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Second Great Awakening Essay

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The Second Great Awakening created societal reforms that was favored by many Americans. However, some Americans viewed the societal changes of the time as a threat from the revivalist way of living. The revivalist emotions created a strong abolitionist movement that conflicted with the large white supremacy of plantation owners and slave owners. As a result, the South insisted on maintaining the slave society that made the region an economic powerhouse. Throughout the years of the Jacksonian era, the South wanted to preserve the slave workforce society that made the white plantation owners so profitable. The Second Great Awakening stirred up more emotions about abolitionists, and ways to encourage the emancipation of slaves. With the advancements …show more content…

The Nat Turner Rebellion frightened the South, as slave owners feared that the slaves would rise against the whites again. Despite the Second Great Awakening furthering anti-slavery movements, the Pro-Slavery Argument was a strong vindication of the South. Southerners intended to prove that slaves were treated fairly, and that slavery was a “positive good.” In an anti-abolitionist paper of the period, Southern pro-slavery supporters urged that abolitionists were “injurious to the slaves [and] scatter[ed] discontent, and therefore unhappiness among them in their present state”. Supporters of pro-slavery claimed that abolitionists were spreading false hope to the slaves, and only disrupted their normal …show more content…

The South asserted that slavery had to happen in order to survive, and the developing markets of the North and West realized that they were dependent upon it. The white majority of the South opposed the new Second Great Awakening ideals as it conflicted with the South’s beliefs. The South persisted to promote slavery in contrast the abolitionist feelings that erupted during the Second Great Awakening.

Bibliography

Christy, David. “Excerpt from Cotton is King.” Edited by TeachUSHistory.org. TeachUS History.org. 1855. Accessed October 28, 2015. http://www.teachushistory. org/second-great-awakening-age-reform/resources/excerpt-cotton-king.

Keene, Jennifer D., Saul Cornell, and Edward T. O’Donnell. Visions of America: A History of the United States. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc., 2013.

Trott, S. “A Pro Slavery Letter by S. Trott.” Edited by TeachUSHistory.org. Cincinnati Post and Anti-Abolitionist, April 16, 1842. Accessed October 28, 2015. http://www.teachushistory. org/second-great- awakening-age-reform/resources /pro-slavery-letter-s-trott.

Walters, Ronald G. “Abolition and Antebellum Reform.” History Now The Journal of the Gilder Lehrman Institute. Accessed October 28, 2015. https://www.gilderlehrman.org/

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