The Great Awakening, called by historians
the First Great Awakening, was an evangelical
and revitalization movement that swept Protestant
Europe and British America, and especially
the American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s,
leaving a permanent impact on American Protestantism.
It resulted from powerful preaching that gave
listeners a sense of deep personal revelation
of their need of salvation by Jesus Christ.
Pulling away from ritual, ceremony, sacramentalism
and hierarchy, the Great Awakening made Christianity
intensely personal to the average person by
fostering a deep sense of spiritual conviction
and redemption, and by encouraging introspection
and a commitment to a new standard of personal
morality.
The movement was a monumental social event
in New England that challenged established
authority and incited rancor and division
between traditionalists Protestants who insisted
on the continuing importance of ritual and
doctrine, and the revivalists, who encouraged
emotional involvement. It had a major impact
in reshaping the Congregational church, the
Presbyterian church, the Dutch Reformed Church,
and the German Reformed denomination, and
strengthened the small Baptist and Methodist
Anglican denominations. It had little impact
on most Anglicans, Lutherans, Quakers and
non-Protestants. Throughout the colonies,
especially in the south, the revivalist movement
increased the number of African slaves and
free blacks who were exposed to, and subsequently,
converted to, Christianity.
Unlike the Second Great Awakening, which began
about 1800 and which reached out to the unchurched,
the First Great Awakening focused on people
who were already church members. To the evangelical
imperatives of Reformation Protestantism,
18th century American Christians added emphases
on "outpourings of the Holy Spirit". Revivals
encapsulated those hallmarks and spread the
newly created evangelicalism into the early
republic. Evangelical preachers "sought to
include every person in conversion, regardless
of gender, race, and status."
International dimension
The evangelical revival was international
in scope, affecting predominantly Protestant
countries of Europe. The emotional response
of churchgoers in Bristol and London in 1737,
and of the Kingswood colliers with white gutters
on their cheeks caused by tears in 1739 under
the preaching of George Whitefield, marked
the start of the English awakening. Historian
Sydney E. Ahlstrom sees it as part of a "great
international Protestant upheaval" that also
created Pietism in Germany, the Evangelical
Revival and Methodism in England. Revivalism,
a critical component of the Great Awakening,
actually began in the 1620s in Scotland among
Presbyterians, and featured itinerant preachers.
American colonies
Although the idea of a "great awakening" has
been contested by Butler as vague and exaggerated,
it is clear that the period was a time of
increased religious activity, particularly
in New England. The First Great Awakening
led to changes in Americans' understanding
of God, themselves, the world around them,
and religion. In the Middle and Southern colonies,
especially in the "back country" regions,
the Awakening was influential among Presbyterians.
In the southern Tidewater and Low Country,
northern Baptist and Methodist preachers converted
both whites and blacks, enslaved and free.
Whites welcomed blacks into their churches
and took their religious experiences seriously,
while also admitting blacks into active roles
in congregations as exhorters, deacons, and
even preachers; although the latter was a
rarity. The message of spiritual equality
appealed to many slaves and as African religious
traditions continued to decline in North America,
for the first time blacks accepted Christianity
in large numbers. Few Evangels desired to
abolish slavery and the overwhelming majority
of them had no intent to get rid of slavery.
Evangelist leaders in the southern colonies
had to deal with the issue of slavery much
more frequently then those in the North. Still,
many leaders of the revivals proclaimed that
slaveholders should educate their slaves so
that they could become literate and be able
to read and study the Bible. Consequently,
many Africans were finally provided with some
sort of education. Africans hoped that their
newly acquired spiritual equality would soon
translate into earthly equalities. As blacks
started to make up substantial proportions
of congregations they were given a chance
to momentarily forget about their bondage
and enjoy a slight sense of freedom. Before
the American Revolution, the first black Baptist
churches were founded in the South in Virginia,
South Carolina and Georgia; in Petersburg,
Virginia, two black Baptist churches were
founded.
Jonathan Edwards
The revival began with Jonathan Edwards in
Northampton, Massachusetts. Edwards came from
Puritan, Calvinist roots, but emphasized the
importance and power of immediate, personal
religious experience. He taught a general
distrust of religious leadership and any knowledge
from afar. He taught that only a personal
experience can be valid, decrying the entire
process of scientific inquiry and progress.
Edwards was said to be 'solemn, with a distinct
and careful enunciation, and a slow cadence.'
His sermons were powerful and attracted a
large following. The Anglican preacher George
Whitefield, visiting from England, continued
the movement, traveling across the colonies
and preaching in a more dramatic and emotional
style, accepting everyone into his audiences.
Both Edwards and Whitefield were slave owners
and believed that blacks would acquire absolute
equality with whites in the Millennial church.
Winiarski examines Edwards's preaching in
1741, especially his famous sermon "Sinners
in the Hands of an Angry God." At this point,
Edwards countenanced the "noise" of the Great
Awakening, but his approach to revivalism
became more moderate and critical in the years
immediately following.
George Whitefield
The arrival of the young Anglican preacher
George Whitefield sparked the Great Awakening.
Whitefield, whose reputation as a great pulpit
and open-air orator preceded his visit, traveled
through the colonies in 1739 and 1740. Everywhere
he attracted large and emotional crowds, eliciting
countless conversions as well as considerable
controversy. He declared the whole world his
"parish." God, Whitefield proclaimed, was
merciful. Men and women were not predestined
to damnation, but could be saved by repenting
of their sins. Whitefield mainly spoke about
the concept of spiritual "rebirth", explaining
that men and women could experience a spiritual
revival in life that would grant them entrance
to the Promised Land. Whitefield appealed
to the passions of his listeners, powerfully
sketching the boundless joy of salvation and
the horrors of damnation. Critics condemned
his "enthusiasm", his censoriousness, and
his extemporaneous and itinerant preaching.
His techniques were copied by numerous imitators
both lay and clerical. They became itinerant
preachers themselves, spreading the Great
Awakening from New England to Georgia, among
rich and poor, educated and illiterate, and
in the back country as well as in seaboard
towns and cities. The first new Congregational
church congregation and worship building in
Massachusetts in the Great Awakening period
of 1730–60 was at the newly incorporated
town of Uxbridge. It was headed by the newly
called Pastor Rev. Nathan Webb, a native of
Braintree, who remained in the ministry in
Uxbridge for the next 41 years. His student,
Samuel Spring, served as a chaplain in the
American Revolutionary War, and started the
Andover Seminary and the Massachusetts Missionary
Society. Whitefield's sermons reiterated an
egalitarian message, but only translated into
a spiritual equality for Africans in the colonies
who mostly remained enslaved. Whitefield was
known to criticize slaveholders who treated
their slaves cruelly and those who did not
educate them, but he had no intention to abolish
slavery. He lobbied to have slavery reinstated
in Georgia and proceeded to became a slave
holder himself. Whitefield shared a common
belief held among Evangels that after conversion
slaves would be granted true equality in the
Heaven. Despite his stance on slavery, Whitefield
became influential to many Africans.
Benjamin Franklin became an enthusiastic supporter
of Whitefield. Franklin, a Deist who rarely
attended church, did not subscribe to Whitefield's
theology, but he admired Whitefield for exhorting
people to worship God through good works.
Franklin printed Whitefield's sermons on the
front page of his Gazette, devoting 45 issues
to Whitefield's activities. Franklin used
the power of his press to spread Whitefield's
fame by publishing all of Whitefield's sermons
and journals. Many of Franklin's publications
between 1739–1741 contained information
about Whitefield's work, and helped promote
the evangelical movement in America. Franklin
remained a friend and supporter of Whitefield
until Whitefield's death in 1770.
Samuel Davies
Samuel Davies, a Presbyterian minister who
would later become the fourth president of
Princeton University, was noted for converting
African slaves to Christianity in unusually
large numbers, and is credited with the first
sustained proselytization of slaves in Virginia.
In a letter Davies wrote in 1757, he references
the religious zeal of an enslaved man he had
encountered during his journey, "I am a poor
slave, brought into a strange country, where
I never expect to enjoy my liberty. While
I lived in my own country, I knew nothing
of that Jesus I have heard you speak so much
about. I lived quite careless what will become
of me when I die; but I now see such a life
will never do, and I come to you, Sir, that
you may tell me some good things, concerning
Jesus Christ, and my Duty to GOD, for I am
resolved not to live any more as I have done.".
Samuel Davies became accustom to hearing such
excitement from many blacks who were exposed
to the revivals. Davies believed that blacks
could attain knowledge equal to whites if
given an adequate education and he promoted
the importance for slaveholders to permit
their slaves to become literate so that they
could become more familiar with the instructions
of the Bible.
Impact on individuals
The new style of sermons and the way people
practiced their faith breathed new life into
religion in America. Participants became passionately
and emotionally involved in their religion,
rather than passively listening to intellectual
discourse in a detached manner. Ministers
who used this new style of preaching were
generally called "new lights", while the preachers
who remained unemotional were referred to
as "old lights". People affected by the revival
began to study the Bible at home. This effectively
decentralized the means of informing the public
on religious matters and was akin to the individualistic
trends present in Europe during the Protestant
Reformation. The Awakening played a major
role in the lives of women, especially, though
rarely were they allowed to preach or take
public roles.
The Awakening led many women to be introspective;
some kept diaries or wrote memoirs. The autobiography
of Hannah Heaton, a farm wife of North Haven,
Connecticut, tells of her experiences in the
Great Awakening, her encounters with Satan,
her intellectual and spiritual development,
and daily life on the farm. Phillis Wheatley,
the first published black female poet was
converted to Christianity as a child after
she was brought to America. Her beliefs were
overt in her works; in a poem she wrote titled
On Being Brought from Africa to America, she
describes the journey as being taken from
a Pagan land to be exposed to Christianity
in the colonies. Wheatley became so influenced
by the revivals and especially George Whitefield
that she dedicated a poem to him after his
death in which she referred to as an "Impartial
Saviour." Sarah Osborn adds another layer
to the role of women during the Awakening.
A Rhode Island schoolteacher, Osborn's writings,
including a 1743 memoir, various diaries and
letters, and her anonymously published The
Nature, Certainty and Evidence of True Christianity
offer a fascinating glimpse into the spiritual
and cultural upheaval of the time period.
The emotionality of the revivals appealed
to many Africans and soon after they converted
in substantial numbers, African leaders started
to emerge from the revivals. These figures
would pave the way for the establishment of
the first black congregations and churches
in the American colonies
Schisms and conflict
The Calvinist denominations were especially
affected. For example, Congregational churches
in New England experienced 98 schisms, which
in Connecticut also had impact on which group
would be considered "official" for tax purposes.
These splits were between the New Lights and
the Old Lights. It is estimated in New England
that in the churches there were about 1/3
each of New Lights, Old Lights, and those
who saw both sides as valid.
Connecticut
In Connecticut, the Saybrook Platform of 1708
marked a conservative counter-revolution against
a non-conformist tide which had begun with
the Halfway Covenant and would culminate in
the Great Awakening in the 1740s. The Great
Awakening bitterly divided Congregationalists
between the "New Lights" or "Arminians" who
welcomed the revivals, and the "Old Lights"
or "Calvinists" who used governmental authority
to suppress revivals. Theologically, the Arminians
believed that every person could be saved
by experiencing a religious conversion and
one of the revivals; the Calvinists held that
everyone's fate was a matter of predestination,
and revivals were a false religion. The legislature,
controlled by the Old Lights, in 1742 passed
an "Act for regulating abuses and correcting
disorder in ecclesiastical affairs" that sharply
restricted ministers from leading revivals.
Another law was passed to prevent the opening
of a New Light seminary. Numerous New Light
evangelicals were imprisoned or fined. The
New Lights responded by their own political
organization, fighting it out town by town.
Although the religious issues decline somewhat
after 1748, the New Light versus Old Light
factionalism spilled into other issues, such
as disputes over currency, and Imperial issues.
However, the divisions involved did not play
a role in the coming of the American Revolution,
which both sides supported.
See also
American philosophy
Second Great Awakening
Christian revival
Notes
Further reading
Scholarly studies
Ahlstrom, Sydney E. A Religious History of
the American People
Bonomi, Patricia U. Under the Cope of Heaven:
Religion, Society, and Politics in Colonial
America Oxford University Press, 1988
Bumsted, J. M. "What Must I Do to Be Saved?":
The Great Awakening in Colonial America 1976,
Thomson Publishing, ISBN 0-03-086651-0.
Butler, Jon. Awash in a Sea of Faith: Christianizing
the American People. 1990.
Conforti, Joseph A. Jonathan Edwards, Religious
Tradition and American Culture University
of North Carolina Press. 1995.
Fisher, Linford D. The Indian Great Awakening:
Religion and the Shaping of Native Cultures
in Early America Oxford University Press,
2012.
Gaustad, Edwin S. The Great Awakening in New
England
Gaustad, Edwin S. "The Theological Effects
of the Great Awakening in New England," The
Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol.
40, No. 4., pp. 681–706. in JSTOR
Goen, C. C. Revivalism and Separatism in New
England, 1740–1800: Strict Congregationalists
and Separate Baptists in the Great Awakening
1987, Wesleyan University Press, ISBN 0-8195-6133-9.
Hatch, Nathan O. The Democratization of American
Christianity 1989.
Heimert, Alan. Religion and the American Mind:
From the Great Awakening to the Revolution
Isaac, Rhys. The Transformation of Virginia,
1740–1790 1982, emphasis on Baptists
Kidd, Thomas S. The Great Awakening: The Roots
of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America
ISBN 0-300-15846-7.
Kidd, Thomas S. God of Liberty: A Religious
History of the American Revolution.
Lambert, Frank. Pedlar in Divinity: George
Whitefield and the Transatlantic Revivals;
Lambert, Frank. "The First Great Awakening:
Whose interpretive fiction?" The New England
Quarterly, vol.68, no.4, pp. 650, 1995
Lambert, Frank. Inventing the "Great Awakening".
McLoughlin, William G. Revivals, Awakenings,
and Reform: An Essay on Religion and Social
Change in America, 1607–1977.
Schmidt, Leigh Eric. Holy Fairs: Scotland
and the Making of American Revivalism
Schmotter, James W. "The Irony of Clerical
Professionalism: New England's Congregational
Ministers and the Great Awakening", American
Quarterly, 31, a statistical study in JSTOR
Stout, Harry. The Divine Dramatist: George
Whitefield and the Rise of Modern Evangelicalism
Historiography
Butler, Jon. "Enthusiasm Described and Decried:
The Great Awakening as Interpretative Fiction."
Journal of American History 69: 305–25.
in JSTOR
Goff, Philip. "Revivals and Revolution: Historiographic
Turns since Alan Heimert's Religion and the
American Mind." Church History 1998 67(4):
695–721. Issn: 0009-6407 full text online
McLoughlin, William G. "Essay Review: the
American Revolution as a Religious Revival:
'The Millennium in One Country.'" New England
Quarterly 1967 40(1): 99–110. Jstor
Primary sources
Jonathan Edwards, The Great-Awakening: A Faithful
Narrative Collected contemporary comments
and letters; 1972, Yale University Press,
ISBN 0-300-01437-6.
Alan Heimert and Perry Miller ed.; The Great
Awakening: Documents Illustrating the Crisis
and Its Consequences 1967
Davies, Samuel. Sermons on Important Subjects.
Edited by Albert Barnes. 3 vols. 1845. reprint
1967
Gillies, John. Memoirs of Rev. George Whitefield.
New Haven, CN: Whitmore and Buckingham, and
H. Mansfield, 1834.
Jarratt, Devereux. The Life of the Reverend
Devereux Jarratt. Religion in America, ed.
Edwin S. Gaustad. New York, Arno, 1969.
Whitefield, George. George Whitefield's Journals.
Edited by Iain Murray. London: Banner of Truth
Trust, 1960.
Whitefield, George. Letters of George Whitefield.
Edited by S. M. Houghton. Edinburgh, UK: Banner
of Truth Trust, 1976.
External links
Lesson plan on First Great Awakening
The Great Awakening Comes to Weathersfield,
Connecticut: Nathan Cole's Spiritual Travels
"I Believe It Is Because I Am a Poor Indian":
Samsom Occom's Life as an Indian Minister
"The Joseph Bellamy House: The Great Awakening
in Puritan New England", a National Park Service
Teaching with Historic Places lesson plan
Edwards, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry
God" text
