The Second Great Awakening was a Protestant religious revival during the early 19th century in the United States.The movement began around 1790,gained momentum by 1800 and after 1820,membership rose rapidly among Baptist and Methodist congregations whose preachers led and inspired the movement.
The preachers inspired people,as a response to increasing social ills,for the following movements::
- Temperance(opposition to alcohol)
- Abolishing imprisonment for debts
- School Reforms
- Prison Reforms ( amelioration of prison conditions with prison's purpose reconceived as rehabilitation rather than punishment)
- Pacifism
- Anti Slavery
- Abolition of Capital Punishment
- Women Rights::The position of American women in the early 1800s was legally and socially inferior to men.Women could not vote and if married,could not own property or retain their own earnings.The Reform Movements of 1830s ,specially abolition and temperance,gave women a chance to get women involved in the public arena.