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George Whitefield, 1714-1770
Renowned for his Old Testament oratory, English evangelist George Whitefield was a leading figure in the wave of religious revivalism that swept America in the 1730s and 1740s. The son of innkeepers, Whitefield first traveled to America in 1738, where he embarked on missionary work and established a successful orphanage and school in Georgia. During several extended visits to America, he traveled widely and became one of the most publicized figures of the fervent religious movement known as the Great Awakening. Although many Anglican leaders disapproved of Whitefield's methods, his sermons stimulated new religious zeal throughout the colonies. Benjamin Franklin once observed that Whitefield's voice was so powerful that it could be heard at the outermost fringe of a crowd of 30,000 and that its eloquence had moved the normally skeptical Franklin to empty his pockets "wholly into the collector's plate, gold and all."
John Greenwood, after Nathaniel Hone Mezzotint, 1769 |