U.S. history concepts · AP U.S. History
Second Great Awakening
Second Great Awakening: A Protestant revival movement in the early nineteenth century that spurred social reform movements, including abolition and temperance.
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What it means
Beginning around 1800, revival meetings emphasized individual choice in salvation and the possibility of perfecting society. Many participants, especially women, joined reform movements to fight alcohol abuse, improve prisons and asylums, expand education and end slavery.
The movement helps explain the surge of reform activity in the decades before the Civil War.
Example
Charles Grandison Finney's revivals in upstate New York inspired converts to join temperance and antislavery societies.
On the exam
Expect questions linking the Second Great Awakening to antebellum reform movements in Period 4.
Lessons and practice questions
Related terms
- First Great AwakeningA wave of religious revivals in the British colonies in the 1730s and 1740s that emphasized personal faith and challenged established church authority.
- Market RevolutionThe early nineteenth-century transformation of the U.S. economy as transportation, communication and manufacturing tied households to regional and national markets.