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George Washington to New Hampshire, 29 December 1777
(Detail, GLC03706)
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Religious Movements in America:
Religious Revival in America, Second Great Awakening
by Michele Murphy
Salpointe Catholic High School, Tucson, AZ
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Religion and the Founding of the American Republic (Library of Congress) http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel01-2.html
Religious Revival in America
In 1839 J. Maze Burbank exhibited at the Royal Society in London this watercolor of "a camp meeting, or religious revival in America, from a sketch taken on the spot." It is not known where, when, or under whose auspices the revival painted by Burbank occurred. In 1800 major revivals that eventually reached into almost every corner of the land began at opposite ends of the country: the decorous Second Great Awakening in New England and the exuberant Great Revival in Kentucky. The principal religious innovation produced by the Kentucky revivals was the camp meeting. The revivals were organized by Presbyterian ministers, who modeled them after the extended outdoor "communion seasons,"
used by the Presbyterian Church in Scotland, which frequently produced emotional, demonstrative displays of religious conviction. In Kentucky the pioneers loaded their families and provisions into their wagons and drove to the Presbyterian meetings, where they pitched tents and settled in for several days. When assembled in a field or at the edge of a forest for a prolonged religious meeting, the participants transformed the site into a camp meeting. The religious revivals that swept the Kentucky camp meetings were so intense and created such gusts of emotion that their original sponsors, the Presbyterians, as well the Baptists, soon repudiated them. The Methodists, however, adopted and eventually
domesticated camp meetings and introduced them into the eastern United States, where for decades they were one of the evangelical signatures of the denomination.
Religious Camp Meeting.
Watercolor by J. Maze Burbank, c. 1839
Old Dartmouth Historical Society-New Bedford Whaling Museum,
New Bedford, Massachusetts.
Gift of William F. Havemeyer (187)
1. Study this image. What can you infer from the setting (note the tents, stage, etc.) and what does this lead you to understand about the nature and purpose of a camp meeting?
2. What does this watercolor tell you about the impact of camp meetings on those who attended?
3. Study the figures on stage. What can you infer about camp meeting leadership and format?
4. How does the artist's use of light and darkness direct your attention? Why?
5. Select a figure in the painting. Put yourself in his or her shoes. Write a journal entry about your time at the camp meeting. Be sure to include background information such as why you are there, how you got there, who you are with, in addition to what you experience.
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