Second Great Awakening

The Second Great Awakening was an 18th-century religious movement that swept across America. This movement would forever change the course of American history. It led to educational reforms, women's rights movements, and more. What caused the Second Great Awakening to Happen? What did it affect? Who were the leaders? Let's jump in and unpack the Second Great Awakening!

Second Great Awakening Causes

The Second Great Awakening dates back to the 1790s and lasted into the 1850s. Most Americans during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were a denomination of Christianity. Congregationalists, Episcopalians, and Quakers were the most popular branches. They had many members but their churches were slow-growing.

In the late 1700s, lawmakers decided that the American government would not support churches with state funds. America did not have a national church so Americans could practice whatever denomination of Christianity that they wanted to. This gave smaller denominations a chance to compete with larger ones.

With a rise in industrialization, people began to believe that their successes and failures were their faults. If someone worked hard then they would succeed but if they did not then they would fail. This idea became a core principle of the Second Great Awakening. They believed that their salvation was in their own hands, they just had to ask God for forgiveness.

Participants in the Second Great Awakening romanticized older forms of Christianity. They liked the simplicity of it. The Christianity of their time was Calvinism and Deism. Calvinists believed in pre-destiny and that God had already decided who would or wouldn't get into heaven. Deists, like Thomas Jefferson, believed that God made the world and then left it. Deist did not believe in the supernatural or miracles.

Americans began creating a shared sense of self. This idea of "self" excluded anyone different from them like Deists and Calvinists. While the "others" were still American they were looked down on by the Americans who were considered the norm. This kind of inclusion and exclusion is called nationalism.

Fig 1: Jefferson Bible

Second Great Awakening Summary

The Second Great Awakening began when Methodist and Baptist preachers started traveling to spread their version of the bible. These traveling preachers were called circuit preachers because they would preach for multiple church groups along their circuit.

The preachers would hold sermons at camp meetings. These meetings could last a few days or an entire week! Preachers would give exciting sermons where they used plain language and hand gestures for emphasis. They would memorize their sermons so that their full attention could be on the attendees.

Missionaries would travel even further west to hold camp meetings for settlers on the New Frontier. They would travel to South Carolina, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. They also went to Native American tribes to try and convert them.

Fig 2: Camp Meeting

In the South, Great Awakening preachers originally gave sermons on equality, no matter the race or gender of the person. This upset the white men who oppressed these minority groups. Southern preachers began to remove those parts from their sermons. This caused a split between Northern and Southern Baptists and Presbyterians who couldn't agree on these issues.

Slave owners allowed preachers to give slaves sermons on suppression and servitude. While slaves did convert, they saw God as the warrior god who freed the Israelites. They thought if he could free them, then he could free us. Free black men and slaves began preaching to one another. This lasted until the Turner Rebellion which resulted in slaves being forbidden to preach or learn to read. Black people no longer received trials and had harsher punishments.

Second Great Awakening Leaders

Charles Grandison Finney

Charles Finney preached in the Burned-over District. This district of New York earned its name because of the number of people that it drew to the sermons along the Erie canal. Finney was an abolitionist and gave women more freedoms in his church than they would get in others.

Fig 3: Map of the Burned Over District in New York

Lyman Beecher

Lyman Beecher was an abolitionist and a teetotaler. Teetotalers were a part of the Temperance Movement that was meant to criminalize the drinking and selling of alcohol. Beecher was a preacher and a professor. His son would become a preacher and abolitionist and his daughter wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin.

John Rodgers

John Rodgers was a Presbyterian minister who encouraged his followers to help the less fortunate people around them by donating and volunteering. His teachings influenced New York merchants to create the Humane Society.

Second Great Awakening Significance

The Second Great Awakening led to the Women's Suffrage Movement (women's right to vote), the Abolitionists Movement, education reforms, and the Temperance Movement. Without this religious wave, America would be very different.

Effects of the Second Great Awakening

With the division of Northern and Southern churches, a divide between the North and South continued to grow. While Northern churches taught about abolition Southern churches preached that slaves be submissive to their masters. The division that grew between the North and South would continue to grow until the Civil War.

Women were not given space in political communities nor did they have jobs. They filled this lack of community with religion. During the Second Great Awakening, white women were allowed to pray during the same meeting as men, something that had not been done before. They could also vote on church manners. When they were no longer allowed to vote they organized and created movements like the Women's Temperance Organization and the Women's Suffrage Movement.

Fig 4: Temperance Songs used at the Women's Temperance Organization

The Temperance Movement aimed to illegalize alcoholic drinks. The problem was that alcohol was necessary because the water was not safe to drink. Teetotalers popularized other ways to safely drink water that did not involve alcohol.

Churches founded schools to teach children to read so that they could read the bible. The schools only met three days a week but this decreased the number of people in America who could not read.

First Great Awakening Vs Second Great Awakening

The First and Second Great Awakenings were very different. Let's look at the below chart to compare the two.

The First Great Awakening had a realistic understanding of the world versus the Second which romanticized older forms of Christianity. The First Great Awakening was full of Calvinists who believed that God had already decided who would and would not get into Heaven. The Second believed in free will, that only you can decide if you go to Heaven or Hell.

The First Great Awakening would use fear tactics to scare people into believing how they wanted them to. The Second was more relatable to the everyday person. The First focused on reforming people who were already Christian while the Second focused on societal reform.