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U.S. History 1877-Present Videos 173 videos

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Description:

Let's learn about the new wave sweepin' across the Atlantic in the 1700s: The Great Awakening. Think for yourself, leave the rich, established churches, and don't listen to that guy. He isn't screaming and fainting during his sermons, like, at all.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

No doubt enlightenment thinking was a big part of what inspired [Light bulb appears over man's head]

00:07

the American Revolution and a constitution that follows but people

00:10

weren't only rebelling with their heads they were also rebelling with their

00:14

hearts and their souls while the Enlightenment was transforming science

00:18

philosophy and politics another social movement was revolutionising religion [Bible appears by man]

00:23

this was called the first Great Awakening yeah it sounds like a time

00:28

when everybody woke up to a great big nap time but it was much more than that [Earth spinning and alarm bell rings]

00:32

like the Enlightenment first Great Awakening was a transatlantic phenomenon

00:35

that popped up in Europe as well as in the colony it makes total sense that it [Ship arrives on shore]

00:39

was a big deal in the American colony since many had been founded by people

00:42

looking specifically for religious freedom Puritans Quakers Catholics Jews

00:47

you name it these groups wanted to worship in their own way not monarchs

00:51

getting all up in there you know business if they wanted to pray to Jesus [People praying in church]

00:54

while wearing funny hats well that was their god-given right in Britain people

00:58

thought that God gave authority to the monarch when the colony's authority was

01:02

given to churches but when the first Great Awakening swept through the [Angel flys over church]

01:05

colonies in the 1730's and 40s all that changed the awakening made ideas popular

01:11

that would prepare the colonists to accept a different ideology and society

01:15

it was kind of like that Davy iPhone first hit stores and ever since we've [Girl using iPhone]

01:19

been swiping through life the leaders of the awakening were in your face

01:23

Christian preachers who attacked the state supported religion saying it got [Jonathan Edwards appears in church]

01:27

in the way of true faith the evangelical preachers said that religious experience

01:32

was all about being reborn up and down the colonies they fired up the masses [Baby appears from the ocean]

01:36

getting them excited about expressing their faith in Jesus as the savior of me

01:40

right they said that going to a big church and donating money was cool and [Money flys past man in church]

01:44

all but not as important as personal worship converts to Great Awakening

01:48

churches left traditional churches in its stampede the religious revival of [People running away from a church]

01:53

America's common folk led to big social changes to lower-class evangelicals

01:58

abandoned the wealthy established churches of the elite in the Church of

02:01

England lost members to the Baptist Presbyterians and Methodists and all of

02:06

a sudden the Church of England felt like the popular kid who will suddenly loses [Girl crying]

02:10

all her friends well maybe if she hadn't made out with Becky's boyfriend you know

02:13

just saying many of these newer sex believed even more strongly in

02:17

individualism than did the calvinist of the 16th century Protestant Reformation

02:22

that earlier Reformation had already made people question authority and think

02:27

for themselves what a concept but the Great Awakening took that independent

02:31

spirit and pumped it up with steroids we were going to accomplish you are the [Man and woman pumped up]

02:35

establishment churches said this showed poor sportsmanship but the newbies just

02:39

didn't care none of this was good news for a monarchy that relied upon lemmings [People worshiping monarch]

02:43

to obey its laws and to do its bidding the social tension heated by the Great

02:48

Awakening did not immediately boil over they simmered for decades more than 40 [Water boiling in pan]

02:53

years passed between the awakening and the coming of the American Revolution

02:56

when it finally did boil over into war it was piping hot and maybe a little

03:01

overcooked but it was wartime so you know people had other things to worry [Man appears in battle holding chicken leg]

03:05

about

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