At the time of the Second Great Awakening, America was a society full of changes in many subjects. The start of the nineteenth century began to criticize controversial topics and social tensions between groups. These contributions caused disputes that would transform into reforms for the minorities facing inequality. The new denominations, women, and slaves experienced discrimination from others for their statuses in society. First, branches of Christianity expanded during the Awakening, and, in turn, the rest of the world hated them for their beliefs. Conservatives saw blackwoods worshippers as crazed lunatics, yet the “possessed” cared little for other’s opinion of them. Hatred spread to the Mormons the most because of their questionable …show more content…
Slaves and free blacks had the worst experiences out of all minority groups. Slaves contributed the most to America’s economy, but they reaped the least benefits for their hard work under their white planter oppressors. Auctioneers ripped children out of their mother’s arms and husbands away from wives, splitting families apart. Some people tried to send slaves to Liberia in hope of clearing the population, yet this practice ceased due to the increasingly low numbers of participants giving slaves away. White males kept free black away from work and travel to ensure their own chances of attaining jobs. Many slaves turned to Christianity to gain feelings of hope from the stories of freedom in The Bible. Abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison contributed to the anti-slavery movement by writing books or newspapers like The Liberator to express ideas of freedom for African Americans (Shi and Tindall, 399). The Underground Railroad helped slaves run away from owners and travel to Canada where blacks were free; many slaves escaped using this method instead of taking the chances of being caught in a rebellion. Those who were pro-slavery used examples of how slaves made America prosperous to influence others to accept the acts. John Calhoun even stated that slavery was a “positive good” for the economy because America was built on agriculture, and the nation would go to ruin without it (John Calhoun, “Slavery as a Positive Good”). Slavery continued until the second half of the nineteenth
During the 1800’s, those who saw social prejudice or corruption started many reform movements to correct the difficulties in America. The Second Great Awakening really helped shape the United States into a religious nation and paved the way through the reform movements, while stressing individual choice that caused an uprising in denominations leading to followers by the masses. Antislavery abolitionism became a movement mostly because of influence from the religious revival that was taking place, and demonstrating to all of those religious that slavery is a sin. Reformists of the antislavery movement transformed their thoughts forward of equality to all people, no matter their race.
The American Revolution was a time of political turmoil that took place between 1776 and 1783. During this time, the thirteen American colonies had rejected British monarchy and aristocracy, overthrew Great Britain, and founded the United States of America. There was a minority of uncertain size that tried to stay neutral in the war. For the most part they kept a very low profile, but a handful of people in Nova Scotia did not. There are many factors that played a role in Nova Scotia’s decision to stay neutral during the war, such as the geographical location, and the level of control Britain had over the colony.
The Great Awakening strived to erase the lines between religions by promoting religious pluralism and the concept that all faiths were equal. Primarily, the separation of Church and State was finally in place, which showed the opposition to allowing religion facilitate the decisions of their nation. The Awakening weakened the cultural authority of the upper class and produced a vision of a society drawn in more equal lines. Overall, the thought of finally being equal unified the colonies and created universities that were not controlled by the Church. The new universities promoted different types of curriculum which was not based on religion.
Thomas S. Kidd wrote the book “The Great Awakening A Brief History with Documents” in a format that allows its readers to study history the way historians do. The book is broken down into two parts. The first part is a detailed introduction of what happened during the The Great Awakening. The second part includes and explores 36 primary source accounts from this era. These primary source accounts range from pastors’ sermons to the spiritual experiences of slaves, Native Americans and farmers, among others.
An intense religious movement called, The Great Awakening, occurred in the 1730’s and 1740’s. This movement started in Colonial America, which originally came from a town named Northampton located in Massachusetts. Two preachers whose name’s are, Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield both called Northampton home. Between these two men and their belief that the only thing that could save us humans, from the eternal fires of hell, was The Lord’s mercy. This had a massive affect on the colonists of America, due to there spiritual beliefs coming to end for the past century.
The Great Awakening additionally inspired believers to follow their own beliefs despite what the church believes. Lastly, the Great Awakening challenged the right of civil authority to get involved in all matters of religion (7). Colonies were also created with religion in mind. For example, Maryland was created by Cecilius Calvert as a safe place for Catholics in 1634. Then in 1649, the Catholic leadership passed a religious toleration law.
The Second Great Awakening was like the first, a religious renewal for protestant churches in the United States. The Second Great Awakening opened open doors for many reform movements. Two movements influenced by the Second Great Awakening the temperance and abolitionist movement. The temperance movement was a social movement that capitalized the personal moderation drinking of alcohol. The abolitionist was the abolishment of slaver.
In the wake of the second Great Awakening in the early 1800’s, societal morals regarding slavery, lack of rights for women, the prison system, education, and other institutions were questioned. Unitarianism stressed salvation through good works, and both religious converts and transcendentalists initiated social reform movements in an attempt to improve the moral state of America. Two of these movements that included perhaps the most controversy and struggle included abolitionism and women’s rights. Although both the abolitionist and women’s rights movements were able to eventually create lasting societal and political change, the fact that only a small portion of the population had any democratic rights showed the initial weaknesses of American democracy.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, American society began to focus on the welfare of minority groups. Women’s suffrage and abolition were rooted as deeply as the history of America, but asylum and prison reform sprouted with the Second Great Awakening, a movement that occurred in the early 1800s. The Second Great Awakening was led by religious leaders who advocated for changes in American society through the unity of the American people (Doc. Due to the Second Great Awakening, reform movements were established between 1825 and 1850 in order to represent the changes the people sought for in the issues of slavery, suffrage, and asylum and prison reform. The social aspect of the abolition movement led to the visible democratic changes in society and politics.
People had both the right and the duty to make whatever changes were necessary to come up with a new government or new reforms to that government to better serve their needs. This is basically was the mindset of the people who believed that reform was need in society. The Second Great Awakening refers to a period of religious revivals at occurred in the United States in the 1830s. After this period, many reform movements took place to better serve society and the people in it.
Slavery, the War on Black Family While slavery in America was an institution that was started over 400 years ago, the affects were so horrific that it is still felt today by modern day African Americans. Many families had to deal with the constant stress of being sold which made it difficult to have a normal family life. Slaves were sold to pay off debts, an owner dying and his slaves were sold in an estate sale, or when an owner’s children would leave the home to begin a life of their own, they would take slaves with them. Often times, children were not raised by their parents, other family members of someone designated to watch the children because the mother and father had to work long hours and the children were too young to join them.
In the book Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome written by Dr.Joy DeGruy she explains how the past events in American history has lead to post traumatic slave syndrome. She explains that the way African Americans were treated during the slave era and after has had an everlasting effect on African Americans. The book goes on to describe how America has been denying its past and has not helped to integrated and level all the playing fields for African Americans. The book brings to light how we can try to contribute in making America a fair and equal place for all as most claim it to be. Through the book DeGruy talks about the four major contributing factors for the reason why America is the way it is.
Reform movements sought to expand democratic ideals in the years 1825 to 1850. These reform movements ranged from religion to women’s rights. While some movements were a success there were failures as well such as nativism and utopias. They failed to exemplify to democratic society. The reform movements were ignited by the Second Great Awakening.
Some of those events include the Second Great Awakening, Northwest Ordinance, “King Cotton”, and the north favoring tariff. The Second Great Awakening was a series of religious revivals based on Methodism and Baptism and mainly attracted women, blacks, and Native Americans. The Second Great Awakening was the cause of the radical abolitionism who were activists against slavery. This helped create the divide between the north and south. The Northwest Ordinance defined the process where new states could be admitted into the Union from the Northwest territory.
Slavery was a major part of the american way of life, but there were many causes of the resistance to it. Even though many states in the United States opposed and are resisting the act of slavery, many events had a big impact on the ending of slavery. The second great awakening, industrial revolution, and abolishment movement are underlying forces of growing opposition to slavery in the United States from 1776 to 1852. The opposition and abolishment of slavery changed american history.