How Revival Ministers Prepared Colonists for the American Revolution

For nearly half a century before the American Revolution, the preachers of the Great Awakening swept through the thirteen colonies, transforming individuals’ lives in an unprecedented phenomenon known as the Great Awakening. The clergy during the Great Awakening proved to be instrumental and provided the very groundwork for the Revolution in three ways. First, the clergy of the Great Awakening provided an example of dissent from England that was later followed by the Revolutionaries. Second, the clergy united the American social classes and religious audiences. Third, the Clergy provided the language for the Revolution. Paradoxically, while the Great Awakening was the first phenomenon to create inter-colonial unity and rapport, it was also the first phenomenon to create dissention between English people and American people. In this paper I will delve into the three aforementioned ways as to how ministers before the Revolution prepared the colonies for the American Revolution