1. The Great Awakening and the Enlightenment in the Colonies
TWO GREAT MOVEMENTS
The Great Awakening and the Enlightenment in the Colonies

2. The Enlightenment
Science and mathematics begin to overthrow ideas of religion and miracles.
Earth is not the center of the universe as expected.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
Rejection of religion
These ideas traveled from Europe to the Colonies
BEN FRANKLIN- Obtain truth through experimentation and reason
Lightning Experiment!
New ideas led to new ways of thinking, and new inventions

3. Power of reason  Transform society  Advance knowledge
ENLIGHTENMENT
These new ways of thinking also led to alternate ideas…ideas of Revolution.
Power of reason  Transform society  Advance knowledge
John Locke: Life, Liberty, and Property
Question the authority of Britain over the colonies
Certain individual rights of every individual
Literacy rates were higher than in England, allowed for a more expansive spread of thought.
The Enlightenment transformed society; put an emphasis on liberty, democracy, and religious tolerance.

4. The Great Awakening
Jonathan Edwards- wanted to revive intense Puritan thought and practices
Church attendance is not enough for salvation!
You must feel sinfulness and God’s love.
“The God that holds you over the pit of Hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; … and yet it is nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment.”

5. AWAKENING
Travel from village to village, asking people to re-dedicate themselves to God.
George Whitefield- attracted thousands at meetings
Brought many colonists into organized churches—also challenged the authority of churches.
Abandoned churches, refused to pay taxes
Increased interest in higher education
Questioning of traditional authority…
What is right and wrong?
Who can tell me what to do?

6. HOW DOES THIS PROMOTE AN AMERICAN IDENTITY?
Opposed the notion of a single truth or a single church. As preachers visited town after town, sects began to break off larger churches and a multitude of Protestant denominations sprouted
The social effect of multitudes of new denominations was not, however, a fracturing of communities, but a unifying drive which helped to create a “national consciousness”
The chain of authority no longer ran from God to ruler to people, but from God to people to ruler—challenged British monarchy
Ideas of liberty and democracy went into the hearts and minds of all colonists.