How Did The Great Awakening Affect Society

The Great Awakening was a considerably dramatic event that took place in America in the 18th century. It is difficult to understand just how much of an impact it had on the American people at the time but it is probably comparable to the way that America felt on November 22, 1963 when JFK was assassinated. How England felt on September 6, 1997 when Princess Diana was laid to rest in her grave, or how the U.S responded on September 11, 2001. At the time of the Great Awakening, America had never experience anything so life changing. Everything that had been taught and raised to believe was changing right in front of them, so at first this new era had caused feelings of confusion, devastation, and disbelief, but after a while the colonist began

Many Americans became complacent in their ways of worship so they began to break away from the strict and harsh ways of the English church in order to form their own ways of prayer and worship. The people wanted to practice religion in a way that made them feel a more intimate bond with the Lord. The Great Awakening most definitely influenced the fabrication of this new country’s documents such as The Declaration of Independence. However, the Awakening’s greatest significance was in the way that it prepared the American colonist for their war against the British in the fight for their freedom during the American Revolution. The revivalism of the Great Awakening taught the people that they could stand up for what they believed in when it came to the religious authorities and that when the churches were not living up to the expectations of the colonist, they could tear away from the church and form new ones that complied with what they wanted. Once the American people realized that the true religious power resided in their own hands, rather than in the hands of the Church of England, they applied the same concept to the political power and decided it no longer belonged to the English monarch. The people now had a will for self-governance and wanted to get out from under the control of the British. Which they successfully did on July 4,