What was great awakening

Anglican parsons often reacted badly to the evangelical interlopers. Parson Henry heard reports that people were flocking to the new evangelical meetings, which featured the emotional style of piety that Anglicans rarely countenanced. Henry also heard that some of the new evangelicals even questioned whether the Anglican ministers were actually converted believers.

Shewing The State of Religion particularly among the Negroes in Virginia , published in London in , evangelical Presbyterian pastor Davies describes the "Negroes" belonging to his congregation in Hanover County.

He estimated that there were roughly blacks who "attend upon my ministry," and he was struck by their appearance during meetings, as they were "eagerly attentive to every word they heard, and some of them washed with tears. An oil portrait depicts Samuel Davies, an evangelical Presbyterian pastor and educator who lived and worked in Hanover County from to Davies played a critical role in the early years of the Great Awakening, the series of religious revivals that would eventually lead to the disestablishment of the Church of England as America's official church.

Davies gave special attention to slaves within his circuit of Presbyterian congregations. By he had baptized about a hundred of them, and three hundred or so regularly attended his meetings.

Many slave owners were also reluctant to teach African Americans about Christianity, for they feared that it might give slaves radical ideas about equality and freedom. Davies did not criticize slavery per se—to the contrary, he himself owned slaves—but he certainly believed in integrating African Americans into the life of his churches. Colonial officials did not look so kindly, however, on the second wave of evangelicals to hit the colony: the radical and contentious Baptists.

Baptists had existed in the colonies since the early settlement of New England, but the Great Awakening effectively spawned a new Baptist movement, born out of radical Separate churches that illegally broke away from the established Congregationalist churches of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Some of these Separates began to ask whether the widespread Christian practice of infant baptism was really biblical. Some decided to reserve baptism only for those old enough to experience conversion personally.

By late in the s the Baptists had begun to expand throughout the colony. The quick growth of the Baptists, their challenge to the Anglican establishment, and their unwillingness to seek official licenses to preach, brought down the wrath of Virginia authorities, leading to an intense season of persecution early in the s. In an Anglican minister disrupted a Baptist service by beating the preacher at the pulpit and dragging him outside, where the sheriff of Caroline County gave him twenty lashes with a bullwhip.

About thirty-four Baptist preachers were jailed for disturbing the peace and for holding unlawful assemblies. But this seemed only to steel their resolve. Pastor James Ireland was imprisoned in Culpeper, yet he continued to preach to followers through a grate. Ruffians harassed Ireland, however, and some even urinated on him as he attempted to address the crowd.

His antagonists also burned brimstone and pepper to try to suffocate him. The Legacy of Puritanism. Witchcraft in Salem Village. Religious Pluralism in the Middle Colonies. Church and State in British North America. The Church of England in Early America. Divining America Advisors and Staff. That revival was part of a much broader movement, an evangelical upsurge taking place simultaneously on the other side of the Atlantic, most notably in England, Scotland, and Germany.

In all these Protestant cultures during the middle decades of the eighteenth century, a new Age of Faith rose to counter the currents of the Age of Enlightenment, to reaffirm the view that being truly religious meant trusting the heart rather than the head, prizing feeling more than thinking, and relying on biblical revelation rather than human reason.

The earliest manifestations of the American phase of this phenomenon—the beginnings of the First Great Awakening—appeared among Presbyterians in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Led by the Tennent family—Reverend William Tennent, a Scots-Irish immigrant, and his four sons, all clergymen—the Presbyterians not only initiated religious revivals in those colonies during the s but also established a seminary to train clergymen whose fervid, heartfelt preaching would bring sinners to experience evangelical conversion. By the s, the clergymen of these churches were conducting revivals throughout that region, using the same strategy that had contributed to the success of the Tennents.

In emotionally charged sermons, all the more powerful because they were delivered extemporaneously, preachers like Jonathan Edwards evoked vivid, terrifying images of the utter corruption of human nature and the terrors awaiting the unrepentant in hell. These early revivals in the northern colonies inspired some converts to become missionaries to the American South. In the late s, Presbyterian preachers from New York and New Jersey began proselytizing in the Virginia Piedmont; and by the s, some members of a group known as the Separate Baptists moved from New England to central North Carolina and quickly extended their influence to surrounding colonies.

By the eve of the American Revolution, their evangelical converts accounted for about ten percent of all southern churchgoers.

Although Whitefield had been ordained as a minister in the Church of England, he later allied with other Anglican clergymen who shared his evangelical bent, most notably John and Charles Wesley. Together they led a movement to reform the Church of England much as the Puritans had attempted earlier to reform that church which resulted in the founding of the Methodist Church late in the eighteenth century. The movement came at a time when the idea of secular rationalism was being emphasized, and passion for religion had grown stale.

Christian leaders often traveled from town to town, preaching about the gospel, emphasizing salvation from sins and promoting enthusiasm for Christianity. The result was a renewed dedication toward religion. Many historians believe the Great Awakening had a lasting impact on various Christian denominations and American culture at large.

In the s, a European philosophical movement known as the Enlightenment , or the Age of Reason, was making its way across the Atlantic Ocean to the American colonies.

Enlightenment thinkers emphasized a scientific and logical view of the world, while downplaying religion. In many ways, religion was becoming more formal and less personal during this time, which led to lower church attendance. Christians were feeling complacent with their methods of worship, and some were disillusioned with how wealth and rationalism were dominating culture.

Many began to crave a return to religious piety. Around this time, the 13 colonies were religiously divided. Most of New England belonged to congregational churches. Southern colonies were mostly members of the Anglican Church , but there were also many Baptists, Presbyterians and Quakers. The stage was set for a renewal of faith, and in the late s, a revival began to take root as preachers altered their messages and reemphasized concepts of Calvinism.

Calvinism is a theology that was introduced by John Calvin in the 16th century that stressed the importance of scripture, faith, predestination and the grace of God. Most historians consider Jonathan Edwards, a Northampton Anglican minister, one of the chief fathers of the Great Awakening. He also preached justification by faith alone. Edwards was known for his passion and energy. He generally preached in his home parish, unlike other revival preachers who traveled throughout the colonies.

George Whitefield, a minister from Britain, had a significant impact during the Great Awakening. Whitefield toured the colonies up and down the Atlantic coast, preaching his message. In one year, Whitefield covered 5, miles in America and preached more than times. His style was charismatic, theatrical and expressive. Whitefield would often shout the word of God and tremble during his sermons. People gathered by the thousands to hear him speak.

Whitefield preached to common people, slaves and Native Americans.