Graduate Program

History

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Semester of Degree Completion

2008

Thesis Director

Mark Voss-Hubbard

Thesis Committee Member

Ed Wehrle

Thesis Committee Member

Sace Elder

Abstract

The United States' early history was marked by two periods of religious revival called "Great Awakenings." Beginning in the early nineteenth century grassroots Christian denominations began growing, mostly out of the Northeast, and spread throughout the country as land began to open in the West. This paper expands the historiography of the South during the Second Great Awakening. It adds to the broader discussion the interaction of two important urban areas with the churches and organizations of the Second Great Awakening. Most importantly it attempts to explain the discrepancy between explosive population and economic growth with the slow development of religious institutions.

When the Second Great Awakening first entered Mississippi, both Natchez and Vicksburg were in the nascent stages of development, as was the religious movement. The continuity of development between the cities and the religious movement offer an alternative story of how the Second Great Awakening impacted frontier portions of the United States, particularly those that were urban. This study looks at the subject partially from the perspective of organizational decision making to gain an understanding of how the churches and institutions of the Second Great Awakening attempted to expand their influence into Natchez and Vicksburg. Furthermore, it focuses on the tension between the priorities of growing urban areas, and those of evangelical churches and organizations.

This study of Natchez and Vicksburg, Mississippi argues that despite the sameness of the institutional actors in the Second Great Awakening, place and local culture strongly affected the success of the national religious movement.

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