The Great Awakening and Enlightenment
Two very different movements swept through colonial America in the early-to-mid 1700s. The Great Awakening was a wave of religious revival that emphasized personal faith and emotional spirituality. The Enlightenment championed reason, science, and individual rights. Despite their differences, both movements pushed colonists to question established authority, and together they helped build the intellectual foundation for the American Revolution.
The Great Awakening
The Great Awakening (roughly 1730s–1740s) was a series of religious revivals that spread across the colonies. Traveling preachers held massive outdoor gatherings, urging colonists to develop a direct, emotional relationship with God rather than relying on formal church rituals.
Impact of the Great Awakening on the Colonies
Religious revival and new denominations. Church membership surged as colonists embraced a more personal, emotional style of worship. Evangelical denominations like the Baptists, Methodists, and "New Light" Presbyterians grew rapidly, challenging the dominance of established churches such as the Anglicans in the South and the Congregationalists in New England.
Challenges to traditional authority. Charismatic itinerant preachers drew huge crowds and openly questioned the authority of established clergy. This was a big deal: ordinary people began to believe they could interpret scripture for themselves, without needing a formally educated minister to do it for them. That habit of questioning authority didn't stay confined to religion.
Social and cultural effects:
- Greater religious tolerance and diversity, since so many new denominations were competing for followers
- Empowerment of women, enslaved people, and Native Americans, who found more active roles in evangelical congregations than traditional churches typically allowed
- Strengthened communal bonds through shared revival experiences that cut across class lines
Impact on education. The need to train new ministers led to the founding of several colleges, including the College of New Jersey (Princeton, 1746) and Dartmouth (1769). The movement also promoted literacy more broadly, since reading the Bible for yourself was central to the revivalist message.
The Enlightenment
The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement rooted in European philosophy that emphasized reason, empirical observation, and natural law. In the colonies, it shaped how educated colonists thought about science, government, and individual rights.
Enlightenment Influence in British America
Political thought. Two thinkers were especially influential:
- John Locke argued that people possess natural rights (life, liberty, property) and that government is based on a social contract with the consent of the governed. If a government violates those rights, the people have the right to overthrow it.
- Montesquieu proposed that government power should be divided into separate branches with checks and balances to prevent tyranny.
These ideas directly shaped colonial arguments against British rule and later informed the structure of the U.S. government.
Scientific advancement. The Enlightenment encouraged colonists to investigate the natural world through observation and experimentation. Benjamin Franklin became the most famous example: his experiments with electricity (including the famous kite experiment), his invention of the lightning rod and bifocal glasses, and his contributions to understanding ocean currents all reflected Enlightenment values in action.
Intellectual culture. The Enlightenment fostered a climate of open inquiry:
- Newspapers, pamphlets, and magazines multiplied, spreading new ideas to a wider audience
- Franklin founded the first public lending library in Philadelphia (1731) and the American Philosophical Society (1743)
- Public education and literacy expanded, and colonists increasingly valued debate and the free exchange of ideas
Great Awakening vs. Enlightenment Figures
Key Great Awakening figures:
- Jonathan Edwards — A Puritan theologian in Massachusetts whose sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" (1741) used vivid, terrifying imagery to urge listeners toward repentance. He combined deep intellectual rigor with emotional preaching.
- George Whitefield — An Anglican minister from England who became the most famous itinerant preacher of the era. His dramatic, theatrical style drew crowds of thousands across the colonies and helped make the Awakening an intercolonial event.
Key Enlightenment figures:
- Benjamin Franklin — A scientist, inventor, writer, and statesman who embodied Enlightenment ideals of reason and self-improvement.
- Thomas Jefferson — Principal author of the Declaration of Independence, he drew heavily on Locke's natural rights philosophy and advocated for religious freedom and separation of church and state.
How the movements compared:
Similarities: Both encouraged colonists to question traditional authority and established institutions. Both contributed to a growing sense of distinct American identity that cut across colonial boundaries.
Differences: The Great Awakening emphasized emotional, spiritual experience and personal conversion. The Enlightenment emphasized reason, scientific inquiry, and political philosophy.
Overlap: These movements weren't completely separate. Jonathan Edwards, for instance, was deeply engaged with Enlightenment philosophy even as he led religious revivals. The two movements coexisted and reinforced each other in pushing colonists to think independently, a habit that would prove revolutionary.