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General Awakening 1830

The General Awakening, or Second Great Awakening, was a religious revival in the U.S. from 1790 to 1840, peaking between 1830 and 1840, characterized by the rise of evangelicalism and significant social reform movements. Key figures like Charles Finney and Lyman Beecher played crucial roles in promoting personal conversion and social responsibility, while the movement also saw the involvement of Black preachers and the establishment of new religious denominations. Factors such as westward expansion, urbanization, and industrialization contributed to the growth of this revivalist spirit, leading to increased church membership and the abolitionist movement.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
15 views9 pages

General Awakening 1830

The General Awakening, or Second Great Awakening, was a religious revival in the U.S. from 1790 to 1840, peaking between 1830 and 1840, characterized by the rise of evangelicalism and significant social reform movements. Key figures like Charles Finney and Lyman Beecher played crucial roles in promoting personal conversion and social responsibility, while the movement also saw the involvement of Black preachers and the establishment of new religious denominations. Factors such as westward expansion, urbanization, and industrialization contributed to the growth of this revivalist spirit, leading to increased church membership and the abolitionist movement.

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Cephas Bingan
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© © All Rights Reserved
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"GENERAL AWAKENING 1830-1840"

The General Awakening, also known as the Second Great Awakening, was a complex

and multifaceted phenomenon that occurred in the United States from approximately

1790 to 1840, with a peak period between 1830 and 1840. Several factors contributed

to this awakening: The Baptists and Methodists often worked together in these

revivals. Both religions believed in free will with personal redemption. The Baptists

were highly decentralized with no hierarchical structure in place and preachers lived

and worked among their congregation. The Methodists, on the other hand, had more

of an internal structure in place. Individual preachers like the Methodist bishop

Francis Asbury (1745–1816) and the "Backwoods Preacher" Peter Cartwright (1785–

1872) would travel the frontier on horseback converting people to the Methodist faith.

They were quite successful and by the 1840s the Methodists were the largest

Protestant group in America.

Revival meetings were not restricted to the frontier or to white people. In many

areas, particularly the south, Black people held separate revivals at the same time with

the two groups joining together on the last day. "Black Harry" Hosier (1750–1906),

the first African American Methodist preacher and a fabled orator despite being

illiterate, was a crossover success in both Black and white revivals. His efforts and

those of the ordained minister Richard Allen (1760–1831) led to the founding of the

African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) in 1794.


The revival meetings were not small affairs. Thousands would meet in camp

meetings, and many times the event turned quite chaotic with impromptu singing or

shouting, individuals speaking in tongues, and dancing in the aisles.

Social and Economic Factors

1. Westward Expansion: The rapid expansion of the United States westward led to the

growth of new communities, which often lacked established churches and social

structures. The population of the United States grew from almost 4 million in 1790 to

17 million in 1840

2. Urbanization: The increasing urbanization of America created new social and

economic challenges, such as poverty, crime, and moral decay.

3. Industrialization: The Industrial Revolution brought significant changes to the

American economy, leading to the growth of factories, cities, and a new industrial

working class.

Religious Factors

1. Decline of Traditional Churches: The established churches, such as the

Congregational and Episcopal churches, were seen as formal and distant from the

needs of the common people.

2. Rise of Evangelicalism: The evangelical movement, led by figures like Charles

Finney, emphasized personal conversion, revivalism, and social reform.

3. Camp Meetings and Revivals: The camp meeting movement, which began in the

early 19th century, brought people together for intense periods of preaching, singing,

and prayer, leading to widespread conversions and revivals.


Cultural and Intellectual Factors

1. Romanticism and Emotionalism: The Romantic movement emphasized emotion,

intuition, and personal experience, which resonated with the evangelical emphasis on

personal conversio n and spiritual experience.

2. Bible Societies and Sunday Schools: The establishment of Bible societies and

Sunday schools helped to promote literacy, biblical knowledge, and moral education.

3. Abolitionist and Reform Movements: The growing abolitionist movement, as well

as other social reform movements, such as temperance and women's rights,

contributed to the sense of moral urgency and social responsibility that characterized

the General Awakening.

Some key figures who contributed to the General Awakening include:

1. Charles Finney: A prominent evangelical leader and revivalist who emphasized the

importance of personal conversion and social reform. Finney was a minister in the

Presbyterian Church, which traditionally held Calvinist beliefs. Calvinism is a

Protestant theology that includes a doctrine of predestination. Predestination is the

belief that God already knows which people are saved, regardless of any action these

saved people might take in their lives. Finney and other preachers of his time

modified the Calvinist doctrine. Finney preached that people could and should

exercise free will. He urged his followers to choose to reject sin and instead to live

morally upstanding lives. He also urged them to help others.

Finney was inspired to become a preacher after attending a revival in 1821. In turn, he

then preached at revivals. “Religion,” Finney said, “is something to do, not something
to wait for.” He also said, “Away with the idea that Christians can remain neutral and

keep still, and yet enjoy the approbation [or praise] and blessing of God.”

With these ideas, Finney became committed to social reform. He supported

temperance, which is opposition to the drinking of alcohol, and the abolition of

slavery.

Finney preached at revivals from 1825 to 1835. He began preaching in the western

frontier and then moved on to upstate New York. After his years at revivals, he

became a professor of theology and president of Oberlin College in Ohio. He

remained a preacher his entire life.

2. Lyman Beecher: A Presbyterian minister who played a key role in the development

of the evangelical movement and the abolitionist cause.Lyman Beecher helped build

the organizations that became known as the "benevolent empire" and gave religion in

America its distinctive voluntary stamp.

The son of a blacksmith, Beecher attended Yale University, where he came under the

influence of university President Timothy Dwight. Ordained a Presbyterian minister

in 1799, he plunged into the religious fervor of the Second Great Awakening. Moving

away from strict Calvinist doctrine, Beecher acknowledged that human beings were

deeply sinful, but he also taught that they also had the ability to accept God's grace, if

they decided to do so.

In 1810, Beecher became the pastor of the Congregational Church of Litchfield,

Conn. The Congregational Church was the established church in Connecticut, and it

held on to its favored status even while other state churches were being disestablished.
But in 1818, with much trepidation, Connecticut decided to end ties between church

and state. Beecher fought hard against this move and lamented the day that it was

accomplished: "It was as dark a day as ever I saw. The odium thrown upon the

ministry was inconceivable. The injury done to the cause of Christ, as we then

supposed, was irreparable."

But Beecher changed his mind and made a public about-face -- from leading defender

of religious establishment to champion of religious voluntarism. He came to recognize

that the end of the church's dependence upon the state made it a more vital, more

forceful institution. He wrote that it was:

... the best thing that ever happened to the State of Connecticut. It cut the churches

loose from dependence on state support. It threw them wholly on their own resources

and on God. ... They say ministers have lost their influence; the fact is, they have

gained. By voluntary efforts, societies, missions, and revivals, they exert a deeper

influence than ever they could by queues, and shoe-buckles, and cocked hats, and

gold-headed canes.

In 1832, Beecher moved his family to Cincinnati. Eagerly absorbing tales from

travelers who had ventured as far West as California, Beecher exalted that only then

"did I perceive how God, who seeth the end from the beginning, had prepared the

West to be mighty."

Beecher's ebullient hopes for the West reflected his brimming expectations for the

country as a whole. For Beecher, the United States was uniquely blessed by divine

purpose and endowed with a special destiny. He believed America had a duty to serve

as "a light to the nations," to demonstrate by example what other peoples can achieve.
He expressed this view in a famous sermon: "Look now at the history of our fathers

and behold what God hath wrought, ... a powerful nation in full enjoyment of civil

and religious liberty, where all the energies of men ... find scope and excitement on

purpose to show the world by experiment of what man is capable."

Beecher believed that the bright and shining promise of America would be fulfilled in

the West. Tamed and guided by religion and morality, its future would be "glorious."

But there was one problem: the growing Roman Catholic Church in America. In

1832, Beecher delivered a series of lectures and published an influential book, A Plea

for the West, denouncing the church and warning of its inevitable and corrupting

influence. In the wake of his warnings, a Boston mob, influenced by false rumors that

schoolgirls were being held captive against their will, burned the Ursuline Convent in

Charlestown, Mass.

In Cincinnati, Beecher became president of Lane Theological Seminary and poured

his prodigious energies into creating voluntary organizations dedicated to social

reform and the spread of Christianity -- the American Bible Society, American

Educational Society, American Sunday School Union, American Tract Society and

American Society for the Promotion of Temperance. The infrastructure created by

these organizations contributed to social cohesion and unity, and Beecher believed

that religious leaders should look past denominational differences to come together to

reform the nation: "With trumpet-tongue, the providence of God is calling upon

Christians of every denomination, to cease from their limited views, and selfish ends,

and to unite in the conflict which is to achieve the subjugation of the world to Christ."

3. Asahel Nettleton: Asahel Nettleton (1783-1844) was one of the great spiritual

leaders instrumental in the revival work in different areas of the eastern states during
the Second Great Awakening (1787-1843). While he never pastored a church, wrote a

book, or led an organization, "Nettleton was one of the earliest itinerant preachers

born in America to have long-term success."

Nettleton was converted at the beginning of the Second Great Awakening after a

long struggle to understand God’s sovereignty and election. His early ministry in

eastern Connecticut, where the First Great Awakening produced some disorder,

heightened his awareness of the potential dangers of some measures that can lead to

fanaticism. Nettleton combined his preaching with personal discussions with those

concerned about their spiritual state. He was greatly concerned about the "new

measures" used by Finney and his followers in revival meetings. He was afraid that

the result of those revivals will be superficial conversions based on hasty decisions,

without a thorough conviction of sin. Both Nettleton and Finney had a genuine

motivation, but their methods were different due to different theological convictions.

In conclusion, The Second Great Awakening saw a significant surge in evangelical

revivalism, leading to increased church membership, social reform, and the

abolitionist movement.
REFERENCE:

Bilhartz, Terry D. "Urban Religion and the Second Great Awakening: Church and

Society in Early National Baltimore." Cranbery NJ: Associated University Presses,

1986.

Hankins, Barry. "The Second Great Awakening and the Transcendentalists." Westport

CT: Greenwood Press, 2004.

Perciaccante, Marianne. "Calling Down Fire: Charles Grandison Finney and

Revivalism in Jefferson County, New York, 1800–1840." Albany NY: State

University of New York Press, 2003.

Pritchard, Linda K. "The Burned-over District Reconsidered: A Portent of Evolving

Religious Pluralism in the United States." Social Science History 8.3 (1984): 243–65.

Shiels, Richard D. "The Second Great Awakening in Connecticut: Critique of the

Traditional Interpretation." Church History 49.4 (1980): 401–15.

Ahlstrom, Sydney E. A Religious History of the American People. New Haven: Yale

University Press, 1972.

Armstrong, John H. Five Great Evangelists. Fearn: Christian Focus, 1997.

Beardsley, Frank Grenville. History of American Revivals, 2d ed. New York:

American Tract Society, 1912.

________. Religious Progress through Religious Revivals. New York: American

Tract Society, 1943.

Benson, Louis FitzGerald. The English Hymn: Its Development and Use in Worship.

New York: Hodder & Stoughton, 1915.

Birney, George Hugh. The Life and Letters of Asahel Nettleton, 1783-1844. Ph.D.

thesis, Hartford Theological Seminary, 1943.


Bradley, Joshua. Accounts of Religious Revivals in Many Parts of the United States

from 1815 to 1818: Collected from Numerous Publications and Letters from Persons

of Piety and Correct Information. Wheaton: Richard Owen Roberts, 1980.

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