Similarities: Shared experience in the colonies/United States * Marked by revivals and emphasis on morality/religious teaching * Uniquely American with political and social significance * Did influence new protestant sects * Influences the “backcountry” *First Great Awakening:** * 1730s-1740s * Credited founder: Jonathan Edwards (remember Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God?) Based on Puritan/Congregationalist ideals * Northampton, Massachusetts * Preached personal salvation * Discussed repentance for sins (why? Remember “declension”?) * Other major supporter: George Whitefield (revivalist, travels through the colonies) * More emotional, revival-like sermons and preaching * Influences the south (slaveholders participate; try to prevent slaves from attending) * Influence of the “backcountry” – non-wealthy colonists living further west, take new revivalism to heart and form new sects (remember the significance of this group on Early American History) Second Great Awakening: *Early 1800s; usually 1810s to as late as the 1840s * Most known leader: Charles Grandison Finney (has appeared in related DBQ essays) * Directly influenced by increasing political participation of common citizens * Plays a direct role in the antebellum reform movements, especially abolitionism (but also including temperance, prison reform, and women’s rights – remember the Mock Exam FRQ?) * Popular in the backcountry; especially the southern Appalachian regions * Again, slaveholders tried to prevent slaves from attending; eventually had to come up with Christian reasons for slavery * Role of the Second Great Awakening on the frontier? As people move away from traditional homelands, they must search for a sense of community * where newer sects gain increased membership: Methodists, Baptists *Also, very different sects emerge: Mormons, Seventh-Day Adventists