"I saw a cloud of horsemen and footmen riding on the road... I supposed it might have been the Governor or some great man, but as I came nearer the meeting-house, I saw shapes of men, and trees, and houses, all dim and visionary... When I saw Mr. Whitefield come upon the scaffold, he looked almost angelical... He looked as though he was clothed with authority from the great God." — Nathan Cole, journal entry on traveling to hear George Whitefield preach at Middletown, Connecticut (October 1740)
Which long-term consequence of the revivals is most consistent with this excerpt?
- A
The legal disestablishment of religion across New England before 1750
- B
The unification of Anglican and Quaker churches in the middle colonies
- Ccheck_circle
Splintering of established Protestant denominations into "Old Light" and "New Light" factions
- D
The conversion of most enslaved Africans to Catholicism
Explanation
The emotional, conversion-centered preaching of Whitefield and others polarized Congregationalists and Presbyterians into traditionalist "Old Lights" and revivalist "New Lights," producing lasting denominational divisions.