Publication Date
8-1-2004
Document Type
Article
First Page
46
Last Page
85
Abstract
During the early 1740s, New England communities along the northern frontier witnessed a series of religious revivals that were part of a transatlantic movement known as the Great Awakening. Promoted by touring evangelists such as George Whitefield and lesser known local clergyman, the revivals dominated the daily activities of ordinary men and women. Published here for the first time, “A Jornal of afue Days at York, 1741,” presents a vivid portrayal of the local dynamics of the Awakening in Maine and New Hampshire. The author of the “Jornal,” an anonymous Boston merchant, chronicled nightly prayer meetings, conversations with pious local residents, and powerful sermon performances by visiting preachers over a two-week period in the fall of 1741. The “Jornal” demonstrates how the York revival attracted dozens of visitors from neighboring towns and forged an elite network of evangelical ministers, merchants, and magistrates that stretched from Boston to the coastal villages of Maine. Douglas Winiarski is Assistant Professor of Religion at the University of Richmond and the author of several articles on religion in early America. This essay is part of a larger study that explores the transformation of New England Congregationalism in the eighteenth century.
Recommended Citation
Winiarski, Douglas L.. "“A Jornal Of A Fue Days At York”: The Great Awakening on the Northern New England Frontier." Maine History 42, 1 (2004): 46-85. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mainehistoryjournal/vol42/iss1/4