Dec. 1, Second Great Awakening

What a “Great Awakening” Is

  • Religious revivals in American history.

  • First Great Awakening: rejection of predestination; emotional sermons; individuals can build their own relationship with God.

  • Second Great Awakening: similar revival, but focused on moral reform.

Why the Second Great Awakening Happened

  • Early 1800s: US expands west (to Rockies + Florida).

  • Era of Good Feelings: no major foreign threats; one political party; country looks inward.

  • Rapid industrialization + cities growing fast.

  • Large immigration → social problems more noticeable.

  • People drifting from churches → revivals try to pull them back.

Why Only Protestants Had Revivals

  • Catholic Church has a single leader (the Pope) → little structural change.

  • Protestant denominations had local control → easier for ministers to start revivals.

Where It Happened

  • Mostly in the North.

  • South = plantations, long distances, church not a central part of daily life → less revival impact.

Key Leader

  • Charles Finney = main figure of the Second Great Awakening (like George Whitefield in the first).

  • Emotional preacher; large crowds.

Core Message of the Second Great Awakening

  1. Fix your own relationship with God first.

  2. Fix your moral behavior.

  3. Then go into society and fix moral wrongs.

This leads directly to reform movements.

Major Reform Movements Created

1. Women’s Rights Movement

  • Before this: small pushes (e.g., Abigail Adams).

  • Women slowly gaining roles through:

    • Republican Motherhood (mothers educate future voters).

    • Teaching (public taxpayer-funded schools).

    • Lowell factory girls (work until marriage).

Main Goal: Women’s suffrage (right to vote).

Key Event

  • Seneca Falls Convention (1848) in Seneca Falls, NY.

  • Elizabeth Cady Stanton organizes it after being denied entry to a world anti-slavery convention in England.

Key Document: Declaration of Sentiments

  • Modeled after the Declaration of Independence.

  • Claims men have created “absolute tyranny” over women.

  • Lists abuses:

    • No voting.

    • No voice in laws.

    • Property + wages become husband’s after marriage.

    • Women legally treated like minors.

    • Husbands legally allowed to beat their wives.

Outcome

  • Beginning of organized women’s movement.

  • Women don’t get the vote until 1920 (19th Amendment).

2. Prison Reform

  • At this time:

    • Criminals, mentally ill, and children all jailed together.

    • No separation based on age or mental state.

Key Reformer

  • Dorothea Dix → pushes to separate mentally ill from criminals.

  • Leads to creation of mental asylums (good intentions but become abusive later).

Juvenile Justice

  • Movement toward separate juvenile systems.

  • Debate continues today (e.g., charging minors as adults).

Death Penalty Debate (from lecture)

  • Two common pro–death penalty arguments:

    1. It's cheaper.

    2. It deters crime.

  • Both proven false:

    • Death row is more expensive (appeals, legal fees).

    • States with death penalty do not have lower murder rates.

3. Abolition Movement (beginning of anti-slavery reform)

  • Emerges out of the Second Great Awakening because slavery is seen as a moral wrong.

  • Charles Finney calls slavery the greatest sin in America.

  • Makes many enemies in the South.