The Great Awakening was a significant event that drove history during the Revolutionary Era. Johnson wrote a great deal about the Great Awakening, however, Zinn did not mention it at all. Johnson stated that it was difficult to define and that while it was happening it did not have a name. He also wrote that “it proved to be of vast significance, both in religion and in politics” (pg. 110). He also wrote that the “Great Awakening was the provision of some kind of basic education in the frontier districts and among rural communities which as yet had no regular schools” (pg. 110). On the other hand, Zinn’s focus was not on the religious development of the country, but rather the war and the effects it had on the people. He wrote about the Seven …show more content…
Johnson wrote about the Native Americans: when the war started they fought on the British side against Americans but Britain ultimately abandoned them. Zinn wrote about the fact that the Revolution had nothing to do with the slaves, and that the elites tried to convince white males to be a part of it. When this was not enough, they tried to convince poor people by offering them incentives of social status and money. For Zinn, American elites were pushing Britain away for their own benefit which excludes the Native Americans. The Americans believed the land was theirs, not the Native Americans. Moreover, the revolution eventually led to the end of the slave trade; it was the first of many steps. It also gave Black individuals the opportunity to have a voice and stand up for themselves. The constitution at the time did not recognize women, Native Americans, slaves or poorer …show more content…
Johnson wrote about Madison who was the most important individual to shape the Constitution. He also spoke about the fact that lawyers could basically control the poor, illiterate people and take all their money. Johnson wrote a lot about ratification and how the States had to ratify the constitution for it to become law. He also wrote about the voting rights of the people as well as the fact that only the privileged were able to do so. Additionally Johnson discussed how Christianity was a major part of the Constitution. He went further stating that religion was significant in the society. In contrast, Zinn stated that the Constitution should focus more on the order and building of the society rather than the ‘elites’ who wanted to maintain their status. Zinn wrote, “The Constitution, then, illustrates the complexity of the American system: that serves the interest of the wealthy elite” (pg. 99).This ultimately led to the division of the society between rich and poor. Zinn argued that the American Constitution is not neutral or for the people but rather for the government itself. He went further to discuss the fact that the Constitution only serves the wealthy, small property owners, middle class and so on. Zinn was more concerned about the fact that there was no balance, one party had more power and influence, which was the government over the
The Great Awakening was a superior event in American history. The Great Awakening was a time of revivalism that expanded throughout the colonies of New England in the 1730’s through the 1740’s. It reduced the importance of church doctrine and put a larger significance on the individuals and their spiritual encounters. The core outcome of the Great Awakening was a revolt against controlling religious rule which transferred over into other areas of American life. The Great Awakening changed American life on how they thought about and praised the divine, it changed the way people viewed authority, the society, decision making, and it also the way they expressed themselves. Before the Great Awakening life was very strict and people’s minds were
New Essays on The Awakening. Ed. Wendy Martin. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1988.
Zinn makes a convincing case for the Constitution being heavily influenced by moneyed interests but its implementation was made possible by the
This week I read the short article on Alan Locke’s, “Enter the New Negro”. This article is discussing the Negro problem in depth. “By shedding the chrysalis of the Negro problem, we are achieving something like spiritual emancipation”. Locke believes that if we get rid of whatever is holding us back we would gain something renewing and beautiful.
In the essay, “The Second Great Awakening” by Sean Wilentz explains the simultaneous events at the Cane Ridge and Yale which their inequality was one-sided origins, worship, and social surroundings exceeded more through their connections that was called The Second Great Awakening also these revivals were omen that lasted in the 1840s a movement that influences the impulsive and doctrines to hold any management. Wilentz wraps up of the politics and the evangelizing that come from proceeding from the start, but had astounding momentum during 1825.The advantage of the Americans was churched as the evangelizing Methodists or Baptists from the South called the New School revivalist and the Presbyterians or Congregationalists from the North that had a nation of theoretical Christians in a mutual culture created more of the Enlightenment rationalism than the Protestant nation on the world. The northerners focused more on the Second Great Awakening than the South on the main plan of the organization.
They were the people who actively participated and sacrificed their lives. Therefore the side they chose to fight on was heavily influenced by their “local interests, grudges, and unfulfilled yearnings [Page 87].”In summary, poor farmers, wanted political rights and land. For slaves they yearned for freedom. Women wanted to have the same rights as men. Native Americans wanted the colonists to stop encroaching on their land. Many of these desires coincided while other clashed. Therein lay the chaos that drove the American Revolution. While many of the people did not succeed the ideas they fought for became deeply embedded into
The Second Great Awakening began in 1790, as numerous Americans experienced uncertainty as they confronted a rapidly changing society with increases in urbanization and technology. The movement focused on the ability of individuals to change their lives as a means of personal salvation and as a way to reform society as a whole, which opened the door for many reform movements. The Second Great Awakening shaped reform movements such as temperance, abolition, and women’s rights in the nineteenth century because of the increase in concern for the morality of the American people.
People of all groups, social status, and gender realized that they all had voice and they can speak out through their emotional feels of religion. Johnathan Edwards was the first one to initiate this new level of religion tolerance and he states that, “Our people do not so much need to have their heads filled than, as much as have their hearts touched.” Johnathan Edwards first preach led to more individuals to come together and listen. Than after that individual got a sense that you do not need to be a preacher to preach nor you do not need to preach in a church, you can preach wherever you want to. For the first time, you have different people coming together to preach the gospel. You had African American preaching on the roads, Indian preachers preaching and you had women who began to preach. The Great Awakening challenged individuals to find what church meets their needs spiritually and it also let them know about optional choices instead of one. The Great Awakening helped the American colonies come together in growth of a democratic
...ay from certain races, people, or women. This wouldn’t be quite as terrible, but the hypocrisy of promising rights to all, where everyone is created equal and then doing the exact opposite makes the matter worse. Women, natives, the poor, and black had to fight countless years just to be on the same level as their oppressors, with some taking much longer to gain anything close to equality. If there’s one thing that Howard Zinn’s shows us, is that America is not as great as portrayed and some of our great American heroes are quite monstrous and supports Mary Elizabeth Lease’s opinion that “this is nation of inconsistencies.”
The Second Great Awakening was significant because reform movements were connected with religion. Most of reform movements were in fact influenced by the religious ideas expressed during the Great Awakening. Religious congregations and sermons challenged the true faith of people, and as a result different religious groups emerged in order to purify the society. With the ongoing religious revivals, different group of people also began to question the governing norms, which contradicted with religious teachings. In David Walker’s, “African American Abolitionist David Walker Castigates the United States for Its Slave System, 1829,” Walker also raised the question of African slavery, and how it did not agree with Christianity. Walker said:
The Second Great Awakening was a religious revival. It influenced the entire country to do good things in society and do what was morally correct. The Second Great Awakening influenced the North more than it did the South and on a whole encouraged democratic ideas and a better standard for the common man and woman. The Second Great Awakening made people want to repent the sins they had made and find who they were. It influenced the end of slavery, abolitionism, and the ban of alcohol, temperance.
Throughout American history, African Americans have had to decide whether they belonged in the United States or if they should go elsewhere. Slavery no doubtfully had a great impact upon their decisions. However, despite their troubles African Americans made a grand contribution and a great impact on both armed forces of the Colonies and British. "The American Negro was a participant as well as a symbol."; (Quarles 7) African Americans were active on and off the battlefield, they personified the goal freedom, the reason for the war being fought by the Colonies and British. The African Americans were stuck in the middle of a war between white people. Their loyalty was not to one side or another, but to a principle, the principle of liberty. Benjamin Quarles' book, The Negro in the American Revolution, is very detailed in explaining the importance of the African American in the pre America days, he shows the steps African Americans took in order to insure better lives for generations to come.
The Revolution was a prominent point of change in the lives of early Americans. It provided new freedoms and opportunities with a challenge for the colonists to design a new government for themselves. At the same time it reduced the freedom of the Indians and made little progress for both women and slaves. The Revolutionary war was revolutionary and whether for better or worse it brought about a dramatic change in the lives of those involved. When we know both the positive and negative that came from this war we can fully appreciate this point in our history.
However, Zinn disapproves this notion, by using statistics and facts to show that the wealth was concentrated among a few select individuals, while the vast majority of common people lived in poor and unsatisfactory conditions. When discussing the issue of money, Zinn states that in 1770, “the top 1 percent of property owners owned 44 percent of the wealth” due to their control of the colonies and their political power (Zinn). This naturally incensed the vast majority of the middle and lower class, as rebellions became more commonplace and violent, during the 17th and 18th century. Zinn also describes the conditions the poor lived in, as saying that it was quite common for shelters “built for one hundred poor, [to house] over four hundred”, which shows how one can understand their plight, as while they struggled to make a living, the rich plantation owners sat back and let the hard work of their slaves and servants make them rich (Zinn). Eventually, the upper class realized that their huge gap in wealth would eventually cause problems in maintaining control over the people. And so, by giving certain liberties to the poor, and using racism to separate slaves and Native Americans from white colonists, the upper class therefore managed to control the formerly unruly population until the American Revolution. In this chapter, the historical thinking skill of argumentation is prominent. Zinn uses this skill to argue his point that the vast majority of the American colonists were poor, by presenting many valid statistics and descriptions. He uses many first-hand accounts from colonists who lived at the time, to show the plight of the poor. Also, the author links the idea of poverty and rebellion, to show how colonists became increasingly violent due to their political leaders not
The American Revolution was a “light at the end of the tunnel” for slaves, or at least some. African Americans played a huge part in the war for both sides. Lord Dunmore, a governor of Virginia, promised freedom to any slave that enlisted into the British army. Colonists’ previously denied enlistment to African American’s because of the response of the South, but hesitantly changed their minds in fear of slaves rebelling against them. The north had become to despise slavery and wanted it gone. On the contrary, the booming cash crops of the south were making huge profits for landowners, making slavery widely popular. After the war, slaves began to petition the government for their freedom using the ideas of the Declaration of Independence,” including the idea of natural rights and the notion that government rested on the consent of the governed.” (Keene 122). The north began to fr...