The Great Awakening was a religious revival that occurred in the 1730's and 1740's. It started in England and made its way to the English Colonies. Jonathan Edwards was a pastor from the colonies. He liked to tell his congregation to remove all their sins from their lives or they were going to end up somewhere where they didn't want to end up. George Whitefield was a minister that came over from England and he was a different kind of preacher than what most were use to. He was very emotional. He brought the word of God strongly to everyone's lives. Many people loved to hear him because of the message he would bring. Other ministers joined the colonies and they called for a rebirth (return to a stronger faith). Most people that came over from America wanted to practice religion the way they wanted to, religion was the primary focus of their lives. Once they came here they noticed that survival turned into the primary focus of their lives and their religious beliefs fell to the side. The Great Awakening created a religious and political freedom to the colonies. Colonist started to challenge authority and speak their minds. Because they started to speak their minds, education had to come in. If you want to speak your mind at least have some background knowledge. Preachers wanted to let colonist know that if they did it, colonist can do it too. For the first time colonies were united. Political ideas came along to show independence. All those ideas would have not came along, had it not been for the Great Awakening.