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Puritans Establish Plymouth Colony
Puritans were dissenters from the Church of England emphasizing individual relationships with God. Anne Hutchinson was a Massachusetts Bay Puritan believing in a covenant of grace, instead of works. She was banished for claiming to have spoken directly with God. Roger Williams was a Puritan minister in Salem praising Pilgrims’ church-state separation and desiring religious toleration. He was banished and went to Rhode Island to establish a church with Anne Hutchinson. -
Salem Witch Trials
The Salem Witch Trials were in Salem, Massachusetts, caused by gender bias, rivalry (wealthy church members were accused by poor farmers’ daughters), fear of Native Americans who killed accusers’ parents, and political instability. 175 people were tried for witchcraft, and 19 executed, with the majority of each group being women. Government officials discouraged local prosecution for witchcraft and many turned to Enlightenment thought, saying witchcraft was due to natural causes. -
First Great Awakening
The First Great Awakening was an evangelist revival undermining legal churches and their tax-supported ministers, stressing Pietism (evangelism and an individual relationship with God). George Whitefield, an English minister, led the Great Awakening and New Light converts to spread evangelism with sermons. Jonathan Edwards, a Massachusetts minister, encouraged a revival and published A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God, showing transatlantic connections spreading Pietism. -
George Whitefield Visits America
George Whitefield made his first trip to America in 1738, with Benjamin Franklin publishing a journal of the voyage. Whitefield’s many publications spread his popularity during the First Great Awakening. He led Pietist New Lights, who supported women’s public speech and left the Congregational Church to establish 125 separatist churches, against conservative Old Lights condemning New Lights’ belief in miracles, faintings, and women speaking during sermons. -
Baptist Insurgency in First Great Awakening
During the 1760s, New Light Baptist ministers converted many white farm families and African American slaves. Baptists were radical Protestants supporting adult baptism. Native-born African Americans welcomed Baptists’ belief in equality under God; however, the House of Burgesses fined Baptists preaching to slaves without owners’ consent. Baptists repudiated social confinements of hierarchy by aiding African Americans but refused to give women authority in the church. -
First Great Awakening Helps American Revolution Begin
The First Great Awakening prepared America for the revolution because people were taught to question authority and create new sects of religion if they didn’t agree with church; therefore, they could create new governments. Similar to how people thought religion was dull and distant, most people thought the same about England. People learned that individuals were important and that authority came from the governed, all ideas fueling the Revolution. -
Second Great Awakening
The Second Great Awakening was an era of religious revival from 1790-1820 as Baptist and Methodist preachers reshaped southern faith and offered religious fellowship. Revivalists attracted people needing social ties as they went to new communities. Congregationalists, Episcopalians, and Quakers grew slowly, while Methodists and Baptists skyrocketed. Preachers unified devout families and appointed lay elders. Ministers spoke in plain language, raising their voices and using dramatic gestures. -
Joseph Smith Publishes the Book of Mormon
Joseph Smith claimed to have translated the Book of Mormon from ancient hieroglyphics on gold plates from an angel named Moroni. The book reported a Jewish civilization migrated to the West Hemisphere and met Jesus Christ after his Resurrection. Smith later founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for the Mormon religion. -
Joseph Smith Dies
Joseph Smith eventually settled in Nauvoo, Illinois, with the Mormon community, whose polygamy and secret rituals angered non-Mormons. In 1844, Smith was arrested for treason for conspiring to create a Mormon colony in Mexican territory. An anti-Mormon mob stormed the jail and killed Smith. Brigham Young, Smith’s leading disciple, led Mormons to flee for the Great Salt Lake Valley in Utah to form the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. -
Order of the Star-Spangled Banner Forms
The anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant Know-Nothing party (KNP) emerged out of the Order of the Star-Spangled Banner (OSSB), whose members were nativist Protestants against immigration, especially for Catholics. The OSSB was a secret society, although the KNP seldom claimed “I know nothing” when it came to their hate of Irish and German Catholic immigrants. -
Salvation Army Established
The Salvation Army, a Protestant Christian organization, was founded in Britain and arrived in America in 1879. It spread a gospel message among the urban poor, using soup kitchens and ex-prostitute shelters to evangelize. They held Bible Conferences from 1876-1897, creating a Niagara Creed reaffirming the literal truth of the Bible and certain damnation of people who didn’t believe in Christ. -
Native Americans Christianized in Boarding Schools
After peaceful Blackfeet were killed by an American army detachment, President Grant decided to begin a peace policy for Native Americans. Ignoring the National Indian Defense Association, arguing Native Americans and whites could be equals, reformers established Native American boarding schools in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Such schools erased Native Americans dress, language, religion, and names for Christian names, education, and dress and for the English language. -
Women’s Christian Temperance Union Established
The Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) aimed to curb alcohol abuse by prohibiting liquor sales, arguing alcoholism was unchristian because men abused their families and spent hard-earned money at bars. Although the WCTU was Christian, Methodists, Baptists, Mormons, and other groups condemned drinking for religious reasons, while Irish Catholics saw alcohol as part of their culture. -
Native American Ghost Dance Movement
After America broke a Lakota treaty breaking the Great Sioux Reservation of South Dakota into five smaller reservations, Native Americans formed the Ghost Dance Movement. Inspired by Christianity, Native Americans claimed a dance would allow them to resurrect bison to reclaim land from whites; meanwhile, Native Americans would be immune to bullets and developed new forms of pan-Native American identity. The crisis at Wounded Knee ended many Native Americans’ hopes of land reclamation. -
Father Charles Coughlin Born
Father Charles Coughlin was an ordained Roman Catholic priest and a strong critic of the New Deal. He founded and used the National Union for Social Justice to advocate American banks’ nationalization. He was a radio broadcaster criticizing President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his policies, and was also known for making anti-Semitic comments on his radio show. -
Charles Sheldon Publishes Book for Social Gospel Movement
Charles Sheldon’s book, In His Steps, told a story of a congregation living by Christ’s precepts for a year. Sheldon argued such a life would lead more alcoholics, unemployed men, and nonreligious people to join the church. The book epitomized the Social Gospel movement, which aimed to renew religious faith with dedication to justice and social welfare (ex. reading rooms, nurseries, vocational classes) and evangelism to the unchurched. -
Dwight Moody Dies; Billy Sunday is Successor
Dwight L. Moody won fame in the 1870s as America’s prime modern evangelist. He said eternal life was always granted as long as it was requested. Upon his death, Billy Sunday rose to success and brought evangelism into the modern era. Sunday was Protestant and used his fame to support some political causes, such as prohibition, suffrage, and abolition of child labor. However, Sunday was a nativist and asserted leadership in a masculinized American culture. -
Women’s Convention of the National Baptist Church Established
The Women’s Convention of the National Baptist Church (NBC) funded night schools, clinics, kindergartens, day care, and prison outreach programs. It was the largest African American women’s organization, led by Adella Hunt Logan, a women’s club leader, teacher, and suffrage advocate. -
1920s Lead to Secularism
In the 1920s, because of America’s wealth after supplying other nations in WWI, America experienced more social openness. With the rise of the flapper movement, women began to wear shorter clothes and hairstyles, and they drank, smoke, and drove cars. Sex became more socially acceptable as women revolted against religious views of the clothes they should wear and the separate sphere they were expected to stay in. -
Scopes Trial Decided
John Scopes was a biology teacher who taught the theory of evolution to his class and faced a jail sentence for doing so. The Scopes Trial gained attention because Clarence Darrow (famous criminal lawyer) defended Scopes while William Jennings Bryan spoke for the prosecution. It created a nationwide media frenzy and represented a showdown between traditional and urban values. Ultimately, Scopes was held accountable for teaching evolution and fined.
