Second Great Awakening and Women Activism - Essay Example

Second Great Awakening and Women Activism Introduction The Second Great Awakening had occurred in United States, during 19th century. This movement had gained momentum after 1820, when rate of membership increased amongst Methodist and Baptist congregations. The movement mainly reflected upon Romanticism, which encompassed several factors such as enthusiasm, super-natural appeal and emotion. There were millions of people who enrolled into this new movement. The Second Great Awakening effectively rejected rationalism, cold-hearted skepticism and deism, which were portrayed by Enlightenment. There were new reform movements established by the Second Great Awakening in order to provide remedy for an evil act. Women participation was significant in this movement and it even led to certain controversies. This study shall analyze such controversies in more detail. The movement, as per converts, outlined a new millennial age. Discussion Debate over women participation Women were considered to be the backbone of this movement, since they influenced their brothers, husband and sons to attend mass meetings. When women had taken up a public role in such reform movements, it eventually resulted into heated debates regarding position of women within American Society. There are some documents that highlight criticism on women participation in the reform movement. Other documents state female reformers defending to American democracy and religious doctrines. Female reformers like Mary P. Abbott had written letter to the Liberator, which was an antislavery newspaper. In the religious revivals, women experiences were such that they involved into social activism.1 Female activists believed they were solely responsible for eradicating sin from America. A female antislavery society was formed by some reformers so as to ensure that women are not ill-treated in the society. American slavery was regarded as a sin against God mainly by female reformers. On the contrary, Congregational Church had denounced abolitionist efforts which were undertaken publicly by women. The social influences were used by females in order to focus on Christian benevolence objects and promoting piety. However it has been proclaimed by critics that her tone changes when she assumes to be a public reformer like man.2 Female reformers eventually tend to become ostentatious and obtrusive. The charm linked with domestic life is lost when women looses such modesty, which constitutes the real societal influence by women. Sarah Grimke was another female reformer, who had stated her point against the criticism. Grimke sisters had strong belief on evils related to slavery, after being converted to Quakerism. Sarah Grimke clearly defines in her letter that women has capability to identify causes behind dangers. This capability is hindered when men feels that women are ruining their modesty by becoming public reformers.3 She further argued by saying, the New Testament highlights the influence and appropriate duties of women, which can also be regarded as the origin of mighty power. The sense of morality in women had been adversely affected by men in terms of interpreting duties of women.4 This debate was extended to sayings of Holy Bible, where God has not differentiated amongst human beings, neither as intelligent beings nor as moral beings. Central tenets of the Second Great Awakening There are some key ideas behind this reform movement which involved millions of converts. The Second Great Awakening can be denoted as a revival movement in Christianity, which had occurred in early 19th century. In this whole approach, the main focus was only on revival. This process had led to wide base of converts in Protestant denomination. An antebellum reform was caused by this movement, where emphasis was only on institutional salvation. The frontier locations were accessed by the Methodist Church by utilizing circuit readers. It is clearly evident that the Second Great Awakening was centered towards eliminating traditional Christian beliefs from the social system. The concept of revival which was closely knitted with the Second Great Awakening had certain strains of the secular effects. They can be classified as the behavior or virtues of growing middle class segment. This segment encompassed temperance and frugality, were legitimized and endorsed and even possessed strong work ethic. The next strain was emphasis on individual ability to use reform movements as a medium to alleviate suffering and redress injustice. It can be considered as a democratizing effect which resulted into active involvement of many female reformers. Implementation of ideas by female reformers The key idea behind the reform movement was to build a society where no importance should be given to traditional beliefs of Christianity. There are many female reformers involved in the process because they have witnessed the hardships of slavery and also were deprived off basic rights of the society. It had always been assumed that women were responsible for maintaining the charm within domestic life. However modesty does not indicate differences between rights of women and men. Female reformers used the idea of revival to critique traditional belief of society which denoted only men as public reformers of the society. According to Sarah Grimke, the Scriptures never portray the dependency of women on men. The power of women cannot be interlinked with her dependency. Anti-slavery movement which had been initiated by many female reformers had the motive of promoting equality between men and women. These female reformers justified their action by stating that Creator had not differentiated between human beings, and hence humans do not possess right to develop own laws. They were temperance reformers who wanted to design a better society. Mary Abbott had written letters on anti-slavery since they had witnessed brutal incidents. They defended their activity by saying that “female anti-slavery society” was developed to protect the principle of freedom. This is simply because individuals could not be treated brutally specifically after being created in God’s image. Female reformers stated that Americans reflect an image of slavery. They justified their action by associating slavery acts with sin. Personal opinion This reform movement was itself controversial since it was inclined towards a completely new sphere of religious beliefs. In this movement, women participation was controversial because I feel the society was male-dominated in those years. The act of anti-slavery movement overshadowed men as public reformers. There are critics who have argued that women who actively indulges into such reform movement, tends to become obtrusive by nature. The role of women needs to be centered towards domestic life, without any such public intervention. These reasons were behind the women reformers’ controversy. I even believe that male-dominated society gives limited flexibility to women. They are not given opportunity to outperform or even participate in abolishing traditional activities. I feel that this restriction was the key reason of controversy when women power was observed in context of bringing forth significant changes in the society. The Congregational Church was strict against involvement of women in abolishing movement, since the ministers felt that their teachings would be questioned thereafter. In my opinion, religious administrators during that period did not disclose true facts given in the Scriptures. When female reformers attempted to highlight these facts and associate with societal happenings, it eventually resulted into a controversy. Conclusion This study has clearly demonstrated the key facts which were closely knitted with the Second Great Awakening. The reform movement challenged the traditional religious beliefs. During this time period, males enjoyed freedom but females had to face a lot of restrictions. There were limited educational opportunities provided to women. This in turn triggered a feeling of justice within all females. The female reformers were mainly focused on removing those traditional beliefs which are not included in Scriptures. Female reformers had to face criticism from Pastors and other superior authority. However they used some key ideas of the Second Great Awakening in order to justify their actions. References Hewitt, Nancy and Steven, Lawson. Exploring American Histories. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's. 2014. Read More