Henry Alline - Historical Context

Historical Context

The period of the early 1740s to 1784 was one of a struggle for hegemony of North America by Britain, significant religious upheaval in northeastern North America, and ultimately revolution in the Thirteen Colonies.

War & Revolution

Just prior to Alline’s birth the War of the Austrian Succession had just come to a close with the signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748). Northeastern North America had been pulled into the conflict (see King George's War ); achieving a significant victory with the capture of the Fortress of Louisbourg in 1745, only to have it returned, to the chagrin of New England, to France during Treaty negotiations. Over the next seven years a peace rested uneasily between Britain and France. By the mid 1750s conflict broke out again resulting in the Seven Years' War. Nova Scotia’s population was decimated with the deportation of the Acadians.

With the removal of the common enemy, France, in North America a paradigm shift occurred in the political relationship between the British Metropole and its New World colonies. The deteriorating relationship in due course resulted in the American Declaration of Independence and Revolutionary War.

Religious Upheaval

Almost coinciding with these aforementioned periods of war was the rise of the First and Second Great Awakening religious revivals.

The First Great Awakening period occurred over the twenty years running up to 1750. With its initial roots in England it spread to and flourished in the Thirteen Colonies. Under the Awakening evangelical ministers came to the fore with their sermons and teachings that elicited an emotional response over the intellectual. Church gatherings became more participatory; moving to a development of more democratic churches. The Awakening, although affecting a broad cross section of American society at the time, had its greatest influence on church leaders, the educated and the elite. It is thought the democratizing ways of the movement influenced the populace; leading them eventually to throw off their colonial shackles.

The Second Great Awakening began in the last quarter of the Eighteenth Century, with its influence still felt into the 1840s. (Many current day churches, including the Mormons (LDS Church), developed in the later part of this period.) This second period of evangelicalism heavily influenced the mid to lower levels of society. The movement generally advocated the individual can and must have a direct relationship with God and that all people were able to be saved. For those people living in New England this was counter to their Calvinism with its idea that only a preordained elected few would be saved. The Awakening's new ideas caused the new born faithful (New Lights) to shun vices and evil pastimes to live more personally within the Christian ethic.