WEBVTT NOTE 29. The Great Awakening 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.720 Volume 2, Chapter 29, The Great Awakening 2 00:00:05.720 --> 00:00:11.880 Into this relaxing atmosphere came a great reaction, which has become known in rather 3 00:00:11.880 --> 00:00:16.240 loaded terms as the Great Awakening. 4 00:00:16.240 --> 00:00:21.920 Since the Great Awakening was certainly a people's movement, it has been dubbed as necessarily 5 00:00:21.920 --> 00:00:29.760 a progressive force by Marxist and neo-Marxist historians, but it was nothing of the sort. 6 00:00:29.760 --> 00:00:37.280 The Great Awakening was a profoundly reactionary counterblow to the emergence of a liberal 7 00:00:37.280 --> 00:00:42.960 and more rational and cosmopolitan religious atmosphere. 8 00:00:42.960 --> 00:00:50.480 It set itself determinedly against all that was enlightened and constituted an attempt 9 00:00:50.480 --> 00:00:55.800 to return to the pure Calvinism of the previous century. 10 00:00:55.800 --> 00:01:01.000 This is particularly true of the form taken by the Great Awakening in New England, where 11 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:05.800 the religious revival had its most eminent leader. 12 00:01:05.800 --> 00:01:11.760 The founder of the Great Awakening in New England was the Reverend Jonathan Edwards, 13 00:01:11.760 --> 00:01:17.140 minister of the important inland town of Northampton, Massachusetts. 14 00:01:17.140 --> 00:01:22.800 Born in Connecticut, young Edwards, who came from a long line of Puritan ministers on both 15 00:01:22.800 --> 00:01:30.160 Both his father's side and his mother's was graduated from and taught at Yale, the center 16 00:01:30.160 --> 00:01:39.320 of Puritan orthodoxy. He then took up his post at Northampton in 1727. Edwards was horrified 17 00:01:39.320 --> 00:01:47.920 to find Northampton happily filled with a most unpuritan addiction to mirth and jollity, 18 00:01:47.920 --> 00:01:51.240 including the frequenting of taverns. 19 00:01:51.240 --> 00:01:57.360 Edwards began to thunder at these modern corruptions and moved on to rail at the rising menace 20 00:01:57.360 --> 00:02:04.360 of Arminianism and its pappest view that salvation was a function of a man's free will and his 21 00:02:04.360 --> 00:02:06.920 consequent good works. 22 00:02:06.920 --> 00:02:13.480 What was happening to the good old creed of their fathers, of the depravity of man, of 23 00:02:13.480 --> 00:02:20.160 the predestination of the elect, of reliance on faith and not on reason. 24 00:02:20.160 --> 00:02:27.420 Was the pervasive Calvinist fear of hellfire and damnation to be replaced by the modern 25 00:02:27.420 --> 00:02:31.560 namby-pamby view that God is love? 26 00:02:31.560 --> 00:02:38.320 To the sinners, and who is not a sinner, Edwards warned, the God that holds you over the pit 27 00:02:38.320 --> 00:02:45.040 of Hell, much as anyone holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire abhors 28 00:02:45.040 --> 00:02:53.240 you and is dreadfully provoked, his wrath towards you burns like fire. It is possible 29 00:02:53.240 --> 00:03:01.000 to pinpoint the time when the rapidly growing influence of this oratory reached a crisis 30 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:10.100 and accelerated and burst into flame. December 1734. Religious concerns swept the people 31 00:03:10.100 --> 00:03:16.920 of Northampton. Other discourse than of the things of religion would scarcely be tolerated 32 00:03:16.920 --> 00:03:25.840 in any company. In an orgy of proclaiming their repentance, over 300 people of Northampton 33 00:03:25.840 --> 00:03:32.600 soon professed conversion to the true faith. Children formed prayer groups to repent the 34 00:03:32.600 --> 00:03:40.240 monstrousness of their sins, and Edward's own uncle committed suicide in remorse. The 35 00:03:40.240 --> 00:03:46.620 intense religious excitement faded in Northampton by the spring, but the precedent had been 36 00:03:46.620 --> 00:03:55.040 set and the revivals of the Great Awakening spread to other towns in the colonies. Apart 37 00:03:55.040 --> 00:04:02.440 Apart from the content of the creed, the mechanism and strategy of the revival movement was profoundly 38 00:04:02.440 --> 00:04:04.840 reactionary. 39 00:04:04.840 --> 00:04:12.200 In contrast to the older Calvinism, it functioned by whipping up the emotions of the masses rather 40 00:04:12.200 --> 00:04:16.840 than by serving or convincing their intellect. 41 00:04:16.840 --> 00:04:22.640 With emotional frenzy and hysteria suspending sober and rational conviction, the leaders 42 00:04:22.640 --> 00:04:29.300 of the Revivals soon reached the point of making this frenzy the acid test of a person's 43 00:04:29.300 --> 00:04:36.800 true Christianity. A man, even a minister of Christ, was still a sinner unless he too 44 00:04:36.800 --> 00:04:43.640 had been born again and experienced conversion by emotional hysteria. 45 00:04:43.640 --> 00:04:52.520 Meanwhile, the Great Awakening had begun independently among Calvinists in New Jersey. It was launched 46 00:04:52.520 --> 00:04:59.760 Published there by the Rev. Theodor J. Frelinghuysen of the Dutch Reformed Church. Frelinghuysen 47 00:04:59.760 --> 00:05:07.960 arrived in New Jersey from Holland in 1720 and immediately began an evangelistic revivalism, 48 00:05:07.960 --> 00:05:15.500 attacking the sobriety and intellectuality of Dutch Reformed orthodoxy. The new revivalism 49 00:05:15.500 --> 00:05:26.500 The Catholicism soon split the Dutch churches into pro and anti-Frelinghuysen factions, which were battling furiously by 1723. 50 00:05:26.500 --> 00:05:33.500 In three more years, Frelinghuysen's converts were increasing and spreading beyond New Jersey. 51 00:05:33.500 --> 00:05:41.500 A particularly important convert was the Reverend Gilbert Tennant, a young English-speaking Presbyterian, 52 00:05:41.500 --> 00:05:46.860 who took up the task of spreading the revival among Presbyterians in New Jersey. 53 00:05:46.860 --> 00:05:53.620 Tennant and his ministerial brothers soon controlled the New Brunswick Presbytery of Central New 54 00:05:53.620 --> 00:06:00.820 Jersey, and emotional revivalism spread throughout rural New Jersey and to Newark and on to Long 55 00:06:00.820 --> 00:06:03.300 Island and Pennsylvania. 56 00:06:03.300 --> 00:06:08.700 The revival encountered bitter opposition among the Presbyterian ministry, angry at 57 00:06:08.700 --> 00:06:18.140 The Various Trends of the Revival Movement were soon fused into a great awakening by 58 00:06:18.140 --> 00:06:25.200 the first of the continental tours of the famous English evangelical preacher, the Reverend 59 00:06:25.200 --> 00:06:27.500 George Whitefield. 60 00:06:27.500 --> 00:06:33.820 Young Whitefield was one of the first members of the small Holy Club at Oxford University, 61 00:06:33.820 --> 00:06:40.820 which stressed evangelical preaching to the masses and constituted the first of the Methodists. 62 00:06:40.820 --> 00:06:48.820 Graduated from Oxford in 1736, Whitefield was ordained an Anglican priest and soon won 63 00:06:48.820 --> 00:06:57.120 fame as by far the most popular and crowd-pleasing evangelist of the day. It was soon to become 64 00:06:57.120 --> 00:07:02.880 It is some evident, however, that Whitefield was not a true Methodist, for while he and 65 00:07:02.880 --> 00:07:10.280 John Wesley used similar evangelical methods, Wesley was at once a liberal believer in free 66 00:07:10.280 --> 00:07:17.760 will and in more rigorous observation of the Anglican rite, while Whitefield cared little 67 00:07:17.760 --> 00:07:23.240 for ritual and a great deal for Calvinist orthodoxy. 68 00:07:23.240 --> 00:07:30.160 Whitefield and his followers soon broke off to form the Calvinistic Methodists. 69 00:07:30.160 --> 00:07:37.640 Whitefield's important tour of America took place in 1739 and 1740 as he crisscrossed 70 00:07:37.640 --> 00:07:44.720 the colonies, drawing enormous crowds, arousing great enthusiasm, and cementing the whole 71 00:07:44.720 --> 00:07:46.960 revival movement. 72 00:07:46.960 --> 00:07:52.440 Harvard students were roused and converted on mouse, and even the cynical Benjamin Franklin 73 00:07:52.440 --> 00:07:59.440 was greatly impressed. In contrast, the brilliant young liberal Jonathan Mayhew, studying for 74 00:07:59.440 --> 00:08:06.040 the ministry at Harvard, wrote bitterly of Whitefield's largely subliterate following. 75 00:08:06.040 --> 00:08:16.040 As for himself, I heard him, Whitefield, once, and it was as low, confused, puerile, conceited, 76 00:08:16.040 --> 00:08:26.360 Whitefield polarized the religious structure of the colonies by thundering his attacks 77 00:08:26.360 --> 00:08:31.040 against the dominant clergy and their parishioners. 78 00:08:31.040 --> 00:08:37.640 All too many historians have been misled into treating this movement as a great lower-class 79 00:08:37.640 --> 00:08:41.960 protest against the wealthy and the dominant classes. 80 00:08:41.960 --> 00:08:49.580 An attack and a protest it was, but of what kind? Not any sort of egalitarian or Marxist 81 00:08:49.580 --> 00:08:58.040 rallying cry, but a profoundly reactionary and demagogic appeal to the masses against 82 00:08:58.040 --> 00:09:06.680 the liberalism, cosmopolitanism, intellectualism and sobriety of the religion of the day. In 83 00:09:06.680 --> 00:09:14.520 In short, this was a cry of mystical religious fundamentalism against the trappings of civilization 84 00:09:14.520 --> 00:09:21.440 that had begun to emerge in America. Whitefield denounced Christians and their ministers for 85 00:09:21.440 --> 00:09:28.680 not having experienced their Christianity in an emotional frenzy. He deplored colleges 86 00:09:28.680 --> 00:09:35.880 such as Harvard for being seedbeds of liberalism. He vilified the luxuries of the rich. That 87 00:09:35.880 --> 00:09:56.880 Whitefield's triumphal tour introduced him to his admiring allies Tennent and Edwards. 88 00:09:56.880 --> 00:10:02.920 Tennent was moved to level a bitter attack on the unconverted ministry, and to the applause 89 00:10:02.920 --> 00:10:10.040 As of Whitefield and other evangelists joined in trying to weed out of Christianity all 90 00:10:10.040 --> 00:10:15.600 those ministers who did not support the revival movement. 91 00:10:15.600 --> 00:10:20.720 Whitefield's preaching in Northampton brought a dramatic new upsurge of revivalism to New 92 00:10:20.720 --> 00:10:22.220 England. 93 00:10:22.220 --> 00:10:29.080 During early 1741, Edwards and other ministers became itinerant evangelists throughout New 94 00:10:29.080 --> 00:10:36.880 New England, arousing demonstrations of frenzy and huge crowds. Edwards warned of sinners 95 00:10:36.880 --> 00:10:42.960 in the hands of an angry god, and the Reverend James Davenport from Long Island denounced 96 00:10:42.960 --> 00:10:49.640 the bulk of the Massachusetts ministry as unconverted and leading their people blindfold 97 00:10:49.640 --> 00:10:56.960 to hell. These bitter attacks of course provoked a counter movement in the churches. The reaction 98 00:10:56.960 --> 00:11:03.640 as well as the attacks spread through various denominations. As we have seen, Whitefield 99 00:11:03.640 --> 00:11:10.760 paid no attention to the Anglican creed and made his appeal to all Calvinists. The polarization 100 00:11:10.760 --> 00:11:16.160 in Massachusetts and New England especially highlights the nature of the Great Awakening 101 00:11:16.160 --> 00:11:23.160 itself. For the opposition to the Great Awakening consisted of two disparate groups. The conservatives 102 00:11:23.160 --> 00:11:30.560 The Conservatives, like the Reverend Mr. Wigglesworth, aghast at the emotionalism and anti-intellectualism 103 00:11:30.560 --> 00:11:37.360 of the revival, and the Liberals, headed by the Reverend Charles Chauncey of the First 104 00:11:37.360 --> 00:11:43.360 Church of Boston, who opposed virtually anything the awakening stood for. 105 00:11:43.360 --> 00:11:48.640 The criticisms of the two groups unsurprisingly differed. 106 00:11:48.640 --> 00:11:55.320 Wigglesworth centered his attack on the disorderly individuality of the revival movement, whereas 107 00:11:55.320 --> 00:12:04.320 Chauncey, in his Seasonable Thoughts on the State of Religion in New England, 1743, concentrated 108 00:12:04.320 --> 00:12:11.160 on its fundamentalist emotionalism. By the very nature of polarization, it was inevitable 109 00:12:11.160 --> 00:12:16.800 that the most thoroughgoing group of critics, the liberals, should take the lead in attacking 110 00:12:16.800 --> 00:12:22.960 in the Great Awakening. Epitomizing the liberal, rationalist attack on the awakening in the 111 00:12:22.960 --> 00:12:29.960 colonies was this statement by Filarities in the South Carolina Gazette. As none but 112 00:12:30.800 --> 00:12:37.360 rational creatures are capable of religion, so there is no true religion but in the use 113 00:12:37.360 --> 00:12:44.360 of reason. If we do not make it our own by understanding the reasons for it, we offer 114 00:12:44.360 --> 00:12:58.600 The Congregational Ministry soon split into the New Lights, who joined in the Awakening, 115 00:12:58.600 --> 00:13:01.720 and the Old Lights, who opposed it. 116 00:13:01.720 --> 00:13:07.920 The majority of the Massachusetts Ministerial Convention condemned the revival for its errors 117 00:13:07.920 --> 00:13:14.340 and disorders, while in Connecticut the General Convocation of the established ministry induced 118 00:13:14.340 --> 00:13:30.340 The Revivalist government used the legislature to prohibit itinerant preaching. Throughout New England, Revivalists were splitting from their congregations and forming separate churches to become known generally as Separatist. 119 00:13:30.340 --> 00:13:39.140 Emotions, particularly frenzied emotions, are notoriously fleeting, and the Old Light counterattack 120 00:13:39.140 --> 00:13:45.460 was soon able to crush the New Light movement, even in Northampton, where not a single new 121 00:13:45.460 --> 00:13:53.220 member joined the Church from 1744 to 1748. Whitefield's second tour of New England in 122 00:13:53.220 --> 00:14:01.060 1744 was hardly triumphal. Although he attracted thousands, he was generally rebuffed and denounced 123 00:14:01.060 --> 00:14:08.260 by ministerial associations and by Yale as well as Harvard. Ironically, Jonathan Edwards 124 00:14:08.260 --> 00:14:15.820 was even ousted from his home parish at Northampton in 1750 when he abandoned the liberal practice 125 00:14:15.820 --> 00:14:22.980 of his predecessors in administering the sacraments to unregenerate members. This was far too 126 00:14:22.980 --> 00:14:34.100 In New Jersey, the battle between the Evangelicals or New Side Party and the Old Side Party came 127 00:14:34.100 --> 00:14:41.540 to a head at the meeting of the Presbyterian Synod of 1741. The Old Siders expelled the 128 00:14:41.540 --> 00:14:47.800 New Side for their itinerant activities, their bitter attacks, and their emotional stress 129 00:14:47.800 --> 00:14:54.340 Press on Hellfire. After vain attempts to win their return, the New Lights set up their 130 00:14:54.340 --> 00:15:03.340 own New York Synod in 1745 at Elizabethtown, New Jersey. The developments after the Presbyterian 131 00:15:03.340 --> 00:15:10.800 split, however, were the opposite of the congregational experience. The New Siders attracted the young 132 00:15:10.800 --> 00:15:33.600 The New Ciders founded the College of New Jersey, later Princeton, in 1746, as the first 133 00:15:33.600 --> 00:15:39.720 The first college of The Awakening, and this college became the main training ground of 134 00:15:39.720 --> 00:15:46.320 Presbyterianism in America. And the College of New Jersey symbolized its new position 135 00:15:46.320 --> 00:15:53.200 as the fortress of Calvinist orthodoxy, taking the honors from an old light Yale, when it 136 00:15:53.200 --> 00:16:00.540 named Edwards its president shortly before his death. The immigrant Ulster Scots, formerly 137 00:16:00.540 --> 00:16:06.540 The conservatives, however, stood no chance there, for they called for remaining under the authority of the Classes of Amsterdam, as well as for services in the Dutch language, 138 00:16:30.540 --> 00:16:37.740 Where as evangelicals wanted independence for the American Church and preaching in English. 139 00:16:37.740 --> 00:16:45.240 Eventually, in 1772, the split was healed on evangelical terms. 140 00:16:45.240 --> 00:16:51.720 As the New Side became dominant among young Presbyterians and finally conquered the Church, 141 00:16:51.720 --> 00:16:57.680 the new Presbyterian ministers to the Ulster Scott naturally brought the Great Awakening 142 00:16:57.680 --> 00:16:59.720 to the South. 143 00:16:59.720 --> 00:17:06.020 Early in the awakening, a revival movement had begun among lay Presbyterians in Hanover 144 00:17:06.020 --> 00:17:14.100 County in the Virginia Piedmont. Led by Samuel Morris and inspired by Whitefield's sermons, 145 00:17:14.100 --> 00:17:21.260 they persisted as a new-side center, nourished by visiting new-side ministers. When the Reverend 146 00:17:21.260 --> 00:17:28.860 John Roane in 1745 bitterly denounced the established church and its ministers, Governor 147 00:17:28.860 --> 00:17:34.420 Professor William Gooch, with equal bitterness, condemned such false teachers who, without 148 00:17:34.420 --> 00:17:42.780 order or license, lead the innocent and ignorant people into all kinds of delusion, including 149 00:17:42.780 --> 00:17:49.900 railing against our religious establishment. In response, the Virginia grand jury indicted 150 00:17:49.900 --> 00:17:57.020 Rome for vilifying the established religion, as well as to laymen for speaking ill of the 151 00:17:57.020 --> 00:18:03.660 of the Establishment, and for allowing Rome to speak in an unlicensed House of Worship. 152 00:18:03.660 --> 00:18:10.500 The three were eventually convicted and forced to pay small fines in court cost. The empattled 153 00:18:10.500 --> 00:18:17.220 old-siders of the Philadelphia Synod welcomed Gooch's intervention against their enemies. 154 00:18:17.220 --> 00:18:22.860 The new-siders won permission to continue operations from Gooch, but two years later 155 00:18:22.860 --> 00:18:30.060 The governor and council issued a proclamation to prohibit all itinerant preachers. 156 00:18:30.060 --> 00:18:35.420 At this point, the new lights of Virginia were saved by the arrival of the young Reverend 157 00:18:35.420 --> 00:18:41.540 Samuel Davies as the first settled Presbyterian minister in the region. 158 00:18:41.540 --> 00:18:47.860 The relatively moderate Davies was able to win a license to preach from Virginia's governor 159 00:18:47.860 --> 00:18:49.980 and general court. 160 00:18:49.980 --> 00:18:55.540 The Reverend Mr. Davies actually won the hearts of the Virginia authorities with his fervent 161 00:18:55.540 --> 00:18:59.580 warmongering during the French and Indian War. 162 00:18:59.580 --> 00:19:04.220 Davies found it easy to substitute the enemy for the devil in his sermons. 163 00:19:04.220 --> 00:19:10.780 Thus, ye that love your country, enlist, for honor will follow you in life or death in 164 00:19:10.780 --> 00:19:12.500 such a course. 165 00:19:12.500 --> 00:19:18.700 Ye that love your religion, enlist, for your religion is in danger. 166 00:19:18.700 --> 00:19:25.100 Can Protestant Christianity expect quarters from heathen savages and French pappists? 167 00:19:25.100 --> 00:19:31.460 Sure, in such an alliance the powers of hell make a third party. Ye that love your friends 168 00:19:31.460 --> 00:19:39.100 and relations enlist, lest ye see them enslaved and butchered before your eyes. 169 00:19:39.100 --> 00:19:44.700 Shortly after this bit of elegant demagoguery, the Reverend Mr. Davies achieved the pinnacle 170 00:20:14.700 --> 00:20:24.380 The Baptist, however, labored under no such handicaps, and a fateful shift in the Baptist 171 00:20:24.380 --> 00:20:30.700 creed enabled them to fill this gap after mid-century. 172 00:20:30.700 --> 00:20:37.980 The Baptist had begun in the colonies in mid-17th century Rhode Island. There they emerged not 173 00:20:37.980 --> 00:20:46.100 not only as a liberal but as a radically individualist group. Their creed was individualism, not 174 00:20:46.100 --> 00:20:54.180 only in religion but also in political philosophy, to the point of anarchism. The religious individualism 175 00:20:54.180 --> 00:21:01.220 of the Rhode Island Baptists, however, was not frenzied Calvinist orthodoxy but a liberal 176 00:21:01.220 --> 00:21:07.060 and Rationalistic Creed that tended toward Arminianism and Deism. 177 00:21:07.060 --> 00:21:15.200 It is not surprising that, with such a heroically radical creed, the Baptists did not exactly 178 00:21:15.200 --> 00:21:17.460 flourish in the colonies. 179 00:21:17.460 --> 00:21:22.900 They managed to grow moderately, however, and to establish centers in Virginia, North 180 00:21:22.900 --> 00:21:29.640 Carolina, South Carolina, and New York early in the 18th century, in addition to their 181 00:21:29.640 --> 00:21:59.640 The New and Expanding Colony of Religious Liberty, Pennsylvania, The First General Organization of American Baptists, 1707 182 00:21:59.640 --> 00:22:07.800 Within Baptism, The General, that is, those subscribing to the individualist, rationalist 183 00:22:07.800 --> 00:22:16.600 and Armenian creed, and the independently founded Particular Baptist, that is, Orthodox 184 00:22:16.600 --> 00:22:24.560 Calvinist except for their opposition to infant baptism and differences over church polity. 185 00:22:24.560 --> 00:22:31.360 The American Baptist had always been Arminian, but the church had remained small. Under the 186 00:22:31.360 --> 00:22:37.760 impact of the Calvinist outburst of the Great Awakening, the Philadelphia Association, in 187 00:22:37.760 --> 00:22:43.720 a fateful turning point in Baptist history, abandoned the great tradition of the American 188 00:22:43.720 --> 00:22:53.280 Church and swung over to rigid Calvinism in 1742. The Baptist had not yet gone so far 189 00:22:53.280 --> 00:23:00.060 to join the awakening, but this drastic switch to Calvinism paved the way for their eventual 190 00:23:00.060 --> 00:23:05.800 surrender to the New Movement. It soon became clear that the old lights were winning the 191 00:23:05.800 --> 00:23:12.080 struggle for the capture of the Puritan Churches of New England. Many of the separated new 192 00:23:12.080 --> 00:23:19.600 lights, harassed as unrecognized churches, then took the opportunity to declare themselves 193 00:23:49.600 --> 00:23:58.400 The Baptist were now not only Calvinist, but New Light Separatist to boot. By 1764, the 194 00:23:58.400 --> 00:24:05.060 Baptist were strong enough to found Rhode Island College, later Brown University, though 195 00:24:05.060 --> 00:24:10.880 it began on liberal principles, with various Protestant sects sharing in control of the 196 00:24:10.880 --> 00:24:19.480 college. By the early 1760s, the Baptist were ready to meet the Ulster Scots, and the Presbyterians 197 00:24:19.480 --> 00:24:28.120 Southward. To meet the demands of the masses, they allowed virtually anyone, even illiterates, 198 00:24:28.120 --> 00:24:36.480 to dub themselves ministers and to take up evangelical preaching. By 1760, the separate 199 00:24:36.480 --> 00:24:44.260 Baptist, led by the former New Light Connecticut Congregationalist Schubal Stearns, had taken 200 00:24:44.260 --> 00:24:51.260 The San Diego Baptist Church was opened up headquarters at Sandy Creek in Guilford County in western North Carolina. 201 00:24:51.260 --> 00:24:58.260 From there the Sandy Creek Association spread the separate Baptist gospel into Virginia and South Carolina. 202 00:24:58.260 --> 00:25:07.260 They soon far overivided the sober and educated older or regular Baptist churches in these provinces. 203 00:25:07.260 --> 00:25:13.300 Moreover, with their enthusiasm and uneducated ministry, the separate Baptists were able 204 00:25:13.300 --> 00:25:20.740 after 1760 to grow far more rapidly in the South than were the Presbyterians. Indeed, 205 00:25:20.740 --> 00:25:26.220 they grew extremely rapidly, especially in Virginia and North Carolina. In the years 206 00:25:26.220 --> 00:25:34.380 1768 to 1770, the period of the Great Persecution, the angered Virginia government arrested and 207 00:25:34.380 --> 00:25:41.460 I imprisoned over 30 separate Baptist ministers as disturbers of the peace, but the persecutions 208 00:25:41.460 --> 00:25:47.900 only serve to multiply rather than restrict the number of Baptist adherents. 209 00:25:47.900 --> 00:25:52.660 Despite Whitefield's original connection with the Church of England, the Anglican Church 210 00:25:52.660 --> 00:25:56.740 remained a stronghold of opposition to the Great Awakivid. 211 00:25:56.740 --> 00:26:03.120 Indeed, many old-siders, when defeated in their own communions, turned to the Anglican 212 00:26:03.120 --> 00:26:10.200 Methodism began as an evangelical tendency within the Church of England. As such, it 213 00:26:10.200 --> 00:26:17.440 first took root in the colonies in 1763 in Dinwiddie County in southern Virginia, with 214 00:26:17.440 --> 00:26:24.320 the New Light preaching of the Reverend Devereux Jarrett. Cooperating with Methodist lay preachers 215 00:26:24.320 --> 00:26:29.720 emerging in New York and Maryland, Methodism grew rapidly in the vicinity of Jarrett's 216 00:26:29.720 --> 00:26:37.720 Of all the major church groups, the Quakers were the least affected by the Great Awakening. 217 00:26:37.720 --> 00:26:45.760 The Quakers were already fiatistic and individualistic and thus were not affected by this major attraction 218 00:26:45.760 --> 00:26:47.520 of the Awakening. 219 00:26:47.520 --> 00:26:54.720 Two, the Quaker creed was highly optimistic and liberal and at the opposite pole from 220 00:26:54.720 --> 00:26:59.560 the rigid, predestinarian, Calvinist theology. 221 00:26:59.560 --> 00:27:06.940 The consequences of dynamic new movements are not always the same as their original objectives. 222 00:27:06.940 --> 00:27:12.800 For one thing, although the Great Awakening was by no means an economic class struggle 223 00:27:12.800 --> 00:27:20.720 in intent, its permanent consequence was to bring about a sharp religious split throughout 224 00:27:20.720 --> 00:27:27.220 the colonies along income and educational class lines. 225 00:27:27.220 --> 00:27:36.380 The upper classes would remain sober and rationalistic, whether as Quakers, Deists, Liberal Congregationalists, 226 00:27:36.380 --> 00:27:41.060 Conservative Congregationalists or Anglicans. 227 00:27:41.060 --> 00:27:49.700 The lower classes would adopt emotional and evangelistic creeds as New Side Presbyterians, 228 00:27:49.700 --> 00:27:52.660 Methodists or Baptists. 229 00:27:52.660 --> 00:28:00.620 Previously in America, there had been few, if any, religious splits along class lines. 230 00:28:00.620 --> 00:28:06.780 The Great Awakening, while reactionary in nature, also had progressive and libertarian 231 00:28:06.780 --> 00:28:08.780 consequences. 232 00:28:08.780 --> 00:28:13.660 The Awakening split had fragmented the Protestant churches. 233 00:28:13.660 --> 00:28:18.940 In doing so, the New Lights found themselves at war with the established church in the 234 00:28:18.940 --> 00:28:25.340 the various colonies, with the Puritans in New England and the Anglicans in the South. 235 00:28:25.340 --> 00:28:30.660 At war with the establishment, the New Lides were willy-nilly pushed by the logic of their 236 00:28:30.660 --> 00:28:37.460 situation into libertarian positions, and they contributed greatly to the weakening 237 00:28:37.460 --> 00:28:44.300 of the establishment in New England and the South. Liberalism in Massachusetts and indifference 238 00:28:44.300 --> 00:28:51.460 in the South had already weakened these establishments internally, and the fissures opened by The 239 00:28:51.460 --> 00:28:55.180 Awakening greatly furthered this task. 240 00:28:55.180 --> 00:29:01.900 Moreover, the ensuing multiplication of sects made it far more difficult for any one sect 241 00:29:01.900 --> 00:29:05.620 to establish itself in place of the old creed. 242 00:29:05.620 --> 00:29:13.420 In short, The Awakening permanently made matters far more difficult for any sect to become 243 00:29:13.420 --> 00:29:20.420 or Remain and Established Religion. The most severe struggle against establishment 244 00:29:20.460 --> 00:29:26.180 came in Connecticut, where control by the established quasi-presbyterian church was 245 00:29:26.180 --> 00:29:33.000 far more rigorous than in the more liberal and more truly congregationalist Massachusetts. 246 00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:38.820 The Connecticut old lights, in control of the established church, were far more willing 247 00:29:38.820 --> 00:29:54.500 In 1742, the Connecticut Assembly outlawed itinerant as well as unlicensed preaching and 248 00:29:54.500 --> 00:30:01.220 took away tax support from new light ministers. Unlicensed or itinerant ministers were to 249 00:30:01.220 --> 00:30:08.620 be fined or expelled from the colony. The following year, toleration of dissent as established 250 00:30:08.620 --> 00:30:16.520 in the Act of 1708 was repealed and religious dissidents were required to obtain special 251 00:30:16.520 --> 00:30:22.980 permission from the assembly. When the New Lights tried to set up their own training school, 252 00:30:22.980 --> 00:30:29.800 the Connecticut Legislature passed a law prohibiting any school, college or seminary from being 253 00:30:29.800 --> 00:30:37.000 created without the license of the assembly. For unlicensed preaching at Milford and New 254 00:30:37.000 --> 00:30:43.120 New Haven, the New Light Presbyterian Reverend Samuel Finley, afterwards President of the 255 00:30:43.120 --> 00:30:50.040 College of New Jersey, was arrested and expelled from the colony. Furthermore, suspected New 256 00:30:50.040 --> 00:30:56.660 Lights were ejected from public office, and elected representatives from New Light towns 257 00:30:56.660 --> 00:31:04.120 such as Canterbury, Plainfield, and Lyme in eastern Connecticut were refused their seats 258 00:31:04.120 --> 00:31:06.620 in the Assembly. 259 00:31:06.620 --> 00:31:11.940 The old-siders were by no means alone in persecuting the Great Awakening. 260 00:31:11.940 --> 00:31:15.100 This was particularly true among the liberals. 261 00:31:15.100 --> 00:31:22.940 In 1743, Governor Jonathan Law of Connecticut wrote the powerful, dissenting deputies of 262 00:31:22.940 --> 00:31:28.780 Great Britain, defending the persecutions in view of the troublesomeness of the Great 263 00:31:28.780 --> 00:31:30.900 Awakening movement. 264 00:31:30.900 --> 00:31:38.260 The dissenting deputies replied in a friendly but firm reminder of libertarian principles. 265 00:31:38.260 --> 00:31:45.080 They too deplored the delusions and disruptions of the Great Awakening. But great and manifest 266 00:31:45.080 --> 00:31:51.480 as those mischiefs are, we cannot be of the opinion that the magistrate has anything to 267 00:31:51.480 --> 00:31:57.860 do in this matter, but to see that the public peace is preserved, that there are no riots 268 00:31:57.860 --> 00:32:05.000 or tumults, and that his subjects are not allowed to assault, hurt, maim, wound, plunder, or 269 00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:12.300 kill one another in these religious contests. Laws against differing religious opinions, 270 00:32:12.300 --> 00:32:19.380 on the other hand, are unfortunate, as Connecticut should well have known from the experience 271 00:32:19.380 --> 00:32:25.240 of the establishment in England. The deputies proceeded to criticize sharply the Connecticut 272 00:32:25.240 --> 00:32:33.760 Law of 1742 and its severe penalties for dissent from Connecticut's own establishment. 273 00:32:33.760 --> 00:32:40.440 The deputies concluded eloquently, In short, whether we consider this matter in a religious 274 00:32:40.440 --> 00:32:47.920 or political light, it seems every way most advisable to let these men alone, how wildly 275 00:32:47.920 --> 00:32:53.860 erroneous soever both you and we may take their sentiments to be. 276 00:32:53.860 --> 00:32:59.860 So great was the prestige of the dissenting deputies in New England that, before long, 277 00:32:59.860 --> 00:33:05.380 Connecticut had adopted the bulk of their advice. 278 00:33:05.380 --> 00:33:11.540 The campaign of persecution did not stamp out the New Lights, rather it led to a libertarian 279 00:33:11.540 --> 00:33:15.060 opposition among the New Light Ministry. 280 00:33:15.060 --> 00:33:20.900 The New Light Association of Ministers of Western Fairfield County denounced the use 281 00:33:20.900 --> 00:33:28.700 and the use of the civil power to impose ecclesiastical discipline. They also called for more genuine 282 00:33:28.700 --> 00:33:36.620 congregationalism in the Connecticut Church. The separatist Newlights only came to adopt 283 00:33:36.620 --> 00:33:43.460 a libertarian anti-establishment posture by the logic of their political position as a 284 00:33:43.460 --> 00:33:50.860 dissenting minority, after they had been clearly defeated in their attempt to control the congregational 285 00:33:50.860 --> 00:33:58.860 Only after several years did the logic of the situation push more and more separatists 286 00:33:58.860 --> 00:34:01.980 into opposing an establishment. 287 00:34:01.980 --> 00:34:08.640 The first clear-cut separatist opposition to the principle of establishment in Connecticut 288 00:34:08.640 --> 00:34:15.940 came in 1747 in the town of Canterbury in eastern Connecticut, the site of the colony's 289 00:34:15.940 --> 00:34:21.580 most violent struggle between the two congregational factions. 290 00:34:21.580 --> 00:34:27.340 And from Yale, all of the rebellious New Life students were expelled, and the senior class's 291 00:34:27.340 --> 00:34:34.900 attempt to reprint John Locke's letter on toleration was suppressed by the college. 292 00:34:34.900 --> 00:34:41.060 Finally, the students won their academic religious freedom by threatening to appeal the situation 293 00:34:41.060 --> 00:34:42.900 to the Crown. 294 00:34:42.900 --> 00:34:50.340 At last, the reaction against the persecutions in Connecticut triumphed, and in 1750, the 295 00:34:50.340 --> 00:34:53.820 persecutory laws were repealed. 296 00:34:53.820 --> 00:35:00.460 The Puritan establishment continued on, however, along with taxation of the separatist for 297 00:35:00.460 --> 00:35:04.260 salaries for their tax-supported enemies. 298 00:35:04.260 --> 00:35:10.340 Separate Congregationalists and Baptists continued to be jailed for refusal to pay taxes to 299 00:35:10.340 --> 00:35:12.700 the establishment. 300 00:35:12.700 --> 00:35:19.700 Controls continued between local Congregationalist and the quasi-Presbyterian Church authorities. 301 00:35:19.700 --> 00:35:26.700 And this uncongregational type of control was weakened further in such cases as Wallingford. 302 00:35:26.700 --> 00:35:32.160 There older lights separated from the majority new lights of the local church and were freed 303 00:35:32.160 --> 00:35:39.040 from the obligation to pay taxes for support of a new light minister. This breakdown of 304 00:35:39.040 --> 00:35:46.640 of Central Control helped to weaken the establishment still further. The separate Baptist in particular 305 00:35:46.640 --> 00:35:52.920 inherited a Baptist tradition of religious liberty and separation of church and state 306 00:35:52.920 --> 00:35:59.760 that helped propel them to anti-establishment positions. However, coming from a different 307 00:35:59.760 --> 00:36:05.840 theological wing of their church, they were more influenced by the logic of their struggle 308 00:36:05.840 --> 00:36:13.000 and Their Minority Position. The separate Baptist showed no sign of favoring wider separation 309 00:36:13.000 --> 00:36:20.320 of church and state than equality for their own sect, for example, of advocating repeal 310 00:36:20.320 --> 00:36:27.320 of compulsory church attendance laws, prohibition on work or travel on Sunday, outlawing of 311 00:36:27.320 --> 00:36:34.260 blasphemy or banning of Catholics or deists from public office. 312 00:36:34.260 --> 00:36:39.700 In more liberal Massachusetts, the major fight for religious liberty among new lights was 313 00:36:39.700 --> 00:36:46.020 conducted by the separate Baptist. In contrast to the far more tyrannical Connecticut, there 314 00:36:46.020 --> 00:36:54.260 were no laws against the freedom of the separate Baptist as such. But by the law of 1753, separate 315 00:36:54.260 --> 00:37:01.760 Baptists were in effect deprived of the exemption from taxes for the establishment, an exemption 316 00:37:01.760 --> 00:37:16.760 This flagrant discrimination against the hated new-lights roused the latter to enlarge the libertarian situation into which they had been placed. 317 00:37:46.760 --> 00:37:52.720 Freedom and Independence with all other religious groups in Massachusetts. 318 00:37:52.720 --> 00:37:59.800 A movement grew in Massachusetts to imprison the rash signers of this petition, but wiser 319 00:37:59.800 --> 00:38:01.920 heads prevailed. 320 00:38:01.920 --> 00:38:08.280 It was not until 1770 that the worst features of this discrimination against the separate 321 00:38:08.280 --> 00:38:11.200 Baptist were repealed. 322 00:38:11.200 --> 00:38:15.940 The law served to liberalize the separate Baptist politically. 323 00:38:15.940 --> 00:38:21.580 One of their main leaders in Massachusetts, the Reverend Isaac Backus of Middleboro in 324 00:38:21.580 --> 00:38:29.100 Plymouth County, drew heavily on John Locke's letter on toleration in working out a theory 325 00:38:29.100 --> 00:38:31.800 of religious freedom. 326 00:38:31.800 --> 00:38:38.680 Here and there in the colonies, New Light ministers, repelled by struggles against persecution, 327 00:38:38.680 --> 00:39:08.680 began to adopt a broader libertarian outlook, at least in rhetoric. Thus, the Reverend Mr. Davies referred in 1751 to men's natural right to follow their judgment, including the questioning and even rejection of authority. Davies, however, confined the application of this radical principle to religious matters. On the other hand, the Reverend Aaron Burr 328 00:39:08.680 --> 00:39:16.440 President of Princeton during the 1750s went on to widen the principle, becoming known as a 329 00:39:16.440 --> 00:39:26.200 great friend to liberty, both civil and religious, burr, abhorred tyranny in the state, as well as in the church.