The Second Great
Awakening and the
Transcendentalists
A Changing Religious Climate
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Rational Religions
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Born from the Enlightenment
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Located in New England and influenced Intellectual life in
America
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Deism
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Rejects the belief that god interacts with or assists
humankind
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Rejects the belief of a stern vengeful god, Divinity
of Jesus and literal interpretation of the bible
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Belief in the Humankind’s Inherent Goodness
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Many Founding Fathers were Deists
Unitarianism
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Rejects the Trinity and predestination
Universalism
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All humans will eventually be saved
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Focused more on the working-class people
The Second Great Awakening
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Intense series of religious revivals in the United States from
1790s-1840s
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By 1800 most Americans considered themselves
“Religious”
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Freedom and anti-authoritarian religious sentiment
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Resented traditional religious structures and practices
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Believed that all could be saved - Free Will
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Evangelism (public preaching and personal witness)
became central focus
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Focused on “expressive” religious experiences
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Speaking in Tongues, Holy Tears or Laughs,
Trances, Tremors, Fainting, etc…
Decline of Old New World Religions
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Puritanism
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Congregationalists
Anglicanism
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Episcopalians
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Rise of New Protestant Religious Traditions
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Baptists
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Focused on adult baptism
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No church hierarchy, ministers not trained
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Each church was its own highest authority
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Bible was infallible
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Women instrumental in religion
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Ministered and recruited African American
Methodists
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Founded by John and Charles Wesley
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Church hierarchy, ministers trained
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Women instrumental in religion
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Ministered to and recruited African
Americans
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Richard Allen
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African Methodist Episcopal (AME)
Church
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Two Patterns of Revivalism
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Intellectual Revivalism in New England Universities
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Timothy Dwight
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President of Yale College
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Spark Revival among students
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Trained ministers took revival to cities and towns
across the US
Frontier Revivalism in the backwoods of the United States
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Two Religious Phenomena
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Backwoods Circuit Riders
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Unmarried preachers who would travel from town to
town giving sermons and baptize converts
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Francis Asbury - circuit was 15 states
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Peter Cartwright - Sermon a day for 20 years
Camp Meetings
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Festival like atmosphere
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Large revival meetings which lasted days or
weeks
Plural religious actives would all day and night
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Unifying events - brought together diverse people
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Different Classes, Races, Religions, etc…
The Burned-Over District
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Western New York - Intense Revival Activity
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Many different congregations and religions had
overlapping circuits
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Charles Finney - Methodist
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Sought to democratize salvation in the
same style Jackson democratized
politics
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Free-Will: the individual chooses to
be saved
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100,000 converts
Used tactics and theatrics adopted
by politicians to gain converts
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Attracted more affluent
converts
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Focused on social issues,
including slavery
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Wanted to reform human
society
The Mormons
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Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
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AKA = Mormons
Originated in Burned-Over District
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Joseph Smith = Founder
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Interests = Buried Treasure, Folk Magic, Occult
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Vision of Angel Moroni - 1823
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Golden Tablets = Lost gospel of the bible
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Urim and Thummim = Seer Stone to Translate
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Told Smith all churches are false, and to start his
own
Charismatic Religious Leader
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Founded “one true” religion (claim many new religions
were making)
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Quickly gained 1000s of converts
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Opposed Slavery
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Denied existence of hell
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Adopted Polygamy
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Anti-Authoritarian
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Reject Original Sin
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Believe Jesus visited new world after
resurrection
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Believed Native Americans punished for going
against gods will
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Saints vs. Gentile
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Smith denied legitimacy of civil governments and the
US Constitution
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Refused to pay taxes
Closed community with secretive belief combined with
assurance of righteousness = upset neighbors
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Mormons driven from community after community
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Palmyra NY (1830), Independence MO (1839),
Nauvoo IL (1845), finally settled in Salt Lake
City in 1847
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Believe Independence Mo is Garden of
Eden
Joseph Smith and brother Hyrum killed by antiMormon mob on June 27, 1844
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Jailed for destroying opposition paper
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Gentiles demanded justice
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Stormed jail cell
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Brigham Young inherits Mormon leadership
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Brigham Young
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Twenty-Seven Wives and Fifty-Six Children
Needed to find location where Mormons would
not face persecution
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Went to Mexico’s northern barren desert
around Great Salt Lake (modern Day Utah)
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Efficient Irrigation System
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Made the Desert Bloom
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Demonstrated settlement of “Great
American Desert” is possible
War with Mexico gave Utah territory to US
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1869 - 80,000 Mormons settled in Utah
Territory
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January 4, 1896 = Utah become state
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Mormons abandon polygamy to
become state
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Today Utah is center of
Mormonism
Transcendentalism
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Transcendental Club
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Group of public intellectuals
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Rejects reason’s ability to explain all things
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“Transcends the limits of reason”
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Nature = Created by the divine and represents the divine
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Ralph Waldo Emerson
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High priest of Transcendentalism
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Dial - groups journal
Preached the sacredness of nature, self-reliance, and
individuals unlimited potential
Henry David Thoreau
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Opposed to Slavery
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Opposed Mexican American War
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“Civil Disobedience”
Supported John Brown
Wrote “Walden”
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Nature is a living bible
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People must follow their own conscience