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The Second Great Awakening (1792–1835) – The Global Fire

Second Great Awakening

Typical Camp Meeting

The Second Great Awakening was far more than a series of localized church services; it was a profound Protestant revival that fundamentally reshaped the social, political, and moral fabric of the Western world. Beginning around 1790 and reaching a sustained peak by 1800, the movement’s primary phase lasted roughly 30 years, though its cultural echoes defined the 19th century.

Characterized by intense individual salvation, emotional fervor, and a radical commitment to “perfecting” society, it transformed Christianity from a formal, inherited tradition into a vibrant, democratic, and activist faith.

A World in Spiritual Drought: The Post-Revolutionary Crisis

By the late 18th century, traditional religious institutions in the West were in a state of near-collapse. The period was often described by contemporary observers as a “spiritual drought.”

The American Frontier and Moral Decay

In the newly formed United States, the post-Revolutionary era was marked by geographic expansion and social instability. As settlers moved west into the Ohio River Valley and Kentucky, they left behind the established churches of the East Coast. The frontier was often characterized by lawlessness, heavy drinking, and a complete lack of religious infrastructure. In the East, the “Age of Reason” led many intellectual elites toward Deism—the belief in a creator who does not intervene in the universe—leaving traditional pulpits empty and congregations dwindling.

The European Shadow

Across the Atlantic, the French Revolution had sent shockwaves through the religious establishment. The rise of militant secularism and rationalism in Europe led many to believe that the “Christian Era” was coming to an end. In Britain, the industrial revolution was tearing social fabrics apart, creating a massive, unchurched urban working class. It was against this backdrop of perceived “infidelity” and moral decline that the spark of revival was struck.

The Spark: A Global Concert of Prayer

The awakening did not begin with a single sermon, but with a grassroots commitment to prayer. In 1784, John Erskine of Edinburgh re-published a plea originally written by the great theologian Jonathan Edwards: An Humble Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union of God’s People in Extraordinary Prayer.

This document called for a “Concert of Prayer,” a “visible union” where believers across different denominations and continents would commit the first Monday of every month to intercede for the “revival of religion.” By the 1790s, this prayer movement had bridged the Atlantic, creating a spiritual network that transcended national boundaries and set the stage for the coming fire.

The Theological Pivot: From Predestination to Free Will
The most significant intellectual shift of the Awakening was the popularization of Arminianism over strict Calvinism. This was not merely a dry academic debate; it changed the way people lived their lives.

  • The Rejection of Predestination: Traditional Calvinism taught that God had “elected” those who would be saved before the beginning of time. The new revivalists, however, preached that salvation was a choice available to anyone who would “reach out and take it.”
  • Democratic Faith: This matched the democratic spirit of the new American Republic. If every man had a vote in government, every man should have a “vote” in his eternal destiny.
  • Moral Responsibility: This shift placed the burden of salvation on the individual and the church. If salvation was a choice, then the church was morally obligated to provide every person with the opportunity to choose. This created an unprecedented urgency for evangelism and missions.

The Outbreak: Regional Fires and Key Figures

  1. The United Kingdom: The Industrial and Celtic Revival

The revival began in the industrial heartlands of Yorkshire in 1791. Following the death of John Wesley, many feared Methodism would fade; instead, it exploded. Within a generation, Methodist membership tripled.

In Scotland, brothers Robert and James Haldane sold their family estates to fund itinerant preaching tours, sparking “phenomenal awakenings” in the Highlands. In Wales, the revival took on a deeply musical and emotional character, with thousands gathering in open fields to sing and pray. These UK revivals were the primary catalyst for the modern missionary movement, leading to the founding of the Baptist Missionary Society (1792) and the London Missionary Society (1795).

  1. The American East: The “Rebirth of the Mind”

In the United States, the Awakening began in the prestigious colleges of the East. In 1795, Timothy Dwight, the grandson of Jonathan Edwards, became the president of Yale College. At the time, the student body was famously irreverent. Through a series of logical yet passionate chapel sermons, Dwight challenged the students to defend their skepticism. The result was a massive conversion of over half the student body, many of whom became the next generation of ministers and social reformers.

  1. The American Frontier: The Camp Meeting Phenomenon

On the frontier, where churches were non-existent, the revival took the form of the Camp Meeting. Families would travel by wagon for days to reach a central location, camping in tents for a week-long series of services.

The Cane Ridge Revival (1801) in Kentucky stands as the most iconic of these events. Led by Barton Stone, it was an ecumenical gathering of Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists. The atmosphere was electric:

  • Physical Manifestations: Participants experienced what were called “manifestations of the Spirit”—trembling, shouting, falling into trances, and “the jerks.”
  • Social Leveling: At Cane Ridge, the usual social hierarchies dissolved. Poor farmers, wealthy landowners, women, and even some enslaved people stood on equal footing in their search for grace.

 

Charles Finney and the “Science” of Revival

By the 1820s, the revival entered a new, more organized phase under Charles Grandison Finney. A former lawyer, Finney viewed revival not as a “miracle” that humans waited for, but as a result of the “right use of constituted means.” He introduced what became known as the “New Measures”:

  1. The Anxious Bench: A designated seat at the front of the meeting for those in “spiritual distress” to be singled out for prayer.
  2. Extemporaneous Preaching: Finney abandoned formal manuscripts, speaking in the common, punchy language of the courtroom.
  3. The Role of Women: Finney encouraged women to pray and testify in mixed-gender “promiscuous” assemblies, a radical move for the time.
  4. Protracted Meetings: Services were held every night for weeks on end to break down the resistance of the “unconverted.”

The Benevolent Empire: Faith in Action

The Awakening taught that a truly converted person would naturally seek to “perfect” the world around them. This led to the creation of the Benevolent Empire, a massive network of interlocking NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) that dominated 19th-century life.

Society Founded Mission
Religious Tract Society 1799 Mass-producing inexpensive Christian literature for the poor.
British & Foreign Bible Society 1804 The goal of putting a Bible in every home in the world.
American Board of Commissioners 1810 The first American overseas missionary organization.
American Temperance Society 1826 Combating the “scourge of alcohol” which plagued the frontier.
American Anti-Slavery Society 1833 Calling for the immediate, uncompensated end of slavery.

The Abolitionist Crusade

Perhaps the most significant legacy of the Awakening was its role in the Abolitionist Movement. In Britain, evangelical leaders like William Wilberforce and the “Clapham Sect” argued that slavery was a “national sin” that would bring God’s judgment. In the U.S., Theodore Weld—a convert of Finney—organized the “Seventy,” a group of revivalist-trained speakers who traveled the North spreading the message of immediate emancipation. For these reformers, ending slavery was not just a political goal; it was a religious necessity.

< h2>Radical Inclusivity: Women and African Americans

The Second Great Awakening was a “democratizing” force that empowered marginalized groups.

A New Sphere for Women

Women were the primary participants in the Awakening. While they were often barred from formal pulpits, they found unprecedented power as:

  • Organizers: They ran the Sunday Schools and the Missionary Societies that funded the movement.
  • Exhorters: In many revival meetings, women were allowed to share their “testimony,” giving them a public voice for the first time.
  • Social Reformers: The Temperance and Abolition movements gave women a platform to enter the political sphere under the guise of “moral guardianship.”

< h2>The Rise of the Black Church

The message of universal salvation and spiritual equality resonated powerfully within the African American community.

  • The AME Church: In 1816, Richard Allen founded the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Philadelphia, the first independent Black denomination.
  • Enslaved Communities: In the South, the “Invisible Institution”—the secret religious life of enslaved people—blended evangelical fervor with African spiritual traditions, creating a faith that focused on the Biblical theme of “Exodus” and liberation.

Global Reach: Beyond the English-Speaking World

While often studied as an American phenomenon, the Awakening was truly global:

  • Switzerland (Le Réveil): In 1817, Robert Haldane visited Geneva. His Bible studies with university students sparked a revival that challenged the cold rationalism of the state church and led to a missionary explosion in French-speaking Africa.
  • Germany (The Erweckung): This movement emphasized “Inner Missions”—caring for the poor and the sick within Germany—and founded numerous hospitals and orphanages.
  • The Pacific and Asia: The mission boards founded during the Awakening sent thousands of missionaries to India, China, and the islands of the Pacific, often establishing schools and hospitals alongside churches.

< h2>Conclusion and Legacy: The 1830s Resurgence

The “first wave” of the Awakening began to cool by the early 1820s, but it was followed by a powerful resurgence in the 1830s. This later phase, led by Finney in the urban North, cemented the values of the Awakening into the middle-class Victorian culture.

By 1835, the landscape of the West had been transformed. An era that began in “spiritual drought” ended with a society saturated in religious volunteerism. The movement had:

  1. Transformed the Frontier: Turning lawless settlements into communities built around the church and the schoolhouse.
  2. Launched Social Reform: Providing the moral energy for the abolition of slavery and the rise of the women’s rights movement.
  3. Democratized Religion: Making faith a matter of personal choice and individual conscience rather than state mandate.

The Second Great Awakening ensured that evangelical Christianity would remain the dominant cultural and moral force in the United States and Britain for the remainder of the 19th century, leaving a legacy of activism and “social conscience” that continues to influence the world today.

The Radical Impact: Expanding the Legacy of the Second Great Awakening

To understand how the Second Great Awakening reached the scale of a “Global Fire,” we must look deeper into the lives of the individuals who carried the flame and the specific mechanisms that turned a religious revival into a cultural revolution. Below is an expanded exploration of the movement’s most transformative facets, from the “Invisible Institution” of the enslaved to the intellectual corridors of the East.

  1. The Struggle for the American Soul: The Frontier vs. The Academy

The Awakening was a pincer movement, attacking the “spiritual drought” of the late 18th century from two very different sides: the intellectual elite of New England and the rugged pioneers of the West.

Timothy Dwight and the Intellectual Rebirth

When Timothy Dwight took over as President of Yale in 1795, the college was a hotbed of “French Infidelity.” Students jokingly called each other by the names of famous skeptics like Voltaire and Rousseau. Dwight did not ban these ideas; instead, he engaged them in open debate.

His sermon series, The Nature and Danger of Infidel Philosophy, argued that Christianity was the only rational foundation for a free republic. He turned the “Age of Reason” against itself, arguing that without a moral anchor, the American experiment would collapse into the same chaos seen in the French Revolution. Within a year, a massive revival broke out, and Yale became a “nursery of ministers” who would eventually staff the mission boards and reform societies of the 1830s.

The Circuit Riders: Methodism’s Light Cavalry

While Dwight worked the classrooms, men like Francis Asbury worked the wilderness. Asbury was the quintessential “Circuit Rider.” These were Methodist preachers who did not have a fixed church; instead, they traveled on horseback thousands of miles a year, preaching in barns, cabins, and under trees.

Asbury’s “Light Cavalry” reached people that traditional denominations ignored. Their message was simple: God loves you, Christ died for you, and you must choose today. This relentless mobility is why Methodism became the largest denomination in America by 1830.

  1. The “Invisible Institution”: African American Agency

One of the most profound, yet often overlooked, results of the Awakening was the birth of a distinct African American Christian identity. The revival’s emphasis on the “New Birth” and spiritual equality offered a radical counter-narrative to the dehumanization of slavery.

Richard Allen and the AME Church

In 1787, Richard Allen and Absalom Jones were forcibly removed from their seats at a white Methodist church in Philadelphia for praying in a restricted area. Allen realized that Black Christians needed a space where they could worship with dignity.

In 1816, he founded the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. This was the first major African American denomination in the U.S. It became more than a religious body; it was a center for education, political organizing, and a primary hub for the Underground Railroad.

The Faith of the Enslaved

In the South, the Awakening took on a more clandestine form. While white masters often used the Bible to preach “servants, obey your masters,” enslaved people focused on the Exodus story—the God who liberates the oppressed. In secret “hush harbors” (secluded woods or gullies), they blended evangelical fervor with African rhythmic traditions, creating the “Spirituals”—songs that often contained coded messages about physical and spiritual escape.

III. The Women of the Awakening: From Pews to Platforms

The Awakening provided the first major crack in the “Cult of Domesticity” that confined women to the home. Because the movement emphasized individual experience over institutional authority, women found they had a “divine right” to speak.

Phoebe Palmer and the “Holiness” Movement

Phoebe Palmer was perhaps the most influential woman in the later years of the Awakening. Her “Tuesday Meeting for the Promotion of Holiness” in New York City became a landmark. She taught that Christians could achieve “entire sanctification”—a state of heart-purity that compelled them to work for the poor. Her theology laid the groundwork for the modern Pentecostal and Nazarene movements.

The “Moral Motherhood” Strategy

Women utilized the era’s belief in their “superior moral nature” to move into the public square. They argued that if they were responsible for the morality of the home, they must also be responsible for the morality of the nation. This led to:

  • The Magdalen Societies: Aimed at helping women escape prostitution.
  • The Sunday School Movement: Which provided the only education many poor children ever received.
  • Petitioning: Women became the primary petitioners to Congress for the abolition of slavery.
  1. The Resurgence of the 1830s: Finney’s “Holy Band”

By 1830, the revival moved from the rural frontiers to the booming canal towns of upstate New York—an area so scorched by the fires of revival it became known as the “Burned-over District.”

Charles Finney’s 1830 revival in Rochester, New York, is considered by historians as the greatest single revival in American history. It wasn’t just about conversions; it was about civic transformation. Finney’s converts were the city’s business leaders, who then closed their shops on Sundays, supported the temperance movement, and funded the “Holy Band”—a group of young activists who took the revival’s social message to the furthest corners of the country.

  1. The Global Reach: A “World Christian” Perspective

The Second Great Awakening was the “Big Bang” of modern global missions. The commitment to “Extraordinary Prayer” in 1784 bore fruit in 1810 with the Haystack Prayer Meeting. A group of Williams College students took shelter from a storm in a haystack and committed themselves to taking the Gospel to Asia.

Key Global Impacts:

  1. India and Burma: Adoniram and Ann Judson traveled to Burma (Myanmar), translating the Bible into Burmese and establishing a church that persists to this day.
  2. The South Pacific: The London Missionary Society sent ships to Tahiti and the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii). Within decades, these cultures were transformed, adopting written languages and legal codes based on the “Ten Commandments.”
  3. Africa: The revival sparked the “Colony of Liberia” project—an effort (albeit controversial) to return free Black Americans to Africa, which led to the establishment of the first independent republic in Africa.
  1. Summary of Long-term Effects (1835–Present)

The fire that began with a few prayer meetings in 1784 eventually burned down the institution of slavery and built the foundation of the modern Western middle class.

Area of Impact Long-term Result
Politics Fueled the rise of “Jacksonian Democracy” and the focus on the common man.
Education Led to the founding of hundreds of “Manual Labor Colleges” like Oberlin (the first to admit Black and female students).
Social Justice Provided the moral vocabulary for the Civil Rights movements of the 20th century.
Global Christianity Shifted the center of Christianity from state-run churches to voluntary, missionary-minded bodies.

Conclusion: A Legacy of “Perfectionism”

The Second Great Awakening left the world with a restless spirit. It instilled the belief that society could be “perfected” through human effort and divine grace. While the emotional “manifestations” of Cane Ridge faded, the institutions built during this era—the schools, the mission boards, and the reform societies—remained. It proved that a grassroots movement, fueled by prayer and a sense of individual agency, could change the course of history.

< h2>Timeline of the Second Great Awakening (1784–1835)

The following timeline tracks the progression of the revival from a small prayer movement in Scotland to a global force for social change.

  • 1784: The Call to Prayer. John Erskine re-publishes Jonathan Edwards’ Humble Attempt, initiating the “Concert of Prayer” across the Atlantic.
  • 1791: Methodist Expansion. Following John Wesley’s death, Methodist “Circuit Riders” begin an unprecedented expansion into the American and British frontiers.
  • 1792: Missionary Birth. William Carey publishes An Enquiry, leading to the founding of the Baptist Missionary Society and the start of the modern missionary era.
  • 1795: Academic Awakening. Timothy Dwight becomes President of Yale College, sparking a revival that converts over half the student body and trains a new generation of reformers.
  • 1801: The Great Frontier Meeting. The Cane Ridge Revival in Kentucky draws 20,000 people, marking the peak of the “Camp Meeting” phenomenon.
  • 1804: Bible Societies. The British and Foreign Bible Society is founded, aiming to translate and distribute Bibles globally.
  • 1810: The Haystack Prayer Meeting. Students at Williams College commit to global missions, leading to the formation of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM).
  • 1816: Black Independence. Richard Allen officially incorporates the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Philadelphia.
  • 1821: The Conversion of Finney. Lawyer Charles Grandison Finney experiences a dramatic conversion, pivoting the movement toward “New Measures” and urban revivalism.
  • 1830–1831: The Rochester Revival. Finney’s Rochester meetings create the “Burned-over District,” turning the Awakening into a powerful engine for social reform and abolition.
  • 1833: The Anti-Slavery Pivot. The American Anti-Slavery Society is founded, formally linking evangelical fervor with the movement to end slavery immediately.

< h2>Sojourner Truth: The Voice of the Awakening’s Conscience

While figures like Charles Finney provided the theology, Sojourner Truth (born Isabella Baumfree) provided the movement’s living testimony. Her life embodies the intersection of the Awakening’s three greatest themes: individual salvation, women’s rights, and abolition.

A “Divine Mandate” for Freedom

Born into slavery in New York in 1797, Isabella escaped to freedom in 1826—just as the Second Great Awakening was reaching its peak in the “Burned-over District.” Her escape was not merely a physical act; she described it as a spiritual liberation. She claimed that God had spoken to her, giving her a new name, Sojourner Truth, and a mandate to “travel up and down the land” testifying against the sins of the nation.

The Radical Preacher

Unlike the educated theologians of the East, Truth was illiterate. However, she possessed a profound mastery of the Biblical narrative. She utilized the Awakening’s “New Measures”—informal language and emotional appeal—to challenge the status quo.

  • Universal Salvation: She took the revivalist message that “all are equal before God” and applied it literally to the American legal system.
  • The “Ain’t I a Woman?” Speech (1851): While this occurred toward the end of the revival’s influence, it was the culmination of the Awakening’s logic. She challenged the male-dominated clergy by arguing that if the first woman God ever made (Eve) was strong enough to turn the world upside down, then modern women together “ought to be able to turn it back and get it right side up again.”

Legacy of the “Perfectionist” Spirit

Sojourner Truth represented the “radical wing” of the Awakening. She was a bridge between the spiritual fervor of the camp meetings and the hard-nosed political activism of the mid-19th century. She spent her final years in Battle Creek, Michigan, continuing to preach a gospel of “Holy Boldness” that demanded the total transformation of society.

Conclusion: The Enduring Flame

By 1835, the “Second Great Awakening” as a formal movement began to transition into the various “Benevolent Societies” it had created. The fervor did not disappear; it became institutionalized. It provided the moral energy that led the United Kingdom to abolish slavery in its colonies (1833) and drove the United States toward the inevitable conflict of the Civil War.

The movement proved that religion, when democratized and focused on the individual, could act as a massive lever for social change. It shifted the Western world from a culture of “tradition” to a culture of “transformation.”

For further research:
The Second Great Awaking in America

What Was the Second Great Awakening? – Day & Night – Christian Union America, accessed on December 14, 2024, https://www.cuamerica.org/what_was_the_second_great_awakening

Second Great Awakening – This Far by Faith . 1776-1865: from BONDAGE to HOLY WAR | PBS, accessed on December 14, 2024, https://www.pbs.org/thisfarbyfaith/journey_2/p_3.html

Why the British Evangelical Revival Still Matters
Second Great Awakening – Wikipedia, accessed on January 26, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Great_Awakening

The Second Great Awakening 1792 – Revival Library, accessed on January 26, 2025, https://revival-library.org/histories/1792-the-second-great-awakening/

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