Second Great Awakening Dbq Analysis

Casey Hungreder
History
G Period
12/5/11
DBQ: Part B - Question 3
The Second Great Awakening was a religious revival that occurred in the United States beginnig in the early-mid nineteenth century and lasted until the end of the nineteenth century. While it occurred in all parts of the United States, it was especially strong in the Northeast and the Midwest. The Second Great Awakening implemented an important impact on American religious history. During this time period, the numerical strength of the Baptists and Methodists increased relative to that of the majority denominations in the colonial period, like the Anglicans, Mormons, Presbyterians, Christianity, and Reformed. The United States was becoming a more culturally diverse nation in the early mid-1800s. The Awakening made people believe that they could be saved through revivals;
therefore, it enrolled millions of new members. The revivals encouraged people to return to God. As a result, church attendance increased during the first half of the nineteenth century. A desire to reform America also arose among the people. Attempts to limit alcohol consumption and to abolish slavery came directly out of the Second Great Awakening and its message. This Awakening influenced many numerous reform movements, especially abolitionists.
The Second Great Awakening in the North influenced abolitionism by increasing the number of people who supported black rights.
When the evangelical leaders preached about equality, many people joined the abolitionist cause because they felt they should bring salvation to all humans, including blacks. Even those who did not favor supporting blacks still wanted improve conditions of all society members; they joined the socialist group. Abolitionists taught that slavery violated basic rights of man. Most abolitionists were Christian. The abolitionist movement attempted to achieve immediate emancipation of all slaves and the ending of racial segregation and discrimination. Most importantly, from these abolitionist movements came women’s rights movements. These ambitious women did not only fight for their own rights, but rights for the disadvantaged as well. Reformers and abolitionists created organizations such as prisons, asylums and orphanages, sought to transform the public schools, to eradicate social ills such as prostitution and drunkenness in order to strengthen family life, and to reform the system of support for the
poor.
Another movement that resulted from the Second Great Awakening was the temperance movement. The temperance movement was also a movement largely inspired by women and it expressed their hate towards the effects of alcohol. The main objective of the movement was to prohibit drinking and to almost ban it entirely from the country. Women throughout the country band together to fight against alcohol because many of them were left without husbands because of alcohol. It was common to see husbands turn into alcoholics in the north and abandon their wife and children or even become dangerously abusive. Temperance was wanted more in the north than in the south because of the difference in the economy and family structure of the two regions. There were barely any reform movements that occurred in the south in any case. The southern econmy was based on agriculture and required slaves to work on the farms for husbands to make money for their families.
Nevertheless, The Second Great Awakening resulted in the bettering of living conditions for all people especially slaves, and it encouraged democratic ideals such as abolishing slavery. Millions of Americans were motivated to improve the standards that existed within their society and help to begin to bring an end to a dark time in American history. The Second Great Awakening was completely beneficial for America because it brought about social equality and worked against excessive drinking. Overall, the Second Great Awakening influenced Abolitionism by creating a demand from the North to abolish slavery, and it influenced temperance by creating a need to stop excessive drinking.