In the early 18th century the colonies of America were going through a religious low. Their beliefs were very complacent in old beliefs. The Great Awakening originated in Europe when political shifts put an end to deep spirituality. Charles II took over the thrown and began purging his court of Puritanism. The religious complacency began after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. The colonist, being scared of Catholic and Stuart control, welcomed this revolution thinking that the rights they were accustomed to in Europe would be given to them in the colonies as well. George Whitfield bought this revivalist movement from England after Jonathan Edwards already started having revivals in Massachusetts.
             In the American colonies before the Great Awakening, each colony existed as its own unique territory with each having greatly contrasting ways of life and religion. Up until the Great Awakening, there was no true force that served to unify all the colonies together under a single ideal or person.
             As the Great Awakening spread, it was truly a monumental force in the life of all people living in the colonies. The Eastern Coast, even including Puritan territory was ripe with people just waiting to get converted back into a moral, religious life. As the decline of morals in the Puritan areas and the sudden explosion of slavery began to happen, the Great Awakening could have come at no better time. Such important people as Jon Edwards and George Whitefield would come to lead the change of the basic life of the colonists.
             Most people believe that the Great Awakening was one single event that just suddenly happened, which is far from the truth. The Great Awakening was rather a series of revival; most of which were short lived and turned out to be nothing. These revivals were quickly shut down because of the major influence the Enlightenment came to have on the people in the Colonies. The rational ideas of scientists such as Newton were in ...