The Great Awakening

During the Great Awakening, there were many different social groups that expressed different religions. The different early establishments around the colonies all had different views and strict rules on religion. The most lenient of all of the communities were the Quakers in New England. Every other colony had a punishment for not attending the local church gathering. These punishments consisted of anything from a whipping, being put in a stock, jail time, or a fine. The “revivalists” were a small group of people who claimed that one could regain religious faith by good behavior. They used a scaring tactic in their sermons in order to scare people into believing that they were sentenced to hell. During the 1730’s the revivalist group began to expand. There were four men who established this movement and began traveling around the country to different colonies to express their views. These men were Theodore Frelinghuysen, William Tennent Jr., and Gilbert and John Tennent. The critics of these revivalists did not believe their ways. The Evangelicals (the critics) believed that one could be saved through the graces of god, and did not just need to behave well for a certain period of time before being saved. Although George Whitefield was criticized for publicly giving sermons from Jonathan Edwards A faithful narrative of the Suprizing Works of God, he was also praised for the fact that he would speak to people in parks, etc where the people who felt uncomfortable in church could go to listen. When the Great Awakening was over, it had a huge impact on colonial America. The different religious beliefs and movements were drastically different from colony to colony and helped the early American society become what it is today.