ipl-logo

Causes And Effects Of The Second Great Awakening

530 Words3 Pages

Cause and Effect Essay Although the Second Great Awakening was immediately caused by heightened religious fervor, and although it left the country with many Christian denominations, the acts of leaders such as Charles Finney had more influential causes, and reform movements had more powerful effects on the United States. The first spark of the Second Great Awakening was lit when President Thomas Jefferson, in the early 1800s, acknowledged the “wall of separation between church and state,” the budding republican ideal that politics and religion should not interlock. By coining this phrase, Jefferson was ridding the country of state-controlled established churches that expected loyalty from all citizens, thus paving the way for religious freedom. Also, Jefferson identified as a deist, which was a recent and nontraditional religious orientation that rejected divine revelation and focused on nature to reveal God’s scheme for the universe. Subsequently, the Awakening commenced to muster speed in the 1820s, when the preaching of Charles Finney could be heard throughout the unyielding burned-over district, which flowed with the bracing waters of religious revivalism. The burned-over district was located on the Erie …show more content…

After the Awakening, African American religious participation increased abundantly, adding ambitious fire to the amplifying abolition advancement and inspiring Northerners to fight slavery. In addition, women were tremendously involved and began to obtain jobs such as prayer leaders and preachers, leading to the women’s rights movement that was instituted with the signing of the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions at the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention. Temperance was also an effect of the Awakening, as Americans began to view abstinence from alcohol as religious observance. Congress members agreed to the temperance pledge, and the Army cancelled alcohol

Show More
Related

  • How Did The Great Awakening Affect Colonial Life

    200 Words  | 1 Pages

    Regardless of a colony’s religious situation, whether they allowed complete freedom of worship or were occupied by strict religious laws, all thirteen colonies were affected by a movement called the Great Awakening. Generally, the Great Awakening is characterized by a fervent revival in religion practice. Although, this movement had a major impact on most aspects of colonial life, it is important to note the effect it had on religion and how that in turn affected the political life of the colonist. Because of The Great Awakening, many ministers lost authority the authority they held over because more people were taking to studying the Bible in their own homes. This idea would have larger implications for the future.

    Read More

  • Gordon S. Wood Analysis

    326 Words  | 2 Pages

    Both Nathan O. Hatch and Gordon S. Wood address the changes America endured by 1850 in their excerpts, however each differ in their explanations. Hatch claims that the most important movements were religious and those religious movements effected and evoked other ideas of politics, standards, and culture. Then, Woods suggests that population and economic changes caused alterations in countless areas of American life, including religion. Both defend contradicting reasons for people coming together and becoming a unified, American force. The countless religious movements during 1780 to 1850 all support Hatch’s argument.

    Read More

  • How Did Sojourner Truth Play In The Anti-Slavery Movement?

    324 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the 1800’s, those who saw social prejudice or corruption started many reform movements to correct the difficulties in America. The Second Great Awakening really helped shape the United States into a religious nation and paved the way through the reform movements, while stressing individual choice that caused an uprising in denominations leading to followers by the masses. Antislavery abolitionism became a movement mostly because of influence from the religious revival that was taking place, and demonstrating to all of those religious that slavery is a sin. Reformists of the antislavery movement transformed their thoughts forward of equality to all people, no matter their race.

    Read More

  • Comparing The Market Revolution And The Second Great Awakening

    571 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Market Revolution and the Second Great Awakening both dramatically shaped the individual stories of Elijah Pierson and Robert Matthews. When the Market Revolution brought Elijah from New Jersey to New York, his life was a lot different than what he was used to. Elijah had come from a town where everyone attended church and where social hierarchy was unproblematic. At a young age he learned that “God had placed men and women into families and social ranks, then governed their destinies according to his inscrutable Providence” (15). However, when he moved to New York, few people attended church and homelessness was seen all over the streets.

    Read More

  • How Did The Great Awakening Affect Society

    128 Words  | 1 Pages

    The awakening prompted changes in the value of politics and daily life, which enabled America to

    Read More

  • Examples Of The Second Great Awakening In The United States

    809 Words  | 4 Pages

    Second Great Awakening: The Second Great Awakening was an Evangelical Protestant revivals that swept over America in the early 19th century. The movement began around 1790 and gained momentum by 1800 and after 1820 membership rose rapidly among the Baptist and Methodist congregation whose preacher led the movement Fugitive Slave Law 1850: The Fugitive Slave Law was passed in 1850. this federal law made it easier for slave owners to recapture runaway slaves; it also made it easier for kidnapper to take free blacks.

    Read More

  • Similarities Between Transcendentalism And The Second Great Awakening

    228 Words  | 1 Pages

    Transcendentalism is a highly competitive world of the market revolution which strongly encouraged the identification of American freedom without any restraints on people who were seeking financial improvement and personal development. It was a world in which regional developments along with the market revolution crushed traditional and social borders. For example moving from one place to another was a common characteristic of the American life. Transcendentalism believed in individual judgment over existing social traditions and institutions.

    Read More

  • The Second Great Awakening

    820 Words  | 4 Pages

    “Independence, free will, and personal effort are considered primary virtues that contribute not only to personal achievement but also to the success and well-being of the nation.” This quote, stated by Charles Finney, means that people must be able to choose for themselves and make their own decisions in order for the country to become better than it is. The Second Great Awakening began for several different reasons, consisted of many different church revivals and leaders, and ultimately had a lasting impact for several more years after the end of the Second Great Awakening. There were several different factors that led up to the Second Great Awakening. Some such factors are listed by Richard Kaplan in his article titled, The Second Great

    Read More

  • Essay On Abolitionism And Women's Rights Movement

    713 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the wake of the second Great Awakening in the early 1800’s, societal morals regarding slavery, lack of rights for women, the prison system, education, and other institutions were questioned. Unitarianism stressed salvation through good works, and both religious converts and transcendentalists initiated social reform movements in an attempt to improve the moral state of America. Two of these movements that included perhaps the most controversy and struggle included abolitionism and women’s rights. Although both the abolitionist and women’s rights movements were able to eventually create lasting societal and political change, the fact that only a small portion of the population had any democratic rights showed the initial weaknesses of American democracy.

    Read More

  • The Second Great Awakening: The Women's Suffrage Movement

    308 Words  | 2 Pages

    At the beginning of the nineteenth century, American society began to focus on the welfare of minority groups. Women’s suffrage and abolition were rooted as deeply as the history of America, but asylum and prison reform sprouted with the Second Great Awakening, a movement that occurred in the early 1800s. The Second Great Awakening was led by religious leaders who advocated for changes in American society through the unity of the American people (Doc. Due to the Second Great Awakening, reform movements were established between 1825 and 1850 in order to represent the changes the people sought for in the issues of slavery, suffrage, and asylum and prison reform. The social aspect of the abolition movement led to the visible democratic changes in society and politics.

    Read More

  • Thomas Jefferson Research Paper

    834 Words  | 4 Pages

    Thomas Jefferson desired a democracy where governmental decisions would not be affected by religious beliefs and biased views of the situation. Thomas Jefferson viewed separation of church and state here is some of his insight on the topic, “...legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, ' thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties” (Thomas Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists). Jefferson became the sole author for the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which became the the most important religious separationist papers of the 1700’s. Jefferson’s ideas and writings for separation of church and state helped to form the American Enlightenment period, and to further his ideals based upon his

    Read More

  • Second Great Awakening Dbq Analysis

    858 Words  | 4 Pages

    People had both the right and the duty to make whatever changes were necessary to come up with a new government or new reforms to that government to better serve their needs. This is basically was the mindset of the people who believed that reform was need in society. The Second Great Awakening refers to a period of religious revivals at occurred in the United States in the 1830s. After this period, many reform movements took place to better serve society and the people in it.

    Read More

  • Education In The Second Great Awakening

    1330 Words  | 6 Pages

    The Second Great Awakening, beginning in about 1790, influenced a reform movement that encouraged mandatory, free, public education. In 1805, the New York Public School Society was created by wealthy businessmen and was intended to provide education for poor children. In 1817, a town meeting in Boston, Massachusetts called for establishment of free public primary schools. Many wage earners opposed this proposal. Josiah Quincy, mayor of Boston, supported the idea that education should be a priority by saying, “(By) 1820, an English classical school is established, having for its object to enable the mercantile and mechanical classes to obtain an education adapted for those children whom their parents wished to qualify for active life, and thus

    Read More

  • Second Great Awakening Dbq

    773 Words  | 4 Pages

    At the time of the Second Great Awakening, America was a society full of changes in many subjects. The start of the nineteenth century began to criticize controversial topics and social tensions between groups. These contributions caused disputes that would transform into reforms for the minorities facing inequality. The new denominations, women, and slaves experienced discrimination from others for their statuses in society. First, branches of Christianity expanded during the Awakening, and, in turn, the rest of the world hated them for their beliefs.

    Read More

  • Opposition To Slavery Dbq

    1069 Words  | 5 Pages

    This connected free blacks and the churches from the north, which also helped develop and promote black churches. “An African American ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church, visits your town in order to obtain pecuniary aid to enable him to purchase the freedom of his wife and children…” (Doc C). The second great awakening also helped whites to stop thinking about themselves but about others and what there country stands for. Garrison published the “Declaration of Sentiments of the American Anti-Slavery Society” (with a point of view of an abolitionist) to influence the growing opposition to slavery.

    Read More

More about Causes And Effects Of The Second Great Awakening

Open Document