Religion and the “Great Awakenings”

Puritan HeritageThe “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

Abolitionism

William Lloyd Garrison

Frederick Douglass

Reformers inspired by the Great Awakening

• Women’s Rights

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Susan B. Anthony

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