During the eighteenth century, colonists in america
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If you're behind a web filter, please make sure that the domains *.kastatic.org and *.kasandbox.org are unblocked. Against a prevailing view that eighteenth-century Americans had not perpetuated the first settlers' passionate commitment to their faith, scholars now identify a high level of religious energy in colonies after 1700. According to one expert, religion was in the "ascension rather than the declension"; another sees a "rising vitality in religious life" from 1700 onward; a third finds religion in many parts of the colonies in a state of "feverish growth." Figures on church attendance and church formation support these opinions. Between 1700 and 1740, an estimated 75 to 80 percent of the population attended churches, which were being built at a headlong pace. Toward mid-century the country experienced its first major religious revival. The Great Awakening swept the English-speaking world, as religious energy vibrated between England, Wales, Scotland and the American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s. In America, the Awakening signaled the advent of an encompassing evangelicalism--the belief that the essence of religious experience was the "new birth," inspired by the preaching of the Word. It invigorated even as it divided churches. The supporters of the Awakening and its evangelical thrust--Presbyterians, Baptists and Methodists--became the largest American Protestant denominations by the first decades of the nineteenth century. Opponents of the Awakening or those split by it--Anglicans, Quakers, and Congregationalists--were left behind. Another religious movement that was the antithesis of evangelicalism made its appearance in the eighteenth century. Deism, which emphasized morality and rejected the orthodox Christian view of the divinity of Christ, found advocates among upper-class Americans. Conspicuous among them were Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. Deists, never more than "a minority within a minority," were submerged by evangelicalism in the nineteenth century. The Appearance of Eighteenth-Century ChurchesChurches in eighteenth-century America came in all sizes and shapes, from the plain, modest buildings in newly settled rural areas to elegant edifices in the prosperous cities on the eastern seaboard. Churches reflected the customs and traditions as well as the wealth and social status of the denominations that built them. Hence, a new Anglican Church in rural Goose Creek, South Carolina, was fitted out with an impressive wood-carved pulpit, while a fledgling Baptist Church in rural Virginia had only the bare essentials. German churches contained features unknown in English ones. An Early Episcopal ChurchGrowth of the Eighteenth-Century Church
Christ Church, PhiladelphiaA Rural Baptist Church
Lutheran Church ServicesIn Side of the Old Lutheran Church in 1800, inYork, Pa. Watercolor with pen and ink by Lewis Miller, c. 1800. The Historical Society of York County, Pennsylvania (56) Back to top Deism"Deism" is a loosely used term that describes the views of certain English and continental thinkers. These views attracted a following in Europe toward the latter part of the seventeenth century and gained a small but influential number of adherents in America in the late eighteenth century. Deism stressed morality and rejected the orthodox Christian view of the divinity of Christ, often viewing him as nothing more than a "sublime" teacher of morality. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams are usually considered the leading American deists. There is no doubt that they subscribed to the deist credo that all religious claims were to be subjected to the scrutiny of reason. "Call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion," Jefferson advised. Other founders of the American republic, including George Washington, are frequently identified as deists, although the evidence supporting such judgments is often thin. Deists in the United States never amounted to more than a small percentage of an evangelical population. Bolingbroke's Influence on Thomas JeffersonThomas Jefferson's Literary Commonplace BookBack to top The Emergence of American Evangelicalism: The Great AwakeningEvangelicalism is difficult to date and to define. In 1531, at the beginning of the Reformation, Sir Thomas More referred to religious adversaries as "Evaungelicalles." Scholars have argued that, as a self-conscious movement, evangelicalism did not arise until the mid-seventeenth century, perhaps not until the Great Awakening itself. The fundamental premise of evangelicalism is the conversion of individuals from a state of sin to a "new birth" through preaching of the Word. The first generation of New England Puritans required that church members undergo a conversion experience that they could describe publicly. Their successors were not as successful in reaping harvests of redeemed souls. During the first decades of the eighteenth century in the Connecticut River Valley a series of local "awakenings" began. By the 1730s they had spread into what was interpreted as a general outpouring of the Spirit that bathed the American colonies, England, Wales, and Scotland. In mass open-air revivals powerful preachers like George Whitefield brought thousands of souls to the new birth. The Great Awakening, which had spent its force in New England by the mid-1740s, split the Congregational and Presbyterian Churches into supporters--called "New Lights" and "New Side"--and opponents--the "Old Lights" and "Old Side." Many New England New Lights became Separate Baptists. Together with New Side Presbyterians (eventually reunited on their own terms with the Old Side) they carried the Great Awakening into the southern colonies, igniting a series of the revivals that lasted well into the nineteenth century. George WhitefieldGeorge Whitefield. Oil on canvas, attributed to Joseph Badger (1708-1765), c. 1743-65, Harvard University Portrait Collection, Gift of Mrs. H.P. (Sarah O.) Oliver to Harvard College, 1852 (62) Preaching in the FieldPortable field pulpit. Oak, c. 1742-1770. American Tract Society, Garland, Texas (63) Whitefield on the New Birth
Whitefield's DeathGeorge Whitefield's Burial. Woodcut from Phillis [Wheatley], An Elegiac Poem on the Death of that celebrated Divine and eminent Servant of Jesus Christ, the Reverend and learned George Whitefield. Boston: Ezekiel Russell, 1770. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (67) Jonathan EdwardsJonathan Edwards. White pine tinted with oils, C. Keith Wilbur, M.D., 1982. Courtesy of the artist (68) The Revival of NorthamptonSinners WarnedSinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Jonathan Edwards, Boston: 1741. Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations (70) Trans-Atlantic EvangelicalismBack to top Gilbert TennentGilbert Tennent. Oil on canvas, attributed to Gustavus Hesselius (1682-1755). Princeton University (72) Criticism of Other MinistersFundraising for PrincetonSamuel DaviesSamuel Davies. Oil on canvas. Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education, Richmond, Virginia (75) Presbyterian Communion Tokens
The BaptistsBaptism in Schuylkill River. Woodcut from Morgan Edwards, Materials Towards A History of the American Baptists. Copyprint, Philadelphia: 1770. Historical Society of Pennsylvania (77b) Francis AsburyFrancis Asbury. Oil on canvas by Charles Peale Polk, 1794. Lovely Lane Museum of United Methodist Historical Society, Baltimore (78) Beginning of the MethodistsOrganization of the MethodistsMethodist Itinerant System. G. Stebbins and G. King, Broadside. New York: John Totten, 1810-11 [?]. Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations (80) What happened in the US in the 18th century?The Great Awakening swept over each of the 13 English colonies. It was their first common American experience. The colonies evolved a democratic political structure and because of the Frontier, much more egalitarian than Britain itself. Britain and France fought what amounted to a world war in the 18th century.
What was the eighteenth century known for?Also known as the Age of Enlightenment, the century pioneered rational philosophy, social and political satire, travel and adventure writing, and gothic horror fiction.
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