THE SECOND GREAT AWAKENING: ( –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: ( ) –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: ( ) –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: ( ) –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: ( ) –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: ( ) –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: ( ) –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: ( ) –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: ( ) –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: ( ) –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: ( ) –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