The Second Great Awakening was a powerful religious revival during the mid-1800s, led by preacher Charles G. Finney. Common beliefs and traditional customs were challenged as Americans explored new ideas of religious and moral lifestyles. Expression within such environments mimicked social ideals of increased civil rights and sought purity while avoiding misbehavior due to intoxication. As a result, movements such as those against alcohol consumption and slave ownership became a controversial part of the quest for utopia. The Second Great Awakening inspired several movements including the abolitionism movement and the temperance movement in society in the northern region of the United States. The temperance movement grew during the Second Great Awakening as the United States urged a state of perfect morality. The goal of the temperance movement was to ban the consumption of alcohol and essentially ban it from the country. The Second Great Awakening created awareness of alcoholism. Many men turned into alcoholics and abandoned their wives and children, these affected women largely inspired the temperance movement. Many others believed that alcohol prevented consumers from becoming civilized members of society. The American Temperance Union was formed to combat the spread of alcohol. The temperance movement thrived in the North rather than the South due to different economies. The Southern economy was based on agriculture, which required slaves while the Northern economy was market based. Groups, such as the Daughters of Temperance, formed by the thousands under the American Society for the Promotion of Temperance. In 1851, Maine became the first state to prohibit the consumption and sale of alcohol statewide… middle of the paper… Americans also began to make their impact by expressing the need to spread abolition. Frederick Douglass published his memoir exploring the difficulties of growing up and living in slavery. The Second Great Awakening caused many moral conflicts through the rise of religion, which challenged traditional social norms. Overall, the Second Great Awakening was beneficial to America in regards to equality and the extinction of unnecessary alcohol consumption. As emerging ideas vied for superiority, religions completely fueled the basis of how Americans should approach life. Temperance and slavery were believed to have evil qualities that would essentially ruin the United States and condemn the people who resided there to Hell. The Second Great Awakening awakened Americans to their new freedom to defy tradition and form a newly structured nation.