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Birth
I was born On Augest 29, 1792. I was born in in Warren, Connecticut, and was the Seventh child of Sylvester and Rebecca Finney. -
Period: to
School
From 1812-1816 I returned to Warren, Connecticut, to attend high school and prepare for Yale. Having decided against entering Yale, I taught school in New Jersey. -
What I adressed
I addressed issues of alcohol and tobacco use (to the extreme of criticizing consumption of ice cream), the theater (which they viewed, often correctly, as havens for prostitution), honoring the Sabbath (the Sabbatarian movement), anti-Masonry, amelioration of conditions for prisoners, the handicapped and mentally ill, women's rights (the Seneca Falls Convention was spawned in part by Finney followers) and the abolition of slavery. -
My mentor/teacher
From 1821-1824 I studied theology and languages with the Rev. George Gale, pastor of the Presbyterian church in Adams, New York -
Preeching License
I was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of St. Lawrence on December 30, 1823. Wherever I traveled I started extensive religious revivals. I was criticized because I emphasized the will of man in the process of regeneration and employed revival techniques that became known as "New Measures", calculated to evoke a highly emotional response. -
Revivals
I was most active as a revivalist from 1825 to 1835, in Jefferson County and for a few years in Manhattan. I was known for his innovations in preaching and the conduct of religious meetings. These included having women pray out loud in public meetings of mixed gender; a place where those considering becoming Christians could sit to receive prayer; and public censure of individuals by name in sermons and prayers. He was also known for his extemporaneous. -
Weld
I conducted revivals in Utica and Troy. I converted Theodore Weld in Utica. Weld became an important role in the abolitionist movement. -
Sucessful Revival
From 1830-1831, I conducted the most successful revival of hmy career in Rochester, New York. -
Chapel
New York Anti-Slavery Society formed in Chatham Street Chapel -
Professor
In 1835, Finney moved to Ohio where he would become a professor at and, in 1851, President of Oberlin College -
My opinion
I took a ocean voyage to the Mediterranean for my health, I persuaded his church to refuse to admit slaveholders to communion in November. The first of his twenty two Friday night lectures on "Revivals of Religion" published in the New York Evangelist, December 6. -
Anti-slavery societies
At any rate, the abolitionists’ success had overwhelmed them. They had begun numbering a few hundred, and by 1840 there were thousands, organized into local anti-slavery societies across the North. The movement took on a momentum of its own. -
Abolitionists
Beginning in the 1840s, moderate abolitionists formed a new political party, the Liberty Party. This led to the Free Soil party, which led in turn to the Republican Party. Republicans promised to limit the South’s power over the nation, and the millions that abolitionists had swayed supported them. Lincoln’s election led to southern secession, and secession led to war. -
Writings
I wrote Memoirs beginning in 1866, in response to recently published autobiographies of Lyman Beecher and Asahel Nettleton. Both Beecher and Nettleton had opposed my early revivals based, on my mind, on serious misrepresentations of them. This opposition presented an obstacle in continuing the revival work in the larger society, including in England. -
Death
I died in Oberlin, on August 16.
