Impacts of the Second Great Awakening on America

The Second Great Awakening started among educated people such as Revered revivals that spurred a generation of young men to become evangelical ministers. In the revivals of the early 1800s, thriving preachers were audience-centered and effortlessly recognized by the uneducated; they talked about the opening for salvation for all. These populist movements seemed adjusted to the democratization of American society. The Second Great Awakening asserted an emotional religious practice in which sinners engaged with their unworthy life before deciding that they were born again, that is, transforming away from their sinful past and committing themselves to living a moral godly like lifestyle.

This emphasis on individual salvation, with its denial of their destiny (the Calvinist idea that God picked a few individuals for salvation), was the religious manifestation of the Jacksonian triumph of the individual. The Second Great Awakening also produced a significant development in the American culture. Social reform before the Civil War became the main focus out of this new attachment to spirituality. Attempting to apply Christian teaching to the resolution of social problems included the concept of decreasing the quantity of alcohol being consumed by many Americans because it was recognized to be a sin.

In the 1800s, many Americans began to worry the country was becoming too materialistic or not obeying God's word. In the hope of their idea of living religiously, they started a group of religious gatherings called revivals. Missionaries, like Charles Finney, would go from place to place, holding passionate god prayer meetings that continued for many days. During these revivals, many people converted into the Christian religion. As a result, the group of the organization had begun to expand. This Christian restoration movement is known as the Second Great Awakening; it stirred the country and renewed many individuals' religious beliefs throughout America. These same reformers believed that consuming alcohol had led to an increase in unemployment, crime, disrupted family life, and served as an ungodly living. The high rate of alcohol misuse prompted reformers to target alcohol as the cause of social evils and illustrates why the temperance grew very famous for the reform movement. It all began by using moral exhortation to display their belief of changing their view of alcohol-based on how God wants them to live. In 1826, protestant ministers and others concerned with drinking and its consequences established the American Temperance Society.

The society sought to convince alcoholics to take a commitment to leave the addiction. In 1840, a group of recovering alcoholics went to Washington and claimed that alcoholism was a disease that demanded practical, effective treatment. By the 1840s, numerous temperance societies had united and had more than a million members contributed to the movement.