George Whitefield: the open-air preacher of the Great Awakening

Benjamin Franklin was not a religious enthusiast, but he went to hear George Whitefield preach in Philadelphia. He was so curious about the size of the crowd that he walked backwards through the streets while Whitefield spoke, estimating how far the preacher’s voice carried. Franklin calculated that tens of thousands could hear him at once. Whitefield, an English clergyman, became the most famous preacher of his age, and his open-air sermons helped ignite the Great Awakening in America.

Early life and the Great Awakening

Whitefield was born in Gloucester, England, in 1714. He studied at Oxford, where he joined the Holy Club with John and Charles Wesley. At Oxford, he experienced a spiritual conversion that shaped his preaching on the “new birth”. When some churches closed their doors to him, Whitefield began preaching in fields and town squares, starting with coal miners near Bristol.

He made several journeys to the American colonies, preaching from Georgia to New England. His tour of 1739 to 1740 drew enormous crowds. His preaching was a major force in the Great Awakening, a wave of revival across the colonies.

His voice, Franklin and slavery

Whitefield had a powerful, expressive voice and a dramatic style, using vivid stories and emotion. Franklin became his friend and printer, publishing his sermons and journals, though he never shared his faith. Whitefield founded an orphanage, Bethesda, in Savannah, Georgia, and raised money for it throughout his life. Whitefield’s legacy is complicated by his support for allowing slavery in Georgia and his ownership of enslaved people, a painful contradiction historians note.

He died in 1770 in Newburyport, Massachusetts, during his last American tour. His open-air methods influenced later evangelists, from Wesley to Billy Graham.

The evangelical movement and his journals

He is regarded as one of the founders of modern evangelicalism. Whitefield worked closely with John and Charles Wesley in the early Methodist movement, though they later disagreed over theology. Whitefield held Calvinist views, while the Wesleys did not, but the friends remained respectful of each other, and John Wesley preached at Whitefield’s memorial service.

Whitefield published journals of his travels, which spread news of the revival and made him a celebrity on both sides of the Atlantic. Whitefield preached in fields because churches shut their doors. The crowds that gathered there helped change the religious life of two continents.