
He long'd to see America excell;
He charg'd its youth that ev'ry grace divine
Should with full lustre in their conduct
shine...
"Take him my dear Americans, he said,
"Be your complaints on his kind bosom laid:
"Take him, ye Africans, he longs for you,
"Impartial Saviour is his title due:
"Wash'd in the fountain of redeeming blood,
"You shall be sons, and kings, and priests to
God."
—Phillis Wheatley, "On the Death of Mr.
George Whitefield"
2nd Great Awakening
• Traveling preachers hold “revival meetings”
Charles Grandison Finney
2nd Great Awakening
• Message: Egalitarian
– God’s love and redemption are open to
everyone.
– People could make their own direct
connection to God.
• Many new religious sects
• Reform movements were established
Religious Sects
•
•
•
•
New branches of Baptists and Methodists
Mormans
Church of Christ
Utopian Communities
– Shakers
– Oneida
– Brook Farm
– Amana Colonies
– Harmony Society
Shaker Furniture
Reformers inspired by the Great
Awakening
• Dorothea Dix
– Prison reform
– Mental health
Reformers inspired by the Great
Awakening
• Horace Mann
– Education
– Teacher training
William Lloyd Garrison
Abolitionism
Frederick Douglass
Reformers inspired by the Great Awakening
• Women’s Rights
Susan B. Anthony
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Temperance
Anti-Saloon League
Review
• “Great Awakenings” refer to religious movements
• 1st – colonial era
• 2nd – early 1800s through 1840s
– Many new religious sects
– Inspired reformers