Major Leaders of the Second Great Awakening

Charles Grandison Finney

He was the most famous preacher of the Second Great Awakening. His style of speaking inspired emotional religious faith. He was converted at the age of 29. He and his fellow preachers dismissed the 18th-century Calvinistic belief of predestination and focused on individual responsibilty for seeking salvation. He organized some of his most successful revivals in Rochester, New York.

Henry David Thoreau

He started the idea of self-reliance. He began the a form of protest called civil disobedience, peacefully refuse to obey the laws because they are considered unjust. He refused to pay taxes to help support the war, so he was sent to jail.