Awakening Freedom: Protestant Revivalism's Effect on the American Revolution

Contemporary studies of the American Revolution tend to focus on either purely secular or religious causes. Such reductionist views obscure the complex interconnection between religion and civil society in colonial America. This study looks at the period of 18th century itinerant revivalism, known a...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Carter,David W
Format: Report
Language:English
Subjects:
AMERICAN REVOLUTION
Colonial America
discourse
Evangelists
government (foreign)
government (united states)
Great Awakening
loyalists
MASS MEDIA
motivation to fight
MUSIC
narrative
Protestantism
rebellion
religion
revivalism
Tennent Gilbert
tyrants
VISUAL ARTS
Whitefield George
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Summary:Contemporary studies of the American Revolution tend to focus on either purely secular or religious causes. Such reductionist views obscure the complex interconnection between religion and civil society in colonial America. This study looks at the period of 18th century itinerant revivalism, known as the Great Awakening, and proposes that the revivalists' actions and messages created an anti-authoritarian narrative of equality and power emanating from the populace that directly influenced the colonists' willingness to resist and take up arms against British authority. In a holistic approach, the study traces the development of the anti-authoritarian narrative through the actions and sermons of the revivalists, coverage in the print media, music and the visual arts. Ultimately, the study finds that the narrative created by the Great Awakening resonated with underlying anti-authoritarian tendencies within the colonists and crossed over to dominate secular discourse in the period leading up to the American Revolution.