A notable influence on America’s religious culture originated from the Second Great Awakening. Protestant churches and denominations grew tremendously during the colonial period. Denominations such as Reformed, Anglicans, Congregationalists, and Presbyterians emerged in North America during the Second Great Awakening. Baptist and Methodist churches received more followers during this period. Evangelism was made the core agenda of the ministry. Enslaved Africans, women, and black Americans from the southern part of North America turned from their ways and decided to follow the teachings of Christ, and they became Christians. The establishment of Christians-base societies began during this era steered by the loss of state funding and support to liberated Christian churches (Irish, 2018). In addition to church growth, Second Great Awakening was brought about by the division between the people who were for it and those who opposed it. Joseph Smith, Charles Grandson Finney, Edward Everett, and Lyman Beecher were among the people who led the Second Great Awakening.
Topics such as women’s rights were witnessed during the Second Great Awakening. In this topic of women’s rights, antebellum reform condemned slavery by embracing that God created all men and that all men are equal before God’s eyes. Hundreds of new protestants were attracted as the crusades, open-air preaching, and seminars were taken as significant activities during the Second Great Awakening movement. Women’s status and the position of the poor were greatly influenced by the Christian philosophy of treating and taking all men as the same before the eyes of God. People considered poor, especially the African slaves, and black Americans in North America after the Second Great Awakening started to be treated the same way as the rest of the Americans. This resulted in many people converting their religion to the denominations of the emerging protestants.
Reference
Irish, K. (2018). The second great awakening and the making of modern America. Faculty Publications – Department of History and Politics. 78.