An "Awakening" Road Trip
Sarah Grace Ritter and Jacqueline Ma
About our Trip (a Brief Introduction)
The Second Great Awakening was a decades long series of religious revivals that spread throughout the United States of America and inspired people everywhere to amend their lives and address their sufferings. From 1800 to 1850, during this growth of new Christian denominations, the changes of the Second Great Awakening such as a new emphasis on personal piety and action intended to benefit society contributed to the formation of a national identity.
Stop 1: Cane Ridge, Kentucky
Look at all these people! We're standing at the largest gathering so far, with around 20,000 people all listening eagerly to a moving evangelical minister in 1802. This camp gathering shows the significance of the rise of evangelicalism, one of the key forces of the Second Great Awakening. Evangelical churches placed an emphasis on individual piety for achieving salvation; evangelical denominations were more accepting of both unchurched individuals and pious families than early American religious groups such as traditional Calvinist churches had been before. These camp meetings offered religious fellowship to all, developing a new element of a more egalitarian religion, focused on personal piety, to America's national identity.
Cane Ridge Meeting House Historical Sign
Cane Ridge Refurbished Meeting House
Depiction of Cane Ridge Meeting
Stop 2: Richmond, Virginia
He speaks of an uprising! In 1800, preachers Gabriel Prosser and his brother Martin Prosser plotted a slave rebellion in African American revival meetings. Although the rebellion was unsuccessful, its message shows the significance of the Second Great Awakening to African Americans. As Evangelical leaders continued to spread Christianity among African Americans, supporting a new emphasis on social reform and equality, African Americans increasingly converted and adapted Christian teachings to their needs. These revivals inspired slaves to call for freedom, as leaders such as Gabriel and Martin told Africans to prepare themselves spiritually for emancipation. African Americans participation in the Second Great Awakening, their demonstration of an emphasis on the ability of individuals to amend their own lives, displays the formation of a new national identity.
Stop 3: Oberlin, Ohio
Our next stop is Oberlin College, the first American college to accept women and African Americans as students. Here, we'll find Charles G. Finney, one of the most famous Presbyterian ministers and leaders of the Second Great Awakening. Finney served as president of Oberlin College from 1851 to 1866, actively pursuing advances in social reform and education because Finney, like several other Evangelical leaders, believed in spreading Protestant Christianity to people of all races and genders, including women and African American slaves. Finney promoted social reforms such as the abolition of slavery and equal education for all people, contributing to America's new national identity of religious-influenced social equality and activism.
Stop 4: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Here, we listen to a sermon given by Reverend Ezra Stiles Ely, urging Philadelphia Presbyterians to create a "Christian party in politics." Reverend Ely hopes the United States will become an evangelical Christian nation committed to religious conversion both at home and abroad. This sermon displays the significance of the Second Great Awakening to America's national identity because it connects religion to political life and activism. The popular religious revivals of the awakening encouraged people to use religion not just as a form of salvation, but as an important new force in political and social life, which Reverend Ely demonstrates here in his sermon, "The Duty of Christian Freemen to Elect Christian Rulers."
Stop 5: New York City, New York
Let's visit the American Bible Society, founded in 1816, that publishes and distributes the Bible to promote and enhance Christian education. This society, one among five interdenominational societies, worked to foster cooperation among denominations and to help all people participate in a religious lifestyle. These societies show the new idea of religious sensibility, that improving society was a key component of being a devout Christian. By creating religious education institutions, Protestant Christians worked together to better society by expanding peoples' exposure to religion and education. The American Bible Society shows a new emphasis on action intended to better society that contributed to a national identity during the Second Great Awakening.
Stop 6: Middlebury, Vermont
Let's see one of the academies founded by Emma Willard, the first American advocate of higher education for women. The Middlebury Female Seminary in Vermont, opened in 1814, is one of several schools created by Emma Willard. Emma Willard shows how religious activism advanced female education; she is just one example of a religious individual who believed in social reform and set up schools to better society for all genders and races. Churches themselves sponsored academies for girls to receive intellectual and moral instruction. The religious denominations of the Second Great Awakening improved the education and position of middle class women, forming a national identity based on the new belief in action intended to better society.
That's the End, folks! Hope you enjoyed your trip!
URLs for Visuals and Sources
Visuals:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bqsaPu_q91U/TaXVuKQRM-I/AAAAAAAAAE8/5s9RXRPJJ9s/s1600/manifest+destiny.jpg
http://www.therestorationmovement.com/images/Cane_Ridge_Signa.jpg
http://www.westuchurch.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/cane-ridge-revival.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Ezra_Stiles.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5d/American_Bible_Society_logo.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Charles_g_finney.jpg
http://www.hmdb.org/Photos/5/Photo5315.jpg
http://figures.boundless.com/7236/full/prosser-gabriel.jpeg
Sources:
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1091.html
http://www.ushistory.org/us/26a.asp