Market Revolution And The Second Great Awakening

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The Market Revolution describes the expansion of the marketplace that occurred in early nineteenth century America, driven mainly by the increase of new technological means of transportation including new roads and canals that connected distant communities together for the first time; like the Erie Canal for example. Also, the Market Revolution refers to a new approach adopted by farmers and manufacturers to their work by encouraging them to mass produce for the lucrative markets that were now accessible to them through these advanced means of transportation. This Market Revolution brought better opportunities to some farmers, craftsmen, and entrepreneurs but at the same time some small craftsmen were forced out of business by "merchant capitalists" …show more content…

Its purpose was to bring back commitment of faith and to renew the importance of religion in the home and the business because people were living closer together in cities and working in factories and needed those religious connections again. With the growth of industrial ideas came the development of personal definition through the church inspired by the changing mindsets inspired by the Market Revolution. The preaching was exposed in large revival meetings where traveling preachers expressed their ideas to the public. These traveling preachers were called “Revivalists” and they applied the secular ideals of the Revolution, hard work and personal virtue, in religious ways. One of the most influential revivalists of the Second Great Awakening was Charles Finney. He urged people to choose God, turn away from their sin, and then work to make the world around them a little better. These traveling preachers were speaking exactly what the people wanted to hear, promising universal salvation through faith and emphasizing the right to private judgment in spiritual matters. By communicating these ideas the traveling preachers attracted just about everyone: whites and blacks, poor and rich, those in need of salvation, and economic reformers. They all listened to a message that emphasized both religion commitment and economic importance in a time that was awash in uncertainty due to the new possibilities produced by the Market Revolution. This Second Great Awakening was a way for these traveling preachers to bridge the gap between faith and the changing economic times and offer clarity for