Shining a “New Light”

America's First Great Awakening spread Christianity across the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains into Kentucky immediately following the Revolutionary War. Religious efforts to recreate European society on the western frontier introduced slaves to Christianity, accomplished most effectively through camp revivals. The Christian message changed thinking among the enslaved and enslavers, encouraging both to view their lives in a religious "New Light." Methodist and Separate Baptist theology challenged British Calvinism by promoting salvation by free will, giving birth to a new form of American evangelism.