Rise of Democratic Beliefs and Individualism (College Board AP® US History): Study Guide

Causes of the Second Great Awakening

The Second Great Awakening was a reaction to heightened secularism in society. It was a rejection of more formal and traditional Christian beliefs. This period of spiritual revival would, in time, lead to various reform movements, including abolitionism, women’s rights, and temperance. 

The Second Great Awakening

• The Second Great Awakening was a protestant religious revival movement from 1795 to 1835 

• It emphasized personal salvation, and soul-searching

• It called for social reform including:

  • the abolition of slavery: equality of spirit regardless of race

  • temperance

  • women’s rights, including suffrage

  • prison reform

  • care for people living with disabilities and mental illness

The three phases of the Second Great Awakening

1795−1810: frontier camp meetings

• Tens of thousands of people attended camp meetings

• Baptists, Methodists, Shakers, and a few other small religious groups organized the meetings

• The camps were extended services that usually lasted three to four days

• The services included:

  • preaching

  • prayer meetings

  • singing hymns

  • weddings and baptisms

• The attendees believed that individuals controlled their salvation

  • It was no longer in the hands of God alone

• They believed in treating others fairly and controlling individual urges

• Key names: James McGready, John McGee, and Barton W. Stone

1810−1925: New England Congregational churches

• This was a more conservative phase

• The Churches believed that success came through the works of the Holy Spirit

• They converted people who became new church members

• Sometimes a single preacher held a revival, other times groups of preachers did

• Revival meetings included preaching, praying, and visiting with people

• They believed in not expressing excessive emotions

• Key names: Timothy Dwight, Lyman Beecher, Nathaniel W. Taylor, and Asahel Nettleton

1825−1835: Revivals moved from small towns to large cities

• Charles Grandison Finney left the practice of law after having a religious conversion and became an evangelical minister

  • He had a direct and personal style, and preached so that his listeners experienced emotion

• Finney used techniques called “new measures” that led to disagreement among more conservative ministers

  • The new measures included that he:

    • prayed for people by name

    • allowed women to pray and participate in revivals

    • encouraged people convicted of crimes to participate

    • promoted visiting people at home instead of only building community at church

    • had periods where he held services each evening for weeks

    • taught theology at Oberlin College in Ohio

    • published books on revivals and theology

  • Finney held frequent revivals in New York City as well as Philadelphia and Boston

Other features of the revival movement

Circuit Riders

• Circuit Riders were Methodist or Methodist Episcopal preachers who brought revival sermons to those in outlying communities

• The circuit riders had to be:

  • young

  • healthy

  • unmarried

  • able to ride a horse

• They often held services outdoors or in cabins or bars

• Each circuit rider served a circuit for one year before being assigned to another area, this:

  • meant they were able to use the same sermons in a new location

  • kept riders from getting to know the people in an area and wanting to permanently settle there

The Burned-Over District

• The Burned-Over District was an area of upstate New York that people from many different belief systems moved through during the Second Great Awakening, including:

  • Baptists

  • Methodists

  • Mormons

  • Evangelicals

  • Spiritualists

  • Shakers

  • the Oneida Community

• It was called “burned over” because the religious groups came into towns (like a fast-moving fire), quickly converted many people to their ways of thinking, and then left the area

More Leaders of the Second Great Awakening

Harry Hosier

• Hosier was the first Black Methodist preacher in the United States

• He could not read so he repeated hymns to learn them

• Hosier’s “Barren Fig Tree” sermon (Virginia) was the first sermon in the nation preached by a Black person

• In 1784, Hosier gave a sermon in Delaware which was the first sermon a Black person gave to a white congregation

Richard Allen

• In 1816, Allen founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church

• He brought congregations from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland together

• Allen was the first bishop of the church 

Jarena Lee 

• Lee was the nation’s first African-American woman preacher

• She was also the first woman the African Methodist Episcopal Church recognized as an evangelist

• Lee was the first Black woman to publish an autobiography

William Miller

• Miller preached that Jesus Christ would soon arrive in his bodily state

• It is estimated between 50,000 and 100,000 people believed in his views

• He thought the present world would end about 1843 

• When 1843 passed, his followers set other dates

• By 1845, Miller and his followers still believed Christ would soon arrive, but they no longer gave a date