1726 was a defining year for America. 1776 would never have happened apart from 1726. The Great Awakening that began that year transformed Colonial America and laid the spiritual, moral, and philosophical foundations for the beginning of a great new nation. It also unleashed the anti-slavery sentiments and moral outrage that eventually brought about slavery's demise in America. The late Harvard professor, Perry Miller, was correct in saying, "The Declaration of Independence of 1776 was a direct result of the preaching of the evangelists of the Great Awakening." The Great Awakening of which he speaks began in 1726. This is the story of America that has been censured from modern textbooks. It is the story of the faith and spiritual vision of those who brought this nation into existence.