Another influence on founding-era Americans and the Constitution was the Great Awakening—the Christian evangelical revival that swept through the American colonies in the early to mid-1700s just prior to the American Revolution. Traveling evangelist George Whitefield and theologian Jonathan Edwards were the most prominent figures of this revival. Traveling evangelists’ teachings and preachings on the Bible during this period focused on spiritual life and devotion, and on spreading the Christian Gospel to all. While the revival was a religious movement, not a political one, it greatly affected American culture, society, and politics. For example, in teaching about Christ’s love and redemption for all mankind and about the individual’s choice in “born again” religious conversion, it advanced ideas of human dignity, equality, and religious tolerance. As Mark A. Noll notes in his 1992 A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada, it also had a democratic element in encouraging individuals to take an active role in their religious duties, relying less on the clergy. These ideas consequently affected Americans’ political views of democracy, freedom, and individual rights. Noll explains that this spirit of the Awakening that incorporated “a frank expression of popular democracy…had much to do with the rise of a similar spirit in politics later on.”[5] What is more, as historians observe, the revival helped to unify colonists under a common set of basic moral and civil values, and thus to develop a stronger national identity. The 14th Amendment extends citizenship to all natural born or naturalized Americans regardless of race and guaranteed that rights of citizenship, like voting, cannot be restricted by the states.
The 15th Amendment prohibits restricting the right to vote due to race.
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