UNIT 6: A Growing Nation

–The Second Great Awakening: after the American Revolution, the US experienced a number of
religious revivals. This new religious movement is called the Second Great Awakening. This Second Great
Awakening was a series of religious revivals, not just one (all these revivals were from protestant groups).
One of the characteristics of this Second Great Awakening was the large camp meetings. Another
characteristic was the enthusiastic style of preaching and audience participation. This had nothing to do with
the Puritan style. Another change was that these new religious revivals kept some of the egalitarian thrust of
Revolutionary ideals. There was also a change in the way the Evangelical churches organized themselves:
they added innovative organizational techniques. Another change that came with the Second Great
Awakening was the addition of itinerant preachers to reach large areas. They included important positions
for lay people, who took on major religious and administrative roles.
The most important change from a religious perspective is the new attitude. With Calvinism and Puritanism,
the emphasis was on the depravity of human beings. With the Second Great Awakening this idea of being
born sinners changed, the emphasis rested now on the human free will and the ability to change, the idea of
salvation was open to all. The Puritans had the idea that if someone commits a sin then they’re condemned
for life. Together with these religious changes came social changes:

–Women began having a more important role in the church. They got greater public roles for white
women (because they had a lot of free times, especially women from the middle and upper class. They
were allowed to go out from the private sphere into the public sphere, but only because it was something
connected with the church. But at the end of the day, women were learning burocracy business, etc).

–Higher African-American participation. The revolutionary ideals of equality and freedom made some
people in the north to question the idea of slavery. In some churches with lots of American members in
the community, they allowed African-American people to participate in churches activities.

–This was also the origin of the feminist and abolitionist movements.

–Indentured servants: from the very beginning the US had a clear difference in the economy between the
north and the south. The economy in the north depended very much on migration and industrialization, there
were many artisans and small farmers. The economy there with small farms and small family business
needed a limited amount of workers, so some businesses in the north were family business. The economy in
the south depended very much on plantation (especially tobacco, cotton and rice) and it demanded a lot of
workers. The most common method of employment during the XVII and XVIII century was the indentured
servants. Plantation owners looked for workers in Europe and the people coming from Europe didn’t pay for
the ticket, it was the plantation owners who paid for their tickets. Basically what the plantation owners were
doing was importing people. This agreement in which the person coming from Europe agreed to work for the
American owner used to last for five years. At the end of these five years, the government gave to the
landowner fifty acres of land. After the five years, the indentured servant got a pre-arranged bonus which
included a little piece of land, some money, food, etc. This pre-arranged bonus was agreed when the person
signed the contract before the five years work. But the truth is that only 40% of indentured servants survived
the five years because the working conditions were very hard (cold weather, working accidents…). But even
if the indentured servant died, the landowner would still get the fifty acres. Many of the indentured servants,
when they ended the contract, they moved to the west because all the good farming land was usually given to
the rich people, so they had to move [this was a good thing for the Americans, because the indentured
servants moved to areas occupied by the Indians, so once the area was cleaned (because the Indians and the
indentured servants would fight for the land), the Americans would move there too]. Because the conditions
were very hard, it began getting more and more difficult to get indentured servants. As people in Europe
knew that almost 60% of indentured servants died before the end of the contract and that those who survived
got very dangerous lands in the end, less and less people accepted that contract. This situation made the
Americans to consider the idea of slavery.

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—Washington DC: when president George Washington took office, the ceremony took place in New
York City (the capital of the country). When Washington was re-elected in 1792, the capital had already
been moved to Philadelphia. Thomas Jefferson was the first president who took office in Washington DC in
1801. Because everyone wanted the capital to be a city of their state, they decided to establish the capital in a
special district that was not part of any state. The chose a place near the Potomac River and they created the
district of Colombia. The name of the new city would be Washington, as a tribute to the first president of the
US.