Second Great Awakening Part Two

The Western Frontier

Westward Migration and Settlement

Source

: ww

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A series of ordinances passed by Congress between 1785 and 1820 opened for settlement the

territory between the Appalachian

Mountains and the Mississippi River.

Camp Meeting Revivalism in the Old Southwest

Origins in Scots-Irish “holy fairs”

The contribution of James McGready (1763-1817)

Revivals in Logan County, Kentucky (1797-1800)

Cane Ridge Revival (1801)

“Religious exercises” at the camp meetings

Theology of camp meeting revivals

Source

: ww

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Presbyterian Barton Stone (1772-1844) was a key leader at the Cane

Ridge Revival (1801)

Peter Cartwright Describes his Conversion

“To this meeting I repaired, a guilty, wretched sinner. On the Saturday evening of said meeting, I went, with weeping multitudes, and bowed before the stand, and earnestly prayed for mercy. In the midst of a solemn struggle of soul, an impression was made on my mind, as though a voice said to me, “Thy sins are all forgiven thee.” Divine light flashed all round me, unspeakable joy sprung up in my soul. I rose to my feet, opened my eyes, and it really seemed as if I was in heaven; the trees, the leaves on them, and everything seemed, and I really thought were, praising God. My mother raised the shout, my Christian friends crowded around me and joined me in praising God…I have never, for one moment, doubted that the Lord did, then and there, forgive my sins and give me religion.”

Peter Cartwright, Autobiography of Peter Cartwright (1856)

Restoration of New Testament Christianity

Source

: ww

w.lo

c.gov

Alexander Campbell (1788-1866) believed that the new nation provided an ideal place to re-

create the New Testament church

Finneyite Revivalism

Brief biography of Finney

Lectures on Revival (1835): revival is “the right use of the appropriate means”

The “new measures”

Opposition to Finney’s revivals (esp. in Boston)

New Lebanon Conference (1827)

Eventual schism within Presbyterianism

Charles G. Finney (1792-1875) is regarded as the “father of modern revivalism.” He is pictured here with

his wife Elizabeth.

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