The Second Great Awakening - part 2

Summary

The video explains how economic and social changes in the early 19th century may have helped fuel the Second Great Awakening, a period of increased religious devotion, conversion, and faith-inspired social action. Although the movement lasted roughly from 1790 to 1850, it was especially intense from about 1820 to 1840.

The Market Revolution and Social Anxiety

The Erie Canal, completed in 1825, illustrates the transportation changes associated with the Market Revolution. Canals, railroads, and steamboats made it easier to move goods over long distances, connecting farmers and manufacturers to national and international markets.

This transformation also changed how people related to one another:

• Business became less personal. Producers and buyers increasingly dealt through distant correspondence rather than face-to-face relationships. The loss of familiar community ties raised concerns about fraud and whether others would keep their commitments.
• The economy shifted toward wage labor. More people worked for wages instead of producing what their households needed as subsistence farmers. Factory work raised questions about how employers could motivate workers and how workers should behave.
• Gender roles changed. As men increasingly worked outside the home for wages, women were often cast as the “guardians” of the household and its morals. This ideal became known as the Cult of Domesticity.
• Religion offered moral guidance. Religious teaching could help address these anxieties by encouraging honesty, diligence, self-discipline, and contribution to the common good. The presenter offers this as one possible explanation for the revival’s growth, not the only one.

Westward Expansion, Democracy, and Individualism

The population spread westward between 1790 and 1840, and towns along rivers, canals, and railways grew. The presenter links this expansion to a broader increase in wealth and political participation: the middle class grew, as did the number of people with the vote.

These changes may have made forms of Protestantism that emphasized an individual’s ability to have a relationship with God especially appealing. The Second Great Awakening’s Baptist and Methodist revivals fit a period increasingly associated with individual initiative, personal responsibility, and the “pioneering spirit.”

The “Burned-over District”

Western New York—especially the rapidly growing city of Rochester—became a center of revival activity. The area was called the Burned-over District because it experienced so many religious revivals that it seemed to have been repeatedly swept by religious “fire.”

The region also saw the emergence or growth of several religious communities and movements, including the Oneida Community, spiritualism, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), and the Shakers. The video connects this concentration of religious activity to the new communities and social changes brought by the Market Revolution.

Speakers and Sources Featured

• Presenter/narrator: Kim Kutz Elliott, identified in the video metadata. No other speakers are heard in the subtitles.
• Visual sources described: A map of the Erie Canal and a map illustrating the westward shift in the center of the U.S. population.