branches of the Second Great Awakening Christianity differed greatly in their beliefs and practices

• Second Great Awakening: protestant religious revival in the US from about 1795-1835

most of them preached:

• salvation was an individual choice

• Millenarianism: the second coming of Christ was quickly coming

they argued that the US had a divine mission to prepare world for the second coming

• this meant not just saving souls, but remaking the entire society

different groups of Americans would apply their religious beliefs to solve problems they saw in their country

• they want to make the US as perfect as possible in comparison to other countries

• these problems included, but weren’t limited to:

  • alcohol abuse

  • poverty

  • racial abuse

  • gender inequality

women took on leading roles in the social reform movements

• they overturned the ideal of domesticity

  • domesticity: life at home taking care of your house and family

  • women were treated as if all women were good for was to cook, clean, and take care of the children at home (as if they had no other purpose)

women’s equality was made into its own reform movement

abolition was the most controversial and important reform cause

• trying to end chattel slavery in the US

  • chattel slavery: enslaving and owning of human and their children as property that are able to be bought, sold, and forced to work without pay

• Blacks and Whites united to try to convince society that slavery was sinful

• some radical abolitionists used the Second Great Awakening to ideas and theories to inspire the violent overthrow of slavery