predestination
What is predestination?
Predestination is the belief that God has already determined who will be saved or damned, regardless of personal actions.
What was the Second Great Awakening?
A Protestant revival movement in the early 1800s that emphasized individual salvation and social responsibility.
What were religious revivals?
Large emotional gatherings where preachers inspired attendees to repent and lead moral lives.
What were debtors’ prisons?
Prisons where people were jailed for owing money, often trapping the poor in a cycle of poverty.
What was the Temperance Movement?
A campaign to reduce or ban the consumption of alcohol due to its harmful effects on families and society.
How did predestination limit social reform?
It discouraged efforts to improve society because people believed their fate was already sealed.
How did it inspire reform movements?
It taught that society could be improved through moral action, sparking movements like abolition and temperance.
Why were revivals important for reform?
They motivated people to take action against societal sins like slavery and alcoholism.
Why did reformers oppose debtors’ prisons?
They saw them as cruel and counterproductive, especially to families and economic opportunity.
Why was alcohol seen as a problem?
It was linked to domestic violence, poverty, and crime, especially affecting women and children.
How did the rejection of predestination empower reformers?
Reformers believed humans could choose salvation and thus had the power to improve themselves and society.
What role did women play in the Second Great Awakening?
Women were active participants and organizers, gaining public influence and leadership experience.
How did revivals affect women?
They provided a socially accepted space for women to gather, speak, and organize reform groups.
How were women affected by debtor laws?
Women and children often suffered when male breadwinners were imprisoned for debt.
How did women lead the temperance cause?
Women formed organizations like the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) to fight for alcohol bans.
Why was rejecting predestination significant for women?
It allowed women to see themselves as moral agents with a role in social change, leading to their involvement in reform.
How did the Second Great Awakening challenge traditional roles?
It encouraged women and common people to speak out and take moral action, challenging male-dominated religious leadership.
What types of reforms grew from revival meetings?
Movements such as temperance, abolition, education reform, and women’s rights.
How did women participate in debt reform?
Women organized charity work, spoke out against economic injustice, and pushed for debtor protection laws.
What skills did women gain from temperance work?
Public speaking, organizing protests, lobbying legislators — all of which they later used in the women’s rights movement.
Which movement helped shift views away from predestination?
The Second Great Awakening, which emphasized free will and moral responsibility.
How did this movement support women’s rights?
It gave women a voice in public life and taught them to organize — key steps toward suffrage and equality.
What lasting impact did revivals have on society?
They helped create a culture of activism and moral responsibility that reshaped American society.
What did debt reform symbolize in the broader reform era?
It reflected a growing belief in compassion, equality, and the government's responsibility to protect citizens.
How did temperance connect to women’s suffrage?
Many women realized they needed the vote to change laws, making temperance a bridge to the suffrage movement.