The Second Great Awakening was extremely influential in shifting the minds towards reform in people across America. The mentality of the people at this time was closed minded and had acceoted their way of living. Among other factors, Charles Finney played and important role in the success of the Second Great Awakening. “Much of the impulse towards reform was rooted in the revivals of the broad religious movement that swept the Untied States after 1790.” Revivals during the Second Great Awakening awakened the faith of people during the 1790s with emotional preaching and strategic actions from Charles Finney and many other influential preachers, which later helped influence the reforms of the mid-1800s throughout America. The Second Great Awakening …show more content…
During the mid-1800s the roles of women were considered to only be taking care of the children and the home. Only 1 in 5 women worked for wages in the workplace. Two women who fought actively for Women’s Rights were Sarah and Angelina Grimke. Angelina published An Appeal to Christian Women of the South, which told women “to overthrow this horrible system of oppression and cruelty”. Few men supported the women’s efforts for equal rights but they still continued to fight by holding national conventions. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott meet at a National Anti-Slavery Convention, which influenced them to hold a Women’s Rights Convention. In 1848 they held a national women’s rights convention, known as the Seneca Falls Convention. At the convention Elizabeth Cady Stanton created the “Declaration of Sentiments”. Proposed in the Declaration was “that all men and women are created equal”. Over 300 men and women gathered at Seneca Falls for the convention and unanimously voted for women to have the right to have equal rights as men. The Seneca Falls Convention was greatly influenced by the Abolitionist Reformation and the Second Great Awakening and truly helped women gain equal rights and prove they are just important as men. Today, women have gained many rights including the right to vote. If it weren’t for the Second Great Awakening women would probably not have most of the rights that they have
Colonial America experienced significant changes during the late seventeenth and early eighteen centuries. The most important changes included the development of cities to became the main ports, and Southern part of America was transformed to be a major contributor to colonial America’s economy. These changes resulted in the rise in population with thousands of immigrants coming in large numbers due to the growth and improvement of the agricultural estate. Following this period of economic boom, colonial America experienced two major revivals that had long-term effects on the nation with regards to religion, government, and human nature.
The Anglo-American Puritanism, Continental Pietism, and Scots-Irish Presbyterianism created the context for the Great Awakening. Puritans emphasized conversion and believed in witnessing visible sign of joining the Covenant. One needed to have a conversion experience by publicly declaring their faith and commitment. They also introduced to the Awakening Covenant renewal a process of rededicating one’s life. Continental Pietism sprung from German out of the Lutheran church.
The Second Great Awakening, was one that once again sparked religion. It helped people come together once again under the faith, uniting them. The South began to create emotional camp meeting, where 1000’s would gather in search of religion whether it came in the form of Baptism, Presbyterianism, or Methodist faith. The camps provided an outlet for rural people, and those whose lives were lonely.
The principal organizers of the Seneca Falls Convention were Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a mother of four from upstate New York, and the Quaker abolitionist Lucretia Mott. About 100 people attended the convention; two-thirds were women. Stanton drafted a “Declaration of Sentiments, Grievances, and Resolutions,” that echoed the preamble of the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.” Among the 13 resolutions set forth in Stanton’s “Declaration” was the goal of achieving the “sacred right of franchise. Overall women have been metaphorical and literally fighting for equality throughout history whether it be in a factory making war supplies in World War 1 or trying to save the lives of young soldiers in a medical tent in World War 2 or even being in the fight and killing terrorists for their county in the war on terrorism.
The Second Great Awakening The American Revolution had been known for having no religious or spiritual beliefs. This mainly was due to the separation from the control of political leaders. A number of religious revivals swept through the US from the 1790s and continued on into the 1830s. During this period of time, there has been a transformation of religion throughout the different aspects of the country.
During this tour, Jonathan Edwards said a sermon called, ¨Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” This lecture started a wave of religious fervor and began the Great Awakening. The Great Awakening caused a revolutionary movement in many ways. For example, it made it mandatory for Awakeners to mobilize, petition, organize, and it gave them political experience.
There were many major movements and goals of the antebellum reform. Before the Civil War, almost 100 reform communities were instituted. Some were democratic, others were ruled over by an interesting leader. Most of them were motivated by religion, but some had desires to reverse social and economic changes. Almost all of these communities wanted to have a cooperative society, to revive social harmony in an individualistic society and to close the growing space between the rich and the poor.
Richard Kaplan also said, “the theological belief in the potential mutability, indeed perfectibility, of people also encouraged a reforming attitude toward social institutions. Humanity and earthly society were not inherently sinful and, thus, could and should be reformed.” With the new quantity of religious people, the belief that there should no longer be sinful or unjust things grew tremendously. With this belief, people began to believe that things that needed to be reformed, should be reformed. The Second Great Awakening sparked a nationwide wave of reform movements that had a huge impact on American society throughout the 19th century.
Women had always been considered lesser than man, and had few rights compared to men. They were expected to stay home and nurture the family. In 1848, many women refused to allow their rights to be “compromised” and held the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York. One of these women was Elizabeth Cady Stanton. She played a huge role in the women’s rights movement and became one of its founders.
The first event that occurred was the Enlightenment. It occurred through the years of around 1650 to about 1700. The enlightenment opened up the eyes and the minds of the people living in the British colonies in America. The enlightenment changed the way people were thinking and gave them a sense of freedom and individualism, in this case, individualizing them selves from their British rulers. There was not much revolutionary action but the impact that John Locke’s enlightenment ideas had on people started unraveling events, one after the other to eventually lead to the revolution.
The Great Awakening was a series of religious upheavals in America that reversed a long decline into religious indifference (pg. 115). Religion would once again become a key factor in the lives of the general public. The Great Awakening swept like a wave over America and affected its regions in different ways. There was a crisis going on in Boston regarding paper money and the land banks (pg. 117). The wealthy elite of Boston believed that the Awakening would cause the general public to look away from their earthly troubles and focus on their religious revivals.
After the War of 1812 up to and past the death of Zachary Taylor in 1850, the United States was undergoing a period of cultural, governmental and social reform in which citizens were pushing for more democracy, freedoms, and rights for various groups of people. This time was called The Second Great Awakening that changed citizens’ views on religion, morals, rights and even life values, all of which were main drives for reform in areas such as women’s rights and voting, the issue of slavery, and government facilities such as
Its purpose was to bring back commitment of faith and to renew the importance of religion in the home and the business because people were living closer together in cities and working in factories and needed those religious connections again. With the growth of industrial ideas came the development of personal definition through the church inspired by the changing mindsets inspired by the Market Revolution. The preaching was exposed in large revival meetings where traveling preachers expressed their ideas to the public. These traveling preachers were called “Revivalists” and they applied the secular ideals of the Revolution, hard work and personal virtue, in religious ways. One of the most influential revivalists of the Second Great Awakening was Charles Finney.
The market revolution produced new technological advances which brought America into a new era. However, with this powerful new change reform was inevitable. The roads, canals, and trains of the new revolution changed the producers’ market into a large pool of buyers rather than only aiming to be self-sufficient. The Second Great Awakening revived many Americans in order to save them from the evils of greed centered market society. The protestant revival movement also served the purpose of reuniting split communities and saving those who could not manipulate the market for their own fortune.
The Enlightenment was a movement that shunned superstition and was more in favor with a scientific explanation of the world. The Enlightenment was also known as the Age of Reason or Age of Enlightenment. It started in Europe and America around the 17th and 18th centuries. The Enlightenment was about people who used their critical thinking skills to argue knowledge, education, politics, religion, and art. The enlightenment produced an increased number of inventions, books, scientific findings, political laws, and revolutions.