1. The Religious Awakening (Again) Maybe we hit the snooze button the first time around (pages 266-273)

2. A Second Great Awakening (early to mid 1800’s)  Many Protestants concerned over “growing immorality”  Revivalist preachers – wanted to revive/reenergize religion in US  Evangelical mov’t – high energy and emotional – played on “mob mentality”  Debate over church/state relationship

3. African-Americans/Slaves  Welcomed by some northern evangelical churches  Established their own churches  Slaves  Offer of an afterlife in paradise was appealing

4. New Religious Groups  Mormons  Led by Joseph Smith (NY)  Church membership expanded quickly  Bigamy – controversial belief (no longer part of Mormon church – now only with some LDS)  Group structure made them fairly wealthy and politically influential  Kept moving west, led by Brigham Young, founded a number of towns  Unitarians – viewed God as a trinity  Viewed as a “liberal” movement

5. Discrimination  Focused on non-Protestants  Roman Catholics  Fear of loyalty to pope before country  Connected with poor Irish immigrants  Jews  Also often barred from political office  1840’s increasing number of Jewish immigrants  Also targeted by Nativist groups

6. Transcendentalism  Part of the Utopian Movement  Believed that people could “transcend” their senses and reach a higher understanding of the world and God  Harmony with nature was the path to enlightenment, not religious doctrine/dogma  Emphasis on the power and awe of nature  Ralph Waldo Emerson  Henry David Thoreau – wrote on civil disobedience as well

7. Creation of an American Culture  Webster’s dictionary – standardize American English  Hudson River School of Art