Chapter 3 Review:
-The Great Awakening was an early burst of American Populism
-caused shift between secular and sacred.
-The awakeners shifted the bias—the political tilt—of colonial politics
-through creation of millions of religious sects
-The Great Awakening—with its mobs, revivals, reforms, and intimations of the Second Coming—had
propelled the colonists toward the revolution of 1776
-evangelical challenges led directly to political upheaval and clashed with Puritan ideas
-New lights v. Old Lights
-the quest for salvation remakes politics and society
-direct assault on two fundamental principles: ministerial authority and the covenant community
organized around a congregation
-in many places these movements became class-based events (this wild/rebellious behavior
aroused the idle or ignorant persons and those of the lowest rank)
-Two great American faiths came into conflict: the Puritan work ethic clashed with the tumult of
evangelical revival (old hierarchy vs. brimstone and fire preaching faith in salvation)
-hellfire roused a social movement that posed a threat to the established order
-Primed for conflict: the Old Lights struggled to defend the traditional authority and its way of life
-Old Lights (Puritans) sought to defend ability to control life and others.
-this conflict flowed into politics
-difference in religion yielded political factions through creation of congregations and sects
-gathered political power and turned to secular issues
-Great Awakening (1) allowed individuals to take control of their own spiritual yearnings and (2) bore
what would prove to be the classic features of American populism
-populists begin by rejecting lazy institutions—they would replace unresponsive organizations with
direct participation by the people
-the struggle for popular participation introduces new organizations and transforms old ones
-Different than Europe: roused rebellion—moral upheaval spilled into the political realm and
transformed colonial politics
-put their faith in local autonomy—no state authority to prop up the religious status quo so populists
could remake American religion
-consequences: new churches, new universities, new communities, new factions, and new political fights
Questions:
 Why are we talking about Puritans?
 Why did this social movement pose a threat to the established order?
 How did this social movement combust into a revolution in 1776?
 What is the Puritan Legacy?
 How is the American Puritan Legacy different than Europe’s?
 What were the consequences of this religious fervor?
 What does “Puritans All” mean to you?
 How did the Great Awakening lead to Populism?
 How can we define salvation?
 Did the GA lead to anarchy?
 Did the GA level the playing field between religion and politics?
o Where does the separation of church and state come into question?
 Were the Puritans the cause of this turmoil based upon their focus of total control?
 How did the religious fervor legitimize the challenge to established authority?
Chapter 4 Review:
-The First Great Awakening primed Americans for their revolution; the Second lit the long fuse to the
Civil War
-people who were barred from party politics—like women and slaves—flung themselves into the
business of salvation (mainly seen on the Western front)
-The quest for God set America on a corkscrew path toward abolition, civil war, and black liberation
-prime battle between western (screaming itinerants) vs. eastern (grave Yale divines) revivals
-both wanted to bring a kind of liberal individualism to the nation’s religious life
-pushed four moral innovations: throw out Calvinism/predestination, people responsible for their own
souls, pushed religion into the vernacular, and personal disciplines of sobriety, piety, and hard work
-Second Great Awakening vision: destiny had passed from divine volition to the people’s free will
-fulfilling the scriptures required spreading three reforms to all of humanity: universal land
reform, representative government, and rights of conscience must prevail over religious
despotism
-if America was going to reform the world, virtue had to triumph on every level of society
-but, all the high moralizing eventually had to face up to American slavery
-contributing issue was improving its neighbors.
-the millennial search for God was changing American society in two very different ways: the revival
fostered individualism, egalitarianism, and a faith in historical progress versus the revival kindled
the hoary American passion for uplifting the neighbors (redemption must include everyone)
-Great Awakening moved black communities in two very different ways: (1) religion taught submission
and justified slavery and (2) religion stirred moral outrage, inspired slave rebellions, and
fostered the first network of black institutions in the US
-the churches became the political and cultural heart of the black (slave) community; the network of
churches summoned a cadre of black leaders promising salvation, redemption, and freedom
-the threat of slave uprisings seemed greater in US because black and white lives were more fully I
ntertwined (eg: Nat Turner’s Rebellion)
-Nat Turner rebellion had pushed legislators to ask: what role would slavery—and black people—play in
the commonwealth?
-idea of race mixing
-idea of colonization
-idea of white Manifest Destiny
-consequences: reorganized civic culture, restored American vision to the entire world, land reform,
representative government, recruited new kinds of activist (women clubs and black churches)
which questioned political order
Questions:
 How did the revivals reorganize American morals for a new era of broad markets and mass
democracy?
 What was the goal of the Second Great Awakening?
 How did religion hinder and help end slavery at the same time?
 What role did white Manifest Destiny play during this time?
 What were the consequences of this religious fervor?
 Why did the GA push religion into the vernacular?
 What role did religion play for the slaves at this time, at how were the whites responsible
for this?