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The Second Great Awakening

The Second Great Awakening names a Protestant religious revival that occurred in the early nineteenth century in the United States. Like the First Great Awakening, which had taken place half a century before, the Second Great Awakening was characterized by a spirit of religious fervor. This spirit represented an “awakening” from the rationalism that had predominated in the eighteenth century, particularly as this form of rationalism had affected American religious life. The Unitarian Church, which held sway in major cities like Boston, had disposed of the more “fanciful” aspects of Christian theology, including the Trinitarian belief in a triune God. Dickinson, who grew up in a Calvinist community, was swept up by the Second Great Awakening in her youth. In her adult years, she grew to question the beliefs she’d been taught, and eventually she rejected all organized religion. Even so, her religious background deeply influenced her poetry, infusing it with curiosity about death, the afterlife, and what can—or cannot—be known of these realms. Although not espousing any specific denominational beliefs, “Because I could not stop for Death” does share with the spirit of the times an overriding interest in what waits for us after we die.

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