Second Great Awakening

==Culture and society==
{{Main|Benevolent Empire}}
Efforts to apply Christian teaching to the resolution of social problems presaged the [[Social Gospel]] of the late 19th century. Converts were taught that to achieve salvation they needed not just to repent personal sin but also work for the moral perfection of society, which meant eradicating sin in all its forms. Thus, evangelical converts were leading figures in a variety of 19th century reform movements.<ref>Elizabeth J.Clapp, and Julie Roy Jeffrey, ed., Women, Dissent and Anti-slavery in Britain and America, 1790–1865, (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2011): 13–14</ref>

[[Congregationalism in the United States|Congregationalists]] set up missionary societies to evangelize the western territory of the northern tier. Members of these groups acted as apostles for the faith, and also as educators and exponents of northeastern urban culture. The Second Great Awakening served as an "organizing process" that created "a religious and educational infrastructure" across the western frontier that encompassed social networks, a religious journalism that provided mass communication, and church-related colleges.<ref name="Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement: Great Awakenings"/>{{rp|368}} Publication and education societies promoted Christian education; most notable among them was the [[American Bible Society]], founded in 1816. Women made up a large part of these voluntary societies.<ref>Barbara Welter, "The Feminization of American Religion: 1800–1860," in Clio's Consciousness Raised, edited by Mary S. Hartman and Lois Banner. New York: Octagon Books, 1976, 139</ref> The Female Missionary Society and the Maternal Association, both active in Utica, NY, were highly organized and financially sophisticated women's organizations responsible for many of the evangelical converts of the New York frontier.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Mary |last=Ryan |title=A Woman's Awakening: Evangelical Religion and the Families of Utica, New York, 1800 to 1840 |journal=[[American Quarterly]] |volume=30 |issue=5 |year=1978 |pages=616–19 |doi=10.2307/2712400 |jstor=2712400 }}</ref>

There were also societies that broadened their focus from traditional religious concerns to larger societal ones. These organizations were primarily sponsored by affluent women. They did not stem entirely from the Second Great Awakening, but the revivalist doctrine and the expectation that one's conversion would lead to personal action accelerated the role of women's social benevolence work.{{sfnp|Lindley|1996|p=65}} Social activism influenced [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolition]] groups and supporters of the [[Temperance movement in the United States|Temperance movement]]. They began efforts to reform prisons and care for the handicapped and mentally ill. They believed in the perfectibility of people and were highly moralistic in their endeavors.