Essay On The Second Great Awakening

In Antebellum America, gender roles were an important factor in how society ran socially and politically. A middle to upper class woman in the North would rarely be seen outside her home. Women were to be submissive, fragile and stay inside the bounds of their private sphere, which was the home. Men were to be the breadwinners, masculine, and politically engaged. Gender roles in the South were somewhat different than that of the North, but were still heavily patriarchal.

The Great Awakening and Enlightenment were two very different cultural phenomena that happened during the 1700s but they both had a similar effect on colonial society. The Enlightenment was based on reason, science, rationality and progress. Benjamin Franklin, an Enlightenment thinker from Pennsylvania, believed that science could benefit society. Other Enlightenment thinkers had rational views of God and viewed him as a clockmaker that controlled the universe.

The great awakening and the enlightenment are similar in many ways but different in others. One way they are both similar is that they both defy traditional authority. Another way is that it taught them to seek truths for themselves. This shaped their beliefs. However they still had many differences.

In conclusion, the Enlightenment was vital to the American Revolution and the creation of American Government. The Enlightenment beliefs that influenced the American Revolution were natural rights, the social contract, and the right to overthrow the government if the social contract was violated. The Enlightenment beliefs that aided to the creation of the American government were separation of powers, checks and balances, and limited government. As stated before, without the Enlightenment there would not have been a revolution, resulting in no American Government. The Enlightenment’s influence on the creation of America is irrefutable.

The Great awakening took place in the 1730s and ended in about 1743. The leaders of the great awakening were James Davenport, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and Gilbert Tennent. The great awakening led to the development of democratic thought as well a free press and to pass on information

“I will give Mr. Freeland the credit of being the best master I ever had, till I became my own master.” –Fredrick Douglass. The fight for the end of slavery was an issue that eventually tore the United States into two parts. Antebellum America was a period of conflict and unease due to the various differences in beliefs regarding slavery between the northern and southern states. However, American abolitionists provoked sympathy and outrage of southern slave ideals by using the rhetoric of natural rights and the Declaration of Independence, illustrating the contradiction of Christian values to slavery, and criticizing how domestic ideology conflicted with slavery.

Women’s Role in Beowulf Beowulf is the epic poem in the Old English Literature and it gives some information about Anglo-Saxon society. According to qualities of heroic poem, there are many beliefs that women has not play important role in the men-centered poem. Apparently, it might seem not to include any information about role of women but women play major role in the society and epic poem draws a picture of women’s effect and it gives some clues about role of women in the Anglo-Saxon society. “Even if, they are not as dominant as kings and heroes of the Anglo-Saxon society, their roles are also important in holding the society together. When men fight against enemies, women’s duty to keep the household intact and act as ‘peace-weaver’ or ‘healers.”

Domesticity is the ideology that one’s home should be distinct from the rest of the world, and that these separate spheres should be associated with gender roles. Moreover, a man’s role should be to work outside the home and a woman’s role should be to stay in the home to offer the family emotional and moral support. The cannon of domesticity developed in New England after industrialization and the market economy emerged in the mid-nineteenth century. Domesticity developed after industrialization because many people, presumably men, went to work outside the household, as opposed to doing labor near the home. Therefore, the cannon of domesticity served to counter the ideals of the working world, which were seen as corrupt and exploitative, by calling for women to uphold the traditional values of family and morality in the home.

The Enlightenment began with the English philosopher John Locke. It was an era of spreading faith in reason, in reason, and in universal rights and laws (The Enlightenment in Europe). The ideas that were embodied by Enlightenment were life, liberty, and property. It also led to the idea of natural right. The Enlightenment influenced the way people finally realized that divine right wasn’t right and start to doubt it.

Everyone has at least one identity or characteristic in which they identify. Identities can aid someone by allowing them to have more opportunities in life, while other identities can limit them. Some common identities that can significantly affect the opportunities and options in one 's life are gender, race, and religion. Throughout history, society has seen certain identities as more desirable than others. In European history, society had certain expectations of citizens and would systematically oppress those that did not fit into the mold of the perfect citizen.

In the 1800’s women were expected to do all of the housework, take care, and educate children, while men were out doing labor work. Women were trying to find their freedom during this time while still doing their jobs. The Cult of Domesticity was important because it showed the tradition of women which was staying at home and doing all of the housework. They did not have the same rights as men did and were not allowed to do many things, such as voting. During this Market Revolution, the economy had changed in a way that most people made things to sell and used that money to buy what they needed.