Issue #6
Was the Great Awakening a Key to the Revolution?
Felix La
11/12/04
Was the Great Awakening a precursor to the American Revolution or are there no
discernible ties between the two? While there are many conflicting views on the issue, we
will focus on the opinions of two different authors. Professor of history, William G.
McLoughlin states that the Great Awakening, by laying a foundation of colonial unity,
religious zeal, and democracy, set the stage for the American Revolution. Arguing
against this point is professor of religious studies, Jon Butler who argues that there are no
links between the Great Awakening and the American Revolution. The Great Awakening
was a key to the American Revolution because it prepared the colonies for what was to
come.
William G. McLoughlin writes that by promoting a sense of colonial
“togetherness” it allowed the colonies to develop a new and unified sense of identity with
which they used to fight against the tyranny of Great Britain. A new breed of ministers
rose during this time. Dubbed the “New Light” ministers by some, they preached that the
simply conforming to prevailing moral standards laid down by the church would not gain
them favor with God. The ministers, the more popular ones include Jonathan Edwards,
George Whitefield, Theodore Frelinghuysen, Samuel Davies, and Gilbert Tennent,
preached that America was to be a new social order for the kingdom of God and would
be the place that would graced with the second revival of Christ only if people allowed
themselves to live by a higher code of moral and spiritual standards. Revitalized with
religious zeal, many thought that this could not be achieved if the colonies were to be
under continuous subject to the corruption, oppression, and tyranny of the English
monarchy and that of Parliament. The Great Awakening also helped the colonies create
a new kind of intercolonial unity. As the number of dissenting churches throughout the
colonies increased, itinerant preacher, preachers who went from colony to colony, toured
the colonies uniting these churches and their parish. These informal ties between the
united parishes created a new order of union. Another important contribution to the
Revolution by the Great Awakening was the emergence of a primitive form of
democracy. The common itinerant preacher usually had no formal education to which
they benefited from because they would speak to other men as equals. William G.
McLoughlin presents these points as the links between the Great Awakening and the
American Revolution.
Jon Butler argues that the link between the Great Awakening and the American
Revolution was virtually nonexistent. The Great Awakening was not as great as it was
made out to be. The diversity of the various groups during the Great Awakening could
inspire little unity rather than conflict. Described as a hurricane, it swept through the
colonies but did not have as great an impact as to establish a sense of colonial unity that
would last the coming decades. This metaphoric hurricane only affected certain groups
and areas of the colonies, mainly the Protestants, Baptists, Presbyterian, and Calvinists.
Also, many of the church clergy of these groups opposed them thus decreasing the full
effect of the religious revival on the parishes. Also, religious revivals had little to do with
he expansion of colonial churches. Many evangelical organizers formed many new
congregations without resorting to revivals. These new congregations are a key to the
Revolution because it created an outlet for colonial unity and the Great Awakening had
little to do with this. The Great Awakening causes little major social and political
changes. Tours of popular revivalist such as George Whitefield changed only the
institutional patterns of religion. Another point is that the Great awakening only occurred
in the backwaters of colonial society. The effect the Great Awakening was modest at
best. Some ministerial authorities changed their perceptions but only some. The Great
Awakening had a weak effect everywhere except Virginia. The Baptist gained a sizable
territory in the long held Anglican domain of Virginia. However, the effect of the Great
Awakening is further discredited by the fact that members of the Virginian Anglican
aristocracy led the American Revolution. The political effects of the Great Awakening
were modest at best in throughout the colonies.
