Christian History Timeline: Christianity on the Early American Frontier
American Religion
1771–1799 Preparation
1776 Methodists number 4,921
1784 Baptists number 35,101; Francis Asbury ordained as America’s first Methodist bishop
1790s First Methodist awakenings in North, West, and South
1798 James McGready begins revivals in Logan County, Kentucky; Bishop Asbury begins annual circuits from Maine to Georgia and along the Western frontier
1799 McGee brothers inspire revivals in Kentucky
1800–1835 “Second Great Awakening"
1800 Revivals in Gaspar River and Mud River, Kentucky
1801 Cane Ridge, Kentucky, revival under Barton Stone
1802 Revival at Yale under Timothy Dwight; collegiate awakenings throughout East
1804 Shakers send missionaries to frontier
1810 Founding of American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, America’s first foreign missions society
1816 American Bible Society formed
1817 American Sunday School Union begun
1825 Charles Finney begins seven years of intense evangelism in the Northeast
1826 American Tract Society and American Home Missionary Society begun
1828 Lane Seminary founded in frontier Cincinnati to provide clergy for the West
1830–1850 Fragmentation
1830 Finney’s greatest revival, at Rochester, New York; Joseph Smith founds Mormons
1833 Founding of Oberlin College, abolitionist stronghold
1835 Lyman Beecher’s “A Plea for the West” calls for Christian civilization of the West
1837 Presbyterian Church split into Old and New School branches over various issues, including revivalism
1838 Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Divinity School Address” outlines Transcendentalism
1844 YMCA founded; Methodist church splits over slavery
1845 Baptists split over slavery
1847 Mormon migration to Utah
1848 The Fox sisters begin the Spiritist movement, which sweeps America
1850 Membership in Protestant denominations soars to 3.5 million
1855 Dwight L. Moody converted at age 18; Methodists claim 1,577,014 members, and Baptists 1,105,546 members
1857 China opened to missions
1857–1858 Prayer Meeting Revival or “Third Great Awakening”—estimated one million converted
U.S. History
1771–1799 Preparation
1787 Constitutional Convention
1792 Washington reelected unanimously; Kentucky statehood; Whitney’s cotton gin invented
1794 Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason
1796 Tennessee statehood
1800–1835 “Second Great Awakening"
1801 Thomas Jefferson becomes third president
1803 Louisiana Purchase doubles size of the United States
1805–1806 Lewis and Clark expedition explores West
1807 First successful steamboat
1812–1814 War with England
1817–1818 Seminole wars
1820 Missouri Compromise
1822 Santa Fe Trail opens
1823 Monroe Doctrine
1825 Erie Canal opens
1830–1850 Fragmentation
1826–1846 Indians removed across the Mississippi
1828 Andrew Jackson elected president; Baltimore and Ohio Railroad begun
1831 The McCormick reaper
1833–1837 Financial panic and recession
1835 The Colt revolver
1836 Samuel F.B. Morse’s telegraph; Texas gains independence; Battle of the Alamo
1845 The phrase “manifest destiny” appears
1846–1848 Mexican-American War
1846 Irish potato famine
1848 Gold discovered in California
1852 Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin published
1857 Dred Scott decision by the Supreme Court
1859 Darwin’s Origin of Species; first oil well.
By Keith J. Hardman
[Christian History originally published this article in Christian History Issue #45 in 1995]
Keith J. Hardman is professor of philosophy and religion at Ursinus College, Collegeville, Pennsylvania. He is author of Charles Grandison Finney: 1792–1875 (Syracuse, 1987) and a member of the Christian History advisory board.Next articles
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As revival religion blossomed, so did the independent black church.
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How Methodists strengthened the Christian home—and changed it.
Gregory Schneider