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Introduction: Religion and Christianity
The idea that the United States of America was founded as a “Christian” nation is largely inaccurate, but religion's usefulness during the 19
th
century as a motivating force, at least externally, cannot benegated. While there were certainly a few Americans that did not at least publicly claim Christianity,the vast majority of Americans did. Therefore, the words religion and Christianity are interchangeablein the context of 19
th
century America. One was not religious without being Christian. What kind of Christianity is a different matter. From Quakers to Baptists, the United States was home to a widevariety of Christian sects and denominations. The theology emphasized in the Second GreatAwakening was certainly Calvinist in origin in that it was held that all men were sinful. It wasArmenian theology that taught all men could be saved, a doctrine that encouraged the explosion of evangelical passion and social reform movements. This is not true in all circumstances, however, withShakers and Mormons being obvious exceptions. For the purpose of this paper and continuity, I willspeak mainly of Christianity in whatever form when discussing religion in 19
th
century America.
The Two Movements
In order to properly understand 19
th
century reform movements in America, particularly abolitionand women's rights, one must understand the religious motivation behind them.“The emphasis on self-discipline and individual effort at the core of free-labor ideal led Americans to believe that insufficient self-control caused the major social problems of the era.” (Roark et al., 424)Protestants believed that God's judgment was a natural consequence to personal sin, and America wasrife with sin. In order that America might reach it's full potential (New Jerusalem, anyone?) and avoidcatastrophic judgment, many men and women began reforming different American institutions.1
 
Granted, not all were done out of religious motivation. But in abolitionism, the biggest reformmovement of the first half of the 19
th
century, Christianity and this fear of God's judgment weredefinitely major players. How are these two movements connected? Christianity was used to bothsupport and denounce slavery. This being said, it cannot be neglected as a motivating power behindabolitionism.
The Second Great Awakening
Abolitionism and women's rights, were in fact closely related. Both were impacted by the SecondGreat Awakening. Preachers such as Charles Finney used religious reform as a means of socialcontrol. “Motives which determined the use of that power derived from the revival, and they werefrankly millenarian” (Hoffman, Gjerde 286). Finney held that through the efforts of Christian menfollowing God's guidance, the world could be transformed into heaven on Earth. This concept wasdifferent than the second coming of Christ and his thousand-rule reign. Rather, it was intended toconvert that majority of Americans and achieve a kind of Christian Utopia. “After 1831 the goal of revivals was the christianization of the world. With that at stake, membership in a Protestant churchentailed new kinds of personal commitment... With the Finney revival, the ingrown piety of the 1820'sturned outward and aggressive” (Hoffman, Gjerde 287). One of the tenants of Protestantism, or morespecifically, Calvanism, was that man was inherently sinful. Revivalists of the Second GreatAwakening interpreted this to mean that man must be controlled through “a system of moralregulations, founded upon the natural relations between moral beings, and having for its immediate endthe happiness of the community” (Hoffman, Gjerde 287).So social reform was a means of establishing heaven on Earth, and was the natural extension of 2
 
Calvanism theology and millenial thinking. Social reform encompasses all reform movements in the19
th
century. People reformed everything from education to insane asylums. But two major movements were easily the largest and most polarizing. Oddly enough, they are interconnected, but notthrough Christianity or rather, millenial thinking. Both the black man and the white women wereignored when it came to voting rights, and the events that transpired in the 19
th
century laid thegroundwork for the two movements' eventual triumph.The Second Great Awakening also influenced the women's rights movement in much the same waythat abolitionism did. The evangelical focus of the Second Great Awakening provided women anopportunity to take leadership in the church, which in turn made them recognize that the religious arenawas not specifically a male-dominated one. Now that women understood that both religion and politicswere not meant for men only, they realized that they should be able to speak in public, take an activerole church leadership, and vote like men. 
Abolition
First, let's take a brief look at the abolition movement. “More radical still was the movement in the1830's to abolish the sin of slavery” (Roark et al., 381). Centered predominantly in the North,abolitionists ignored the normal Southern religious rhetoric when it came to slavery and insteadappealed to “Christian” values of fairness and equality. Major players in the movement includedWilliam Lloyd Garrions and the Grimké sisters. There is no way that a movement like abolitionismwould have gained any momentum had it not been for the Christian terminology and theology used to promote it.3
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