Beginning in New England with the First Great Awakening, the American frontier experienced the overflow of religious revival in what is now East Tennessee. While Meriwether Lewis was involved with Thomas Jefferson is exploring a new territory, the American Frontier was ingaged in the so-called Second Great Awakening.
By the Second Awakening, a great number of people had moved into Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and toward Tennessee and Alabama. The key writings of the Colonial period are here.
That trailblazer was probably more like a real estate agent. My tribe came into Ky with him and, as with most property, my 'meets' don't jive with your 'bounds.' Can't make no money until you have sold it three times! Kentucky was the home of Caneridge (Cane Ridge) found by Daniel Boone for the Presbterian church which formed the center of revivalism which took advantage of the many "churched" people who found themselves insecure on the "wide frontier." Cane Ridge meeting house was not caulked so that they could watch for indians.
Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Campbell were friends during the great western surge of settlement and religion. While revivalism and later strivings produced a great sectarian division of perhaps 146 separate Baptist organizations, the western Restoration Movement of religion doubtedly gave stability to the Western march into the new territory made possibly by Thomas Jefferson and Meriwether Lewis.
Jefferson - Articles of Confederation
- The Declaration of Independance
- Constitution of the United States
- First Amendment
- Free Exercise of Religion
- Constitutional Classics
The study of Meriwether Lewis provides background for understanding the culture of the surge of civilization and religion into the "west."
