In the 1730s and 1740s a wave of revival moved through the British American colonies. In Northampton, Massachusetts, Jonathan Edwards saw his congregation gripped by a sudden, deep seriousness about God; his account of it was read across the Atlantic world.
The revival's most far-ranging voice was George Whitefield, whose open-air preaching drew enormous crowds from Georgia to New England. The Awakening cut across denominations and colonies, emphasizing the new birth — that Christianity is not inherited or assumed but personally received.
The First Great Awakening reshaped colonial religion and, some historians argue, helped form a shared colonial identity. It also divided churches between 'New Light' supporters of the revival and 'Old Light' critics — a tension revival movements have carried ever since.