Bookmarks!

I personally believe that the Second Great Awakening would have been, to some extent, a response to industrialization and improvements in technological communication.

I remember as a child, my grandmother being convinced that the end of the world was coming any day now because computers were suddenly available in people's homes. She considered this technological advancement to be sinful in nature and likened it to the Tower of Babel and the arrogance of man. She claimed that this would not last long; that the world would end as God would be vengeful about humans attempting to make themselves omniscient like himself. She was one of many of her age that I remember being certain that this was a sign of "The End Days." Gram was a flapper back in the 1920s and I often wonder how her own grandmother had responded to the technological advancements that happened in her day.

I think that many react to major developments with fear and piety. I believe this developments intersected for this reason. As a fearful reaction to the developments of the day, many turned their questions to a higher power. The part that interests me about this is reframing the historical narrative during the Second Great Awakening... and exactly how effectively they were able to do so.

A church I attended several years ago played a series of videos across several weeks that absolutely insisted that the United States was not founded on religious freedom or separation of church and state at all - it was founded exclusively on Protestant Christianity. The film series even went so far as to claim that Satan himself has been working to rewrite historical documents and lead us to believe otherwise.

I believe that that the change, fear, and distrust all formulated a powder keg that would eventually spark with the conflicts we mentioned in chapter 5's post. The issues and disagreements over slavery were already contentious. Change brings tension... it would now be an inevitable battle to be fought.

I'm really glad you mentioned the reframing of the historical narrative. It has long been a topic of conversation amongst our team about how to weave in historical memory into the teaching of history. This chapter does a good job of showing how you can do that. The Second Great Awakening reshaped the historical memory of the founding of the nation in a way that we can still see in the nation's collective historical memory today.

Edited

I see a lot of that reframing mentioned when we look at the Vietnam War (conflict) in American History. I was given a graphic novel that deals with this era and keep it on my classroom bookshelf for students. I was really unnerved to see that the graphic novel insisted that most returning veterans were spat upon and treated terribly by Anti-war protesters. There is even a line our newly adopted textbook that insists this was the case. As has been repeatedly insisted by historians, this simply was not the case. Most Anti-War groups actively worked to recruit those who were returning from Vietnam.

I try to get my students to dig deeper and (as always) look for the bias: Who was making these claims? What might motivate them to make those claims? What do our primary sources show? Where is the evidence that this took place? How can we reasonably prove something did not take place (much more difficult than proving that something did)?

This can be difficult to do, of course, especially when you are short on time and preparing for standardized tests... but definitely valuable when I am able to squeeze it in.

I love that you make this point. I bring up a similar issue when I teach the 1920s and the push of fundamentalists like Billy Sunday against the new "modern" technologies (radio, etc.) and ideas (evolution).

I think that industrialization and the improved communication technology and other technological innovations built off of one another. Without improved technological innovations, we would not have the wide scale industrialization and economic advancements during this time period.

I think we also see a real regional divide being created and shaped because of these industrial and technological changes during this time period. Many like to paint the south as stagnant during this time, but, as Lepore points out, the southern states, fueled by cotton (and other industries) and the institution of enslavement were global competitors. I have interacted with people in the past who claim that the southern states were the only ones impacted or benefitting from the institution of enslavement, but Lepore's chapter clearly points out that many states, regions in the United States, and other regions globally (and their industries and economies) were benefitting from enslaved labor.

I would agree with that. While we are all opposed to sweatshop labor today, it's likely many of us own several items that were made under such circumstances. We may not be "guilty" in the sense that we are not running these sweatshops, but we are guilty enough in that we are benefitting from them with our purchasing habits and low-cost items made at the high-cost of others' well-being.

You make a good point about understanding the how slavery impacted regions beyond the South. We need to give students a clearer understanding of how interconnected different parts of the nation's economy. The South was creating the raw materials used in Northern factories and they were all financed by businesses in the large urban centers of the northeast.

As I read this chapter I kept wondering what they would think of America now with all of our factories, machines, and communication. So much, in some sense, has changed over time but in another sense some things are still the same.

Some of the changes brought about from industrialization was
- Separation of home and work. For a long time there was no separation. You lived on the farm, you worked on the farm. Both men and women were expected to contribute to the daily chores on the farm. Later in the chapter it mentions how men did the "work" and were paid while women stayed at home where what they did all day wasn't considered "work" because they didn't get paid for it. So we start to see the division between the sexes now too. During this time married women had no rights to property.

- On page 193 they also mentioned "the division of labor" and how different steps were done by different workers. I can still see that today.

- "Factories accelerated production, canals accelerated transportation. The price of goods plummeted; the standard of living soared." Products now became more affordable to people and they started to own things they never could afford before.

The Second Great Awakening also led to more revivals, a growth in ministers, and more religions due to the separation of church and state and no established religion for our country. With the rise in religion still came the debate about slavery.

One of the things I highlighted was "Factories had mechanical slaves; plantations had human slaves. The power of machines was measured by horsepower, the power of slaves by hand power." (P. 202)

For what it's worth I wanted to share some resources. I do a "debate" every year with my fifth graders about The Indian Removal Act. We learn a little more about it (they are already being taught about it) and then my students have to assume the identity of either Andrew Jackson or the Native Americans. They have to write their arguments depending on who they are, and then anticipate what might be said in response, and then respond again. Then I put them with a partner and the two groups go back and forth using their notes. It's not my original idea but I can't even tell you how much the kids LOVE it! Here is where I got the lesson ideas from.

YouTube Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQfP2Y2t45U

Lesson Plan on Teachers Pay Teachers
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Trail-of-Tears-1802787

I also found it interesting, sad, and contradictory that while the nation was improving in communication technology and the Second Great Awakening was bringing the Word to more people than ever, the Legislature was passing laws that kept enslaved people from communicating, being able to learn to read or write, or learning about the Bible. Because Nat Turner's rebellion had at once been an "act of emancipation and evangelism", fear seemed to cause reactionary legislation to be put in place. Once again, what we hold sacred and say we value as a country becomes what was withheld and kept from enslaved people.

Reading about Maria Stewart and William Lloyd Garrison reminded me of the Grimke sisters and all of the remarkable work done by early abolitionists, especially women. The historical fiction novel, The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd is one of my favorites. It follows the lives of the Grimke sisters and "Handful", an enslaved girl she is given charge of as an 11th birthday present. Denmark Vesey, mentioned in this chapter, is also a character in the novel. It does a nice job of relaying what life in Charleston was like during this time period and the conflicting feelings, even within households, regarding slavery.

Testimonials

Overview

More Information