Second Great Awakening Dbq

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At the time of the Second Great Awakening, America was a society full of changes in many subjects. The start of the nineteenth century began to criticize controversial topics and social tensions between groups. These contributions caused disputes that would transform into reforms for the minorities facing inequality. The new denominations, women, and slaves experienced discrimination from others for their statuses in society.
First, branches of Christianity expanded during the Awakening, and, in turn, the rest of the world hated them for their beliefs. Conservatives saw blackwoods worshippers as crazed lunatics, yet the “possessed” cared little for other’s opinion of them. Hatred spread to the Mormons the most because of their questionable …show more content…

Slaves and free blacks had the worst experiences out of all minority groups. Slaves contributed the most to America’s economy, but they reaped the least benefits for their hard work under their white planter oppressors. Auctioneers ripped children out of their mother’s arms and husbands away from wives, splitting families apart. Some people tried to send slaves to Liberia in hope of clearing the population, yet this practice ceased due to the increasingly low numbers of participants giving slaves away. White males kept free black away from work and travel to ensure their own chances of attaining jobs. Many slaves turned to Christianity to gain feelings of hope from the stories of freedom in The Bible. Abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison contributed to the anti-slavery movement by writing books or newspapers like The Liberator to express ideas of freedom for African Americans (Shi and Tindall, 399). The Underground Railroad helped slaves run away from owners and travel to Canada where blacks were free; many slaves escaped using this method instead of taking the chances of being caught in a rebellion. Those who were pro-slavery used examples of how slaves made America prosperous to influence others to accept the acts. John Calhoun even stated that slavery was a “positive good” for the economy because America was built on agriculture, and the nation would go to ruin without it (John Calhoun, “Slavery as a Positive Good”). Slavery continued until the second half of the nineteenth