Religious and philosophical movements are seldom independent from a specific social context, and each human condition is in a way a production of its time. Likewise, societal reorganization is often the result of some form of new processes of thinking or viewing culture. Any social transformation will create a new situation that threatens the previous form of periodical logic. The nineteenth century Protestant movement, the Second Great Awakening, and the period of social change after it, was one of these societal renewals. Its repercussions of revivalism and camp meetings bore influence on the preparatory and causal factors of evangelicalism. It is during this time that we see the growth of revivals as a national phenomenon. Every part of America was affected by these happenings; from New England, to the expanding West, to Athens, Georgia, no part was left untouched.
The eighteenth century had been a dramatic century for the new America. Not only had she earned her freedom in the Revolution, but many other changes had taken place. Americans were discovering their individuality as a people, and were finding a new sense of identity. The First Great Awakening was movement that helped build this new definition of community. Some of the most prominently known revivalists sprang from this era, such as Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and Gilbert Tennent. By challenging and dismembering the traditional hierarchical system of church and religion, the Awakening changed religious doctrine as America knew it to be. This was the birth of Calvinism in America, where only the elect could be saved into heaven. The Awakening became a way to bring Christianity to people out of touch with the churches, and emphasize that salvation depended on individual decisions and not institutions.
Although the events of the First Great Awakening were beneficial to the American Revolution, it was the prolonging of this war that helped lead to the demise of religious enthusiasm in America. The reality of war had struck close to home for many who became disillusioned and callous to God. Also, the influence of the French allies’ view of religion had taken its toll on the Americans. When colonialist were discovering the truths about God in the mid-eighteenth century, the French were experiencing a religious meltdown through the Enlightenment movement, led Voltaire and Rousseau, which was capped off by the French Revolution. The ideals of the French did not remain in Europe, and the United States populace embraced foreign influence, including French deism1.
After more than a generation of decline in religious and moral fervor, the early stages of the Second Great Awakening began to appear2. Revivals broke out through America, invigorating whole towns, and spreading extraordinarily quick considering the weakness of religious practice at the time. Such revivals were lead by the new evangelicals of the time, such as Charles Grandison Finney and Lyman Beecher. Much like their eighteenth century predecessors these revivalist stressed the sinfulness of the human nature. However, they believed in the ability of humans to perform moral action, and the ability of all humans to turn away from sinful behavior and embrace the followings of Christ. This alternative to Calvinism was a kind of new sensible Armenianism which highlighted the more universalistic attitude that all could, and is their duty to, repent and put an end to sinning.
Led by these new revivalist ministers, many historians believe that here were two separate events in the Second Great Awakening; the Awakening in the East, and the Awakening in the West. The happenings of Awakening in the East began to happen many years earlier than the Awakening in the West, mainly around the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth. The life of Timothy Dwight, and particularly the events that happened at Yale College under his presidency, is looked at the watershed in the history of awakenings in America3. The grandson of famous revivalist and theologian Jonathan Edwards, Dwight was a pivotal figure in establishing New England theology’s direction. Taking presidency of a struggling Yale in 1795, he changed the school around completely. Where there was no discipline before, Dwight moved in and by example he would show the rebellious student body the integrity and dignity of the Christian4. Between his model and his sermons many from the campus came to have a personal relationship with Christ. Revivals sprang up all amongst campus, and the topic of salvation could be heard everywhere. Two future revivalists were students of Dwight at Yale, Lyman Beecher and Nathaniel W. Taylor. These two revivalists would help shape the American evangelical’s transition from coercive European structuralism to revivalistic persuasion and private, voluntary support of religion5. Other revivals sprang up on the east coast at more colleges than just Yale.
In the Athenian newspaper, dated May thirty-first, eighteen thirty-one, an article named Revival of Religion describes a prayer meeting in Athens, Georgia. The result of this extended prayer meeting was “that about seventy persons have made professions of religion, of whom twenty-four are members of the College.”6 Although some amount of time after the revivals at Yale, these events are significant in showing that Yale was only a leader in revivalist attitudes amongst the educated, and not the only example. Even in the post-era of Christian refutation amongst the elite and educated, revivals were still an important part of America, in Yale and in Athens.
Another important East Coast revivalist was Charles Grandison Finney of New York. From 1825 to 1832, Finney gained national attention by a spectacular series of revival meetings in cities along the Erie Canal.7 After having a conversion experience at he age of twenty-nine, he soon left his promising career in law and entered the ministry devoted to saving souls. Instead of the sensationalism found in most revivalists in his time, Finney had his own methods, which consisted of animations of a more civilized manner, directness, and relevance to life. He conducted spectacular revivals that included protracted nightly meetings, exhortations by women, a place for seekers to get council, and forthright publicity.8 Moving from town to town, sometimes staying a while and other times not, Finney’s grace in the pulpit helped lead many to Christ, from the poor to the rich, from men to women. Not only was Finney an orator for the people, but he also was a leader in the Christian movement for the abolition of slavery in the 1820’s and 1830’s.9
Of all the consequences of the Second Great Awakening, none is more remarkable than its power on the abolition of slavery faction in America. An immense number of Christians were in the vanguard of the effort to stop slavery in America. The conjunction of so many elements of the Second Great Awkening in the antislavery agitation was more than coincidence.10 Examples of this can be seen in the nineteenth century Athens newspaper, The Southern Banner. In an article labeled Religious Revival, it is proclaimed that “17 whites and 6 colored persons have joined the church and about 25 have professed to experience religion”.11 Another article a few years later wrote about a revival in Jefferson that added 108 whites and 16 blacks.12 Although this doesn’t necessarily prove abolitionist thinking in Athens at the time, it does show segregationalist thinking amongst the Christians. More examples include church membership in 1826 at First Methodist Church that included 107 whites and 70 colored, and a wondrous revival between 1844 and 1845 in which 97 Negroes and 163 Whites were converted to the Methodist faith.13 Consequently, the Second Great Awakening can be looked at as a source that helped change the mind sets of people towards abolitionism.
Although, the eastern United States was a source for religious activity in the early nineteenth century, the West and South were also foundations for the Second Great Awakening. Much like the East after the Revolution, the frontier of the south and west had reached an apex of moral decline also. The difference being between the two sides was that the west had never really shown any signs of faith in the first place. Where was God’s place on the new frontier, where individualism and survival came first? With the spread of Christian missionaries around the world from America, it was realized the West had to be won for Christ to keep from paganizing the rest of the country.14
From the revivalism of the West sprang the camp meeting, large and often long outdoor religious services where camping out is involved. The first recorded camp meeting came in July 1800 at Gasper River under the Western minister James McGready. Tents were set up and God was expected to move amongst the crowd, and move He did. Conversions were abundant and no one seemed to want to go home. Later, it would become apparent that the Gasper River camp meeting was the turning point in the Awakening in the West.15 Nevertheless, a bigger and more eventful camp meeting was just beyond the horizon.
Barton W. Stone was a Presbyterian minister from Bourbon County, Kentucky just northeast of Lexington, an area that was spiritually dead. Stone was influenced by McGready’s camp meetings, having visited one of the meetings in 1801. Stone returned home astounded by the success of McGready, ready to plan a similar meeting at the location of Cane Ridge, Kentucky. Stone publicized the event well and a crowd estimated between ten and twenty-five thousand arrived in August 1801. This was an amazing amount of people for the frontier, and soon achieved national attention. Attendees ranged from all denominations, from Presbyterians to Baptists to Methodists, and Stone rejoiced that “they were all of one mind and soul, that the salvation of sinners was the one object.”16 Many would convert during this meeting; however the revival received much negative attention from its not so orthodox practices. At first there was the occasional shout, crying or falling down aroused by the preaching at Cane Ridge. On the other hand, before the meeting would be over there would be hysterical laughter, trances, barking like dogs, and jerky movements. Although this was a select few cohorts, it still brought unconstructive attention to the camp meeting seen. However camp meetings were perceived, they still remained popular and were not confined to the West, but were also seen in the South frequently.
In 1840, in Athens, Georgia, the Southern Banner reported a “protracted meeting that has been going on in the Methodist Church in this place for the last two weeks.”17 Thus, this report shows the makings of a camp meeting in effect. Another time, in 1831, the Athenian informs of a Presbyterian Church service that was so moved by the Spirit that it began on Sunday and did not end until Thursday. Not only was the preaching continued through out day and night, but it involved cooperation and harmony of all the other denominations of the town, “without regard to sectarian views, that should ever mark the conduct of the Christian.”18 Athens was therefore not only touched by the camp meeting movement, but mimicked it to the core of what camp meetings were about.
The Second Great Awakening was a time of much needed spiritual renewal for the United States. After a brief time of moral decline at the end of the Revolution, the nation was hungry for spiritualism. Christianity, led by the new revivalists, was delivered in new ways that not only appealed to the masses, but unlike before, applied to the masses with the message that Christ’s love was universal. Awakenings in the East consisted of moral revivals of whole communities and conversions led by the throngs of revivalist ministers that preached up and down the East Coast. The movements in the West were highlighted by the camp meetings and exaggerated exercises that accompanied these meetings. Athens, Georgia did not remain unaffected by these national movements, with revivals and camp meetings happening periodically. This new religious fervor would help bring Christianity to individuals in America and show them that salvation depended on an individual’s decision.
1. Keith J. Hardman, Seasons of Refreshing: Evangelism and Revivals in America (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 1992), 103.
2. William Warren Sweet, Religion in the Development of American Culture: 1765-1840 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1952), 146.
3. Hardman, 115
4. Hardman, 112
5. Mark A. Noll and Others, Eerdmans’ Handbook to Christianity in America (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1983), 171.
6. “Revival of Religion,” The Athenian, 31 May 1831, p.2, col.1.
7. Noll, 174
8. Noll, 174
9. Hardman, 163
10. Gilbert H. Barnes, The Anti Slavery Impulse, 1830-1844 (Gloucester, Massachusetts, 1964), 107.
11. “Religious Revival,” The Southern Banner, 24 April 1840, p.3, col.1.
12. “Revival of Religion,” The Southern Banner, 4 November 1845, p3, col.1.
13. Michael L. Thurmond, A Story Untold: Black Men and Women in Athens History, (Athens, Georgia: Burman Printing Company, 1978), 44.
14. Hardman, 128
15. Hardman, 132
16. Hardman, 132
17. “Religious Revival,” The Southern Banner, 24 April 1840, p.3, col.1.
18. “Revival of Religion,” The Athenian, 31 May 1831, p.2, col.1.