Origins:

Revivalism has been an important aspect of American religious life since the middle of the eighteenth century, when dozens of towns—first in New England, then in the Middle Atlantic and South—experienced a sudden surge in religious fervor and a rash of conversions collectively known as the Great Awak ening. Since then the nation has been touched intermittently by times of religious revival, but perhaps none of such enduring significance as the period between about 1800 and 1835, referred to as the Second Great Awakening. Beginning with an enormous camp meeting at which hundreds were converted at Cane Ridge, entucky, in 1801, revivalistic fervor spread both north and south, taking hold in the colleges of New England in the first decade of the century and reaching many of the urban centers of the Northeast by the 1820s. The efforts of skillful preachers brought new converts pouring into the ranks...