The Salem Witch Trials frightened people, not about witches, but about the dangers of rigid orthodoxy. The following decades into the eighteenth century saw the old Puritan guard lose its grip on New England.

Religion didn't disappear, but it cooled notably. Increased trade across the Atlantic and the arrival of Enlightenment thinking resulted in greater secularism in New England society, until George Whitefield arrived in the 1730s.

Whitefield was a charismatic itinerant preacher who helped usher in a wave of revivalism in England and in the colonies. Historians refer to the movement as the Great Awakening, and understanding its impact is crucial to understanding American Christianity.