Journal of Student Research 2023

Journal of Student Research 70 was very revolutionary in his time before it entered common parlance from some knowledge source. As a minister of the Gospel, Wise certainly received inspiration from the Bible and God, and that must be acknowledged as a guide for the stand he took and the inspiration he bequeathed to later American colonists. Not for nothing, Ipswich is known to be a “Birthplace of American Independence.” 12 Reverend George Whitefield In the 1730s, the First Great Awakening began to sweep through the colonies. The Great Awakening was partly a response to the state of religion in the American colonies, described by Rev. Samuel Blair as one where, “Religion lay, as it were, dying and ready to expire its last breath of life in this part of the visible church.” 13 This cessation of religion was a radical departure from the strict Puritan church ethos of the early New England colonists in the 17th century. One of the more famous ministers associated with the First Great Awakening was the Rev. George Whitefield, an Anglican minister of a Methodist strain. For thirty-four years, Whitefield traversed the American colonies and Europe, preaching over 18,000 sermons and attracting massive crowds. 14 Through these innumerable speaking engagements, Whitefield had an unprecedented opportunity to impact the American colonies on a range of issues due to the sheer number of American colonists who heard him speak. It is estimated that 80% of people living in the American colonies heard him preach, a stunning feat in an era before mass media. 15 How he used this influence is of the utmost importance when considering the impact he would have on the future American Revolution. Whitefield’s impact can be found in the way the seeds of religious unification he planted transcended the old political separatism in the colonies. This was at a time when each of the thirteen colonies viewed themselves as separate countries, not unlike the German principalities of the 18th and 19th centuries, with separation of everything from money, taxes, trade, etc. This political, economic, and social disunion could also be found in the religious differences of the separate colonies. Colonies often had their own distinct official or favored religious denomination; for example, Virginia was Anglican, and Massachusetts was Congregational. Religious limitations on the free exercise for nonofficial denominations occurred in some colonies, especially Virginia, against religious minorities; for example, “But in many others, alarmed by the rapid increase of the Baptists, the men in power, trained every penal law in the Virginia Code, to obtain ways and means, to put down their disturbers of the peace, as they were now called.” 16 The denominational divide posed a risk that the colonies would struggle to unite against Britain in the event of a future conflict. This was a situation that required a remedy: Rev. Whitefield, 12 J.H. Burnham, “The Birthplace of American Independence, 1687.” The Journal of American History 9, no. 1 (1915): 441. 13 Joseph Tracy, The Great Awakening: A History of the Revival of Religion in the Time of Edwards and Whitefield (Boston: Charles Tappan, 1845), 26, Quoting Rev. Samuel Blair in 1744. 14 James G. Wilson and John Fiske, Appleton’s Cyclopedia of American Biography, Vol 6 (New York: Appleton & Sons, 1889), 477-478. 15 Dave Schleck, “CW to Recreate Visit of Famous Preacher,” Daily Press, August 7, 2021. 16 Robert B. Semple, A History of the Rise and Progress of the Baptists in Virginia (Richmond: O’Lynch, 1810), 14.