Welcome to Our History Around the World Homeschool Curriculum

Course Sample for Our History Around the World Homeschool Curriculum

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Lesson 1: The Great Awakening in America

Day 1: Introduction

You may read the title of this lesson and wonder what exactly America was “awakening” from. When I hear the word, I automatically think of its opposite—sleeping. And a quick check with a thesaurus tells me that other antonyms for “awaken” are “lull,” “hypnotize,” and “deaden.”

To fully understand the Great Awakening and its impact on America even today, we first need to think about what happened before it.

A quick review:

• 1492 – Christopher Columbus sailed to the Western Hemisphere and ushered in an age of exploration in the land that eventually became the United States.
• 1500s – The Protestant Reformation spread across Europe, including England where King Henry VIII broke from the Catholic Church and formed the Church of England; a century of religious fighting and persecution between Catholics and Protestants ensued.
• 1620 – A group who had broken off, or separated, from the Church of England set out for the New World to escape persecution and to practice their religion freely; we know them today as the “Separatists” or “Pilgrims” who settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts; they were considered “radical” Puritans because they wanted to separate from the Church of England.
• 1630 – A less radical group of Puritans settled Massachusetts Bay Colony; they did not want to separate from the Church of England but rather reform, or “purify” it (thus their name).
• Sadly, the religious environment of Puritan New England proved to be as intolerant as the Church of England, and their doctrines of predestination and strict and literal adherence to the Bible sometimes stifled God’s ability to work in the hearts of people.
• 1700s – Both England and America were “awakened” from their spiritual slumber when a wave of evangelists rose up to spread a message of personal, experiential faith.