It is generally believed that the so-called Second Great Awakening or in other words religious revival, which swept the United States at the beginning of the nineteenth century, can be explained by Americans aspiration for spiritual growth.
However, a prominent American historian Paul Johnson presents his version as to the causes of this phenomenon. In his opinion, the Second Great Awakening was mostly connected with the shift of the United States to the market economy. The author believes that the revival was initially widespread among the manufacturers or it would be better to say employers and only after a while, it affected the working class. Johnson suggests that the majority of workers had to adopt religion, not for the sake of their spiritual growth but mostly in an attempt to be more compatible with their employers.
Johnson takes such a city as Rochester to illustrate his point. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, it was to a certain degree an agricultural country town. The majority of the towns population was craftsmen or tradesmen. The masters and apprentices mostly worked or perhaps even lived under the same roof and this created a system of social control because the employers were closely familiar with their employees and could constantly keep them under control.
However, the Erie Canal stimulated the growth of trade in the industry in this city and Rochester transformed into a commercial center, it is worth mentioning that it was one of the first in the United States. As a result of this growth, the population tended to migrate from rural areas to urban ones. Johnson describes it as a “young, unstable, and poor population”. The employers could not provide lodgings to their workers, moreover, the employees themselves preferred to live in the working neighborhoods. Thus, the traditional relationships between the master and the apprentice could no longer exist and the traditional means of social control were irretrievably lost(Johnson, 36).
However, through the Second Great Awakening or spiritual revival, the manufactures were able to establish an entirely new means of social check, religion. Naturally, we cannot say that it is so revolutionary new but in contrast with the previous one religion was much more beneficial. Perhaps it would be much better to illustrate this point. For example, one of the most acute problems in Rochester was alcoholism. First, the Society of the Promotion of Temperance was formed by the manufacturing leaders. After a while, new orders were established in the workshops. At first glance, it may seem to us that the traditional technique of whip and carrot was abandoned. However, after a while, the employers resorted to more strict measures. (Johnson, 55).
Many historians believe Paul Johnson overestimated the role of the revival as a means of social control. They tend to think that this revival can be explained by the longing for spiritual fulfillment. However, it should not be forgotten that religion itself has always been a means of social control.
Thus, we may conclude that in his book “A Shopkeepers Millennium” Paul Johnson views the so-called Second Great Awakening as a social and religious phenomenon, which was aimed at creating new means of social control, which proved to be much more beneficial than the traditional ones.
Bibliography
Paul Johnson. “A Shopkeepers Millennium Society and Revivals in Rochester”. Straus and Giroux, 2004.