4.10 APUSH

PERIOD 4: 1800-1848

TOPIC 4.10: THE SECOND GREAT AWAKENING

Overview
  • The Second Great Awakening was a religious revival that occurred approximately between 1800 and the mid-1830s.
  • It was a reaction to several factors.
Causes of the Second Great Awakening

  1. Growing Emphasis on Democracy:

    • During the American Revolution, there was a focus on ideas of individual liberty and reason (Enlightenment).
    • Traditional forms of religious practice weakened.
    • By the turn of the century, only a small proportion of white Americans were members of formal churches.
    • Ministers complained of the “decay of vital piety.”

  2. Reaction to Rationalism/Deism:

    • Religious traditionalists were concerned about the emergence of new “rational” religious doctrines like Deism that reflected modern, scientific attitudes.
    • Relatively few Americans ascribed to these beliefs, but they still played a key role in sparking the Second Great Awakening.
    • Deism, which had originated in France among Enlightenment philosophers, attracted educated Americans like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.
    • Deists accepted the existence of God but believed that, after creating the universe, he had withdrawn from direct involvement with the human race and its sins.
    • Unitarianism and Universalism also rejected the traditional Calvinist belief of predestination.
    • This was another idea that alarmed religious traditionalists

  3. The Market Revolution:

    • There was fear that growing industrialization was leading to more greed and sin in American society.
    • The Market Revolution led to disruption and mobility, causing people to seek worship settings outside of traditional churches in cities.
The Movement
  • The Second Great Awakening began as a reaction to the slipping position of traditional religion in America. They wanted to fight the spread of religious rationalism
  • Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists all found success, especially on the frontier and in areas growing because of the Market Revolution.
  • By the early 19th century, there was the greatest surge in evangelical fervor since the First Great Awakening nearly a century earlier.
  • The message of itinerant preachers was that individuals must readmit God and Christ into their daily lives and reject the rationalism that threatened traditional beliefs.
  • The Second Great Awakening also rejected the idea of predestination in favor of personal, emotional salvation for all (democratization!) through faith and good works (work ethic!) leading to the growth of Baptists and Methodists.
  • In the first three decades of the 19th century, there was incredible success.
    • For example, in 1831, church membership increased by 100,000.
    • In Rochester, NY, church membership doubled in just 6 months.
  • New York became a key location for revivalism.
  • Charles G. Finney, one of the most effective of the charismatic evangelists of the Second Great Awakening, had such an impact on towns along the Erie Canal that it became known as the “burned-over district” because of its frequent “hell-and-brimstone” revivals.
  • New religions like Mormonism began in this region.
  • The Second Great Awakening coincided with the development of the Market Revolution.
  • Americans in this period migrated in increasing numbers, and young Americans moved from home in pursuit of economic gains in greater numbers than ever before.
  • These movements drew Americans away from their traditional churches and towards a different connection to their religious faith
Impacts of the Second Great Awakening

  1. New Roles for Women:

    • One of the striking features of the Awakening was the preponderance of women involved.
    • Female converts far outnumbered male converts.
    • Women in this period felt particularly responsible for the Christian education of their children, which fell within their separate sphere (cult of domesticity).
    • Increased religious enthusiasm led to women involved in a new range of activities, from charitable societies to missionary organizations to reform movements.
    • The Oneida County Female Missionary School, for example, raised more than $1000 per year to support religious revivals in the “burned-over district”.

  2. Impact on African Americans:

    • Revival meetings attracted people of all races.
    • Because of revivals, a group of black preachers emerged who became important figures within the black community.
    • Among enslaved African Americans, religious revivals translated into a call for liberation, at times sparking slave rebellions (like Nat Turner’s 1831 rebellion in VA).

Key Takeaways:

  1. The rise of democratic and individualistic beliefs, a response to rationalism, and changes to society caused by the market revolution, along with greater social and geographical mobility, contributed to a Second Great Awakening among Protestants.
  2. This Second Great Awakening increased the religious participation of women and African Americans, while also sparking more involvement in social reform movements to improve American society, which was undergoing drastic changes due to industrialization, the market revolution, etc.