How the First Great Awakening Started the American Revolution

by Tamera Lynn Kraft

In the 1730s and 1740s, a spiritual fervency swept the American colonies. It was called the First Great Awakening. Fiery ministers like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield preached about having a deep personal relationship with Jesus Christ and a standard of personal holiness. Many cast off the religious traditions of relying on the religious leaders to tell people what God wanted and started searching the Scriptures and seeking their own relationship with Jesus. Even many church goers had salvation experiences. This caused a revolution in the church, but that was only the beginning of more than one revolution.

Whitefield preached at both Harvard and Yale. At Harvard, it was reported, “The entire college has changed. The students are full of God.” Whitefield became so popular that he drew daily crowds of 8,000 people. In Boston, he drew a crowd of 23,000, larger than the entire population of Boston at the time. Even Benjamin Franklin wrote about the impact of his preaching. He was the cultural hero of the day.

The impact was huge. In New England alone, 25,000 to 50,000 people joined the church and claimed to have salvation experiences. When Jonathan Edwards preached “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, people held on to the posts of the church for hear they would go to Hell before they had a chance to repent. Many universities sprang up for the purpose of training ministers. The colonies united under the umbrella of revival.

It affected the political thought in the colonies as well. People became more democratic believing that the church should be self-governed, not governed by the state. It also welcome people from every walk of life. The church became a melting pot elevating all members of society as equals. As the colonies united in democratic thought, the Church of England – the Anglican Church, sought to crush this awakening causing a divide between England and the colonies.

Founding fathers were also influenced by the Great Awakening:

• John Adams studied at Harvard and considered becoming a minister.
• Samuel Adams was deeply impacted and sought a political revolution to separate the church from England’s influence.
• Benjamin Franklin and George Whitefield were friends. Some believe Franklin might have become a Christian in latter life.
• James Madison was very devout and fought for freedom of religion and checks and balances in government because of the depravity of man.
• John Witherspoon published several books on the Gospel.
• Although there’s no direct connection between George Washington and the Great Awakening, we know that Washington was a devout Christian who even wrote a prayer book.
• 54 of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence were devout Christians. Only Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were not.
• The first act of the Continental Congress was to pray. They prayed at the beginning of every session, and they prayed before voting to declare independence and signing the Declaration of Independence.

The Great Awakening started a spiritual revival that led to the American Revolution and the birth of modern democracy.

Tamera Lynn Kraft has always loved adventures. She loves to write historical fiction set in the United States because there are so many stories in American history. There are strong elements of faith, romance, suspense and adventure in her stories. She is managing editor of Mt Zion Ridge Press. Her novel, Red Sky over America is due to be released September 1st.

How a Native American Brought the Great Awakening to the Indians

by Tamera Lynn Kraft

Samson Occom was born in a wigwam in 1723, part of the the Mohegan tribe near New London, Connecticut. His parents were Joshua and Sarah Ockham. He was a direct descendant of Uncas, a famous Mohegan chief. The Mohegan lived as nomads and traveled often.

At the age of 16, Occom heard his first sermon during the Great Awakening. His mother Sarah was one of the first Mohegan converts. Samson was stirred by what he heard and began to study English so he could read the Bible for himself. 

A year later he became a Christian under the preaching of James Davenport. He started going to a school for Indians and white boys started by evangelist Eleazar Wheelock. He spent four years at Wheelock’s school and was a gifted student, but poor eyesight prevented him from going to college.
He taught school and ministered to the Montauk Indians for eleven years. He used many creative methods including singing and card games as teaching devices. When Azariah Horton, the white Presbyterian minister to the Montauk, retired, Samson took his place as pastor. Samson married Mary Fowler in 1751, and they had ten children.

Samson was paid by the church but received a much smaller salary than the white men doing the same job. To make ends meet, he bound books and carved spoons, pails, and gunstocks for his white neighbors. Despite the prejudice he faced, Samson was ordained in 1759 by the Presbyterian Church, one of the first Native Americans to be ordained.

His passion was to share the Gospel with other Native Americans and was commission by the Scotch Society of Missions to preach to the Cherokee in Georgia and Tennessee. Fighting among the Cherokee and white settles put those plans on hold, so instead Samson went to New York to preach among the Oneida.

In 1765 Samson traveled with George Whitefield, Great Awakening preacher, during his sixth preaching tour in the colonies. Later that year, he traveled to England with Nathaniel Whitaker to raise money for Wheelock’s Indian Charity School. Over the next two years, he preached over 200 sermons in England and was well received. He raised over 11,000 pounds, the most ever raised for a ministry in the colonies. While in England Samson visited with John Newton, writer of Amazing Grace, and received an honorary degree from the University of Edinburgh which he politely declined.

When he returned to America in 1768, Samson found that Wheelock had failed to care for his wife and children as Wheelock had promised. Samson’s family was living in poverty. The rift widened when he learned Wheelock had used the money he’d raised to move the school to New Hampshire and decided to exclude Indians. Wheelock renamed the school Dartmouth.

Samson was a prolific writer throughout his lifetime. He kept a diary from 1743 to 1790 about his work that became an historic document. In 1772, Samson preached a temperance sermon at the execution of a Native American who murdered a man while he was drunk. That sermon became a best seller. He also wrote and published hymns. He is recognized as the first Native American to become published.

When Samson became a defender of land claims of the Montauk and Oneida against speculators, false rumors were spread that he was a heavy drinker and not even a Mohegan. Although these reports were untrue, he lost the support of his denomination and several missionary societies. He wrote an autobiography to defend himself, but it did little good.

Throughout the 1770s and 1780s, Samson preached among the Mohegan and other tribes in new England. After the Revolutionary War, he settled in Brothertown, New York on a reservation for New England Indians where he established the first Indian Presbyterian Church. In 1791, he died while gathering wood to finish the new church building.

His legacy continued after his death through his children, students, and converts who also ministered to Native Americans. Two of his students also became authors. Besides being the first Native American who was published, Samson fought for Native American rights, spread the Gospel to New England tribes, and promoted education for Native Americans.

Tamera Lynn Kraft has always loved adventures and writes Christian historical fiction set in America because there are so many adventures in American history. Her Novels, Red Sky over Americaand Alice’s Notionsand her novellas Resurrection of Hopeand A Christmas Promiseare available on Amazon and at Barnes and Noble.

How the First Great Awakening Changed America

by Tamera Lynn Kraft
 

In the mid 1700s, traveling evangelists like Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and John Wesley preached along the countryside of the British colonies, and the seeds were planted for America to become a great nation.

It really started almost 100 years earlier, in 1630, when John Winthrop, one of the Pilgrims, preached a sermon entitled A City on a Hill. The text for the verse was Matthew 5:14  Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Winthrop said that God ordained the colonies in America to be that city on a hill. They were the New Jerusalem that would evangelize the world with the Gospel.

Over the next eighty years, colonists forgot those awesome words and had drawn away from God. Church attendance was at an all time low, and few felt Christianity played a major role in their lives. Church service were dry and dull, and most who did go to church did so out of religious duty.

When these preachers came on the scene it changed America for the better. They were fiery, emotional, and commanded attention. When Jonathan Edwards preached Sinner in the Hands of an Angry God, it was reported members of the congregation held on to the church beams fearing the wrath of God and the fire of Hell. Conviction spread all over the colonies, and people responded by having a "born again" experience with God that changed their lives forever.

Many denominations rose up during this awakening including Methodists, Presbyterians, and Baptists. Christians now felt they could have a personal experience with God and learn Scripture and doctrine for themselves instead of only relying on church leaders. Congregational leadership was determined by the congregations, not by church headquarters.

One of the biggest changes that took place during this awakening was that everyone was included. Slaves and poor men came to the meetings and were saved. It created a national unity and identity that later set the stage for the American Revolution where men fought for One Nation Under God. not a nation ruled by a denomination or a state church. The colonies had learned that the people decide on the leaders that rule them instead of letting the rulers dictate their nation's politics and religion.

Tamera Lynn Kraft has always loved adventures and writes Christian historical fiction set in America because there are so many adventures in American history. She has received 2^nd place in the NOCW contest, 3^rd place TARA writer’s contest, and is a finalist in the Frasier Writing Contest.

Her novellas Resurrection of Hope and A Christmas Promise are available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

How a Native American Brought the Great Awakening to Indians

by Tamera Lynn Kraft

Samson Occom, a native American born in a wigwam, became one of the first ordained Indian preachers, the first Native American to be published, and the only one to travel with Evangelist George Whitefield during the Great Awakening in America. He brought Christianity to the Indian tribes in his area of the country, yet most have never heard his story.

Samson was born in 1723 as part of the the Mohegan tribe near New London, Connecticut. His parents were Joshua and Sarah Ockham, direct descendants of Uncas, a famous Mohegan chief. At the age of 16, Occom heard his first sermon during the Great Awakening. His mother Sarah was one of the first Mohegan converts.

Samson was stirred by what he heard and began to study English so he could read the Bible for himself. A year later he became a Christian under the preaching of James Davenport. He started going to a school for Indians and white boys started by evangelist Eleazar Wheelock and spent four years at Wheelock’s school. He was a gifted student, but poor eyesight prevented him from going to college.

He taught school and ministered to the Montauk Indians for eleven years. He used many creative methods including singing and card games as teaching devices. When Azariah Horton, the white Presbyterian minister to the Montauk, retired, Samson took his place as pastor.

Samson married Mary Fowler in 1751, and they had ten children. The church  paid him a much smaller salary than the white men doing the same job. To make ends meet, he bound books and carved spoons, pails, and gun stocks for his white neighbors. Despite the prejudice he faced, in 1759, Samson became on of the first ordained ministers in the Presbyterian Church.

His passion was to share the Gospel with other Native Americans, and he was commission by the Scotch Society of Missions to preach to the Cherokee in Georgia and Tennessee. Fighting among the Cherokee and white settles put those plans on hold, so instead he went to New York to preach among the Oneida.

In 1765, Samson traveled with George Whitefield, Great Awakening preacher, during his sixth preaching tour in the colonies. Later that year, he traveled to England with Nathaniel Whitaker to raise money for Wheelock’s Indian Charity School. Over the next two years, he preached over 200 sermons in England and was well received. He raised over 11,000 pounds, the most ever raised for a ministry in the colonies. While in England Samson visited with John Newton, writer of Amazing Grace, and received an honorary degree from the University of Edinburgh which he politely declined.


When he returned to America in 1768, Samson found that Wheelock had failed to care for his wife and children as promised. Samson’s family was living in poverty. The rift widened when he learned Wheelock had used the money he’d raised to move the school to New Hampshire and decided to exclude Indians. Wheelock renamed the school Dartmouth.

Samson was a prolific writer throughout his lifetime. He kept a diary from 1743 to 1790 about his work that became an historic document. In 1772, he preached a temperance sermon at the execution of a Native American who murdered a man while he was drunk. That sermon became a best seller. He also wrote and published hymns. He is recognized as the first Native American to become published.

When Samson became a defender of land claims of the Montauk and Oneida against speculators, false rumors were spread that he was a heavy drinker and not even a Mohegan which caused the loss of support from his denomination and several missionary societies. He wrote an autobiography to defend himself, but it did little good.

Throughout the 1770s and 1780s, Samson preached among the Mohegan and other tribes in New England. After the Revolutionary War, he settled in Brothertown, New York on a reservation for New England Indians where he establish the first Indian Presbyterian Church. In 1791, he died while gathering wood to finish the new church building.

His legacy continued after his death through his children, students, and converts who also ministered to Native Americans. Two of his students also became authors. Besides being the first Native American who was published, Samson fought for Native American rights, spread the Gospel to New England tribes, and promoted education for Native Americans. 

Tamera Lynn Kraft has always loved adventures and writes Christian historical fiction set in America because there are so many adventures in American history. She has received 2^nd place in the NOCW contest, 3^rd place TARA writer’s contest, and is a finalist in the Frasier Writing Contest.

Her novellas Resurrection of Hope and A Christmas Promise are available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

The Second Great Awakening--and a Giveaway

I’m sure if you believe in God and have for any length of time, you’ve probably experienced the frustration of praying for something without seeing the results you are hoping for. This experience seems to be a right of passage with God, a test that one must pass in order to get to the next level. Very often, God places a promise of something in our hearts long before the promise will be fulfilled.

John Erskine

So is the case of John Erskine of Edinburgh, Scotland. Erskine felt a prompting of God to pray for revival in 1744. He asked many of his friends to join him in a “Concert of Prayer” for the next two years. They prayed every Saturday evening and Sunday morning, as well as the first Tuesday of each new quarter, that God “would appear in His glory...by an abundant effusion of His Holy Spirit...to revive true religion in all parts of Christendom...and fill the whole earth with His glory.” Dutifully, they prayed, and they saw some effect, but not the sweeping moves of God that they hoped for. After a time, the Concerts of Prayer waned, leaving many to feel they’d had no effect.

Years passed. Life carried on. Tensions between Britain and the colonies intensified until the colonies declared independence. War broke out, and people’s focus centered on the crisis at hand. At the end of that conflict, the people of America found themselves far from God and in a state of moral decline. Across the ocean, the French Revolution was in full swing, bringing with it another crisis to keep people’s focus from seeking after God fully. Infidelity and rationalism grew rampant in Europe. The world seemed to be going bad all at once.

Yet God hadn’t forgotten the promise he gave John Erskine for revival.  Once again in 1784—nearly forty years after the initial prompting—Erskine felt the stirring to pray for revival again. This time, he reprinted a call to revival prayer given by Jonathan Edwards, a key player in the Great Awakening of decades earlier. Because of Erskine’s efforts to distribute the booklet and call others to pray, many churches across all denominations, both in Britain and the U. S., agreed to institute Concerts of Prayer each Monday night. They continued this pattern for the next seven years.

In 1791, another central figure from the First Great Awakening, John Wesley, died. Even as churchgoers mourned his death, the stirrings of revival began to break out among the industrial towns of Yorkshire, England. Suddenly, church membership just among the Methodist denomination skyrocketed from 72,000 to nearly 250,000 across the next 20 years. Churches in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland became full—so full that they spilled over into open fields where more people could attend.

Isaac Backus

By 1794, America was sensing the spiritual shift, and twenty-five men in New England gathered to form a Concert of Prayer there. Led by Isaac Backus and Stephen Gano, these men distributed letters calling others to pray on the first Tuesday of each quarter. Within a year, revival broke out, and within four years, it had reached every state. Students attending colleges across the nation began to seek God in droves. In fact, Yale saw half their student body become converted to Christianity during the year of 1795.

Itinerant preachers, known as circuit-riders began to go into less populated or frontier areas and preach to those living in the distant locales. Camp meetings popped up in frontier areas, where residents of a wide region would come to a central area and camp for a week while attending meetings put on by the circuit-riding preacher. They would worship with hymns, hear sermons, and share communion.

Other outcomes of the revival were the inception of many missionary societies, both in Britain and America. Social reforms also took place. Slavery was abolished in Britain, and an abolition movement began in America. Prisons were reformed. Sunday Schools and benevolence institutions were started. Temperance societies were formed, and women’s rights and women’s suffrage became a hot topic of discussion.

By 1800, the awakening reached Switzerland, Scandinavia, and Germany, and before it waned in the 1840’s, it had reached central Europe, South Africa, India, and the Pacific Islands.

It’s your turn. Do you believe there will be another worldwide revival like either the First or Second Great awakenings? If so, do you expect to see it in your lifetime? Leave me a comment to be included in the drawing for my second release—The Convenient Bride Collection.

Jennifer Uhlarik discovered the western genre as a pre-teen, when she swiped the only “horse” book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has won five writing competitions and finaled in two other competitions. In addition to writing, she has held jobs as a private business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, and her favorite—a full-time homemaker. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers and lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband, teenaged son, and four fur children.