First Great Awakening (jan 1, 1735 – jan 1, 1765)
Description:
A resurgence of extreme religious enthusiasm, stretching from the 1730s to 1760s. It was a response to the declining religious enthusiasm in New England, and mainly appealed to the uneducated. Evangelicals, most prominently Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, delivered sermons convincing people to become more religious. Edwards, a Puritan minister from Massachusetts, described God as a wrathful deity who threatened to cast all of humanity into the depths of Hell, and the only way for people to save themselves would be to immediately plead forgiveness for all of their sins and accept Christ into their life. Similarly, Whitefield contradicted the Puritan notion that everyone was either saved or doomed from the moment of birth, instead arguing that God would show mercy if people would only repent of their sins. Preachers condemned those who seeked to use religion to turn a profit. causing people to start questioning religious authority. This challenging of authority would resurge in the 1760s and 1770s, when colonists began doubting the word of British political figures, instead trusting what they themselves believed. Some preachers slavery or even freed their slaves, declaring that blacks and whites were brothers. Some blacks and women began preaching, as well, making the movement important in racial and gender equality.
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