Second Great Awakening: The Issue Of Racism In The 19th Century

437 Words2 Pages

In the 19th Century, “Antebellum” era America, citizens were witnessing America go through a radical metamorphosis. The country had gone from an agricultural empire to an industrial beast, seemingly overnight. To compensate for these great changes and difficulties, many idealists forged plethoras of reformation movements. One of these being, the Second Great Awakening. Two of the issues the Second Great Awakening brought light upon were Temperance (alcoholism), and the ever capsulating issue of racism. For a short modicum of time, many Americans were very against the overconsumption of alcohol, and although racism is always an issue everywhere, many leaders of the Second Great Awakening were abolitionists in addition to being religious leaders. The Second Great Awakening was a literal reformation, it called upon Christians to change every wrongdoing they had in their lives. To become as pure and clean as a human could. The movement itself quite openly shamed alcoholism and abuse of substances. However, it never had the large the strike against it until Lyman Beecher, a clergyman and leader of the Second Great Awakening preached the six dangers of intemperance. Quickly, the movement that …show more content…

Which is why some in Southern states disagreed with the Great Awakenings principles of equal human rights. The “father” of the Second Great Awakening movement itself, Charles G. Finney was an abolitionist, and frequently denounced racism. In his evangelical practices, he denied slaveholders from having places in his sermons and church. He preached very often the principles of equal and just treatment among all peoples. The influence of his views upon the Second Great Awakening can be felt and seen, as in the beliefs of many followers, equal rights to women and people of color were bestowed more respect than they had been ever before in American