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The Great Awakening Influence

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In the late sixteenth century, the stage was set in Europe for something rather big to happen. At this time in history, the British were in an intense rivalry with the Spanish who had established colonies in the central and Southern parts of the Americas and subsequently discovered vast amounts of treasure and wealth. Hearing of their success in the South, the English, much like their Spanish counterparts, sought fervently to do the same, and in doing so, were led to colonizing northern part of the Americas. Colonial American history predicates what many recognize as the early modern or colonial era of the New World. In being such, it is seen as the glue that binds some decidedly unrelated times in the antiquity of the western world - the Middle …show more content…

In the seventeenth and eighteenth century, religious toleration in the American colonies increased steadily. This was due in part to numerous factors like tolerant ideas and practices expressed and practiced by religiously communities, economic necessities, and The Great Awakening. The Great Awakening occurred in the early 18th century and can be depicted by enthusiastic and fervent worship in a series of revivals that spread throughout the American colonies. The type of revivalism that was found within the colonies during the Awakening was not necessarily the intended outcome of religious freedom, but nonetheless it produced a train of thought that opposed the idea of an act or a church as a single truth for all. As preachers visited town after town, sects, moved by the oration of these reverends and ministers, began to break off from larger churches and a multitude of Protestant denominations sprouted. As we see in Nathan Cole’s description of the excitement in hearing George Whitefield preach at Middletown, “ [he] felt the spirit of God drawing [him] by conviction; [he] longed to see and hear him and wished he would stay.” During the eighteenth century, uncertainty in politics and the economy depicted life in the New World and, in doing so, shifted attention away from Puritanism and other religious duties. Cole’s description serves to demonstrate the anticipation and open-mindedness of many to hear and accept what was being preached to them. The Great Awakening promoted an individualistic way of life. We see this in Reverend Charles Woodmason writing- that among the congregation he visited, “not one had a Bible or common prayer.” Of what he witnessed in the backcountry of South Carolina, people were “educated in the principles of [his faith]” but, because of how individualistic each person of faith was,

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