The Great Awakening was a string of religious revivals that influenced all parts of English America in the 18th century, particularly the Middle Colonies. This was a period of time when people "woke up" and started participating more in religion.
The Great Awakening split up the Presbyterian Church into two groups, the more orthodox "Old Side" and the evangelical "New Side". These revivals created abusive behavior and a bitterness between the old side and new side of the Presbyterian Church. The evangelicals claimed that the old side ministers practiced evil deeds that they normally wouldn't do. The disagreements between the two sides were blown way out of proportion. So much so, that it forced parishioners to choose between the evangelicals and the old siders.
The first signs of conflict became visible in 1715, just as the Presbyterian ministers formed the Synod of Philadelphia however, a split between the two sides wasn't threatened until the 1730s. Members of this synod wanted to keep American Presbyterianism regulated, so they approved an act called the Westminster Confession, which held all the guidelines for the ministers. Part of this act required that no minister would be ordained unless he had a degree from a European university or one from a New England college. All new candidates had to be examined by a commission of the synod on their educational background and spiritual beliefs. The evangelicals thought that these regulations towards becoming a minister took away from their freedom.
The evangelicals were lead by William Tennent Sr., who had received an education at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, and his four sons. Tennent had been ordained a minister by the Presbyterian church but never obtained a parish of his own. He became infuriated and left for the new side. Tennent built a schoolhouse in 1730 in Neshaminy, later called the Log College. The Log College taught men in the field of ministry.
