The period between the 1820s and 1850s was characterized by significant changes in American society, including the impact of the Second Great Awakening. This movement began at the end of the 18th century, with many people reconsidering their religious faith and the power of God in human life. Religious revivals continued reigniting Protestant spirituality and underlining the worth of such concerns as alcoholism and social inequality (Locke and Wright 254). Thus, it was expected that new reforms could change the United States and promote improvements in such key areas as slavery and women’s rights. The movements were launched to support the freedoms and independence of Black enslaved southerners and women from all classes and regions.
The Second Great Awakening was a serious renewal of religious faith during which Americans formed multiple groups to create new attitudes toward slavery, alcohol, and female opportunities. The temperance movement was the reform to discourage alcohol products’ usage and reduce social problems like poverty and unemployment (Hewitt 125). Women reformers realized that their family and home responsibilities developed a distorted moral influence and underlined the necessity to leave homes and join societies. Finally, antislavery and abolitionism reforms were inevitable in the North because activists tried to do everything possible to prove that slavery was a wrong initiative and that everyone deserved the right to a free life. These three specific examples showed that American society was not perfect at the beginning of the 1820s. People needed reforms to introduce their interests most provocatively and use religion as the background for worries. Although the Second Great Awakening changed the spiritual aspects, its impact on social lives and interpersonal relationships was significant.
Works Cited
Hewit, Nancy A. “Race, Class, Region, and Activism, 1820s-1870s.” A Companion to American Women’s History, edited by Nancy A. Hewitt and Anne M. Valk, 2nd ed., John Wiley & Sons, 2021, pp. 123-140.
Locke, Joseph L., and Ben Wright, editors. The American Yawp: A Massively Collaborative Open U.S. History Textbook, Vol. 1: To 1877. Stanford University Press, 2019.