• THE SECOND GREAT AWAKENING: (286-287– Rapid social changes transformed the

United States at the beginning of the 1800s

– In response, many Americans turned to religious faith for directions

– Second Great Awakening – as early as the 1790s a renewed and passionate interest in religion, known as the Second Great Awakening, began to develop in towns in upstate New York

– This evangelical movement quickly spread throughout New England, to Kentucky, Ohio, and beyond the frontier regions farther south and west

• THE SECOND GREAT AWAKENING: (286-287)– Huge crowds gathered at services

during the Second Great Awakening.

• They listened to thunderous sermons, sang hymns, and sought God’s help in reforming their lives.

• Many participants in these large religious gatherings known as revivals, came away convinced of the possibility of attaining moral perfection, both for themselves and for society

• THE SECOND GREAT AWAKENING: (286-287)– Revival ministers expressed what

many people felt at the time. This was a need for deep religious faith and an optimistic belief in an individual’s ability to achieve eternal salvation and to improve his or her life.

– This optimism was fueled in part by changes in the Untied States such as economic growth and the expansion of democracy

• THE SECOND GREAT AWAKENING: (286-287)– This religious enthusiasm

sparked changes in Protestant Congregations

• The emotional, intensely personal sermons of evangelists during the Second Great Awakening appealed to many ordinary people

• The revivalists’ promised that salvation could be attained by everyone who repented their sins also encouraged numerous religious converts

• Denominations – religious groups

• THE SECOND GREAT AWAKENING: (286-287)– African Americans and white

women participated widely in the Second Great Awakening.

– Female converts outnumbered males 3 to 2

– Women often led prayer groups, established and taught in Sunday schools, and supported missionary societies

– One Methodist, African American woman, Jarena Lee, traveled hundreds of miles to preach sermons to both black and white worshipers

• THE SECOND GREAT AWAKENING: (286-287)– African American men and women

joined Baptists an Methodist churches in large numbers. They formed their own churches as well

– In 1794 Richard Allen founded in Philadelphia one of the first African American churches in North America

• He founded the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church. The African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church soon expanded and developed into it own denomination

• THE SECOND GREAT AWAKENING: (286-287)– In the South, the spread of

revivalism among enslaved African Americans met with a mixed reaction among slaveholders.

• Some slaveholders encouraged their slaves to convert to Christianity. Others, however, believed that Christianity might encourage the idea of equality an thus incite rebellion among slaves

• NEW RELIGIONS AND UTOPIAN COMMUNITIES: (287-289)– The optimism that inspired revivals

also led men and women to establish entirely new religious groups.

• Some founded UTOPIAS – communities designed to create a perfect society

• More than 90 such communities sprang up in the United States between 1800 and 1850

• These communities experimented with new ways of organizing family life, property ownership, and work

• NEW RELIGIONS AND UTOPIAN COMMUNITIES: (287-289)– THE SHAKERS (288)

• The United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing – or SHAKERS, as the group came to be known from their tendency to shake their bodies during worship – founded communities in the eastern United States.

• Shakers first arrived in America from Great Britain in 1774, led by Ann Lee.

• Ann Lee, known as Mother Ann, claimed to be the messiah who came to found a society free from sin

• NEW RELIGIONS AND UTOPIAN COMMUNITIES: (287-289)– THE MORMONS (288)

• Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or Mormons, undertook one of the most enduring utopian ventures

• Founder Joseph Smith claimed that divine assistance had enabled him to discover and translate buried gold plates that contained religious teachings

• Published his translations in the Book of Mormon

• NEW RELIGIONS AND UTOPIAN COMMUNITIES: (287-289)– THE MORMONS (288)

• The Mormons emphasized hard work and community, but some principles provoked strong opposition

– Non-Mormons were particularly outraged by the Mormon practice of plural marriage, in which a man could be married to more than one woman at the same time

– This opposition to Mormon practices often led to violence

– Nevertheless, the Mormons endured. Under the leadership of Brigham Young, thousands of Smith’s followers crossed the Rocky Mountains.

– They founded successful settlements in the Great Salt Lake valley, in territory that belonged to Mexico at that time

• TRANSCENDENTALISM: (290)– Transcendentalism – the belief that people

can transcend, or rise above, material things in life to reach a higher level of understanding

– Human beings could approach perfection as they acquired knowledge about God, themselves, and the universe

– Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau were all Transcendentalists

– Many transcendentalists began as Unitarians – members of a religious reform movement that originally areas among New England Protestants in the late 1700s

– Unitarians rejected most Puritan beliefs such as predestination. They also believed people could become perfect