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THE SIMULATION LAB
Free printable · APUSH Topics 4.10–4.11

Second Great Awakening Cause Cards

Eighteen cards — causes, methods, and consequences — with a network board and teacher key. Students explain why revival spread when and where it did, and trace how it fed the reform movements that followed.

Why this page exists: the Revival Network Cause Map names cause cards that never shipped as a file.

Nothing to download, no email, no account. Print straight from this page. Built for the Revival Network Cause Map in Topic 4.10 of APUSH Launch Control, and it works in any course that teaches the same ground.

How to print it

Each button opens your browser's normal print box with only that one piece selected — the website navigation, this text, and the teacher key never come out of the printer by accident. Choose your printer, press Print. Nothing downloads.

  1. The 18 cards — 3 pages, 6 per page. Six causes, six methods, six consequences. Cut on the dashed lines; one set per group.
  2. The network board — 1 page, prints sideways. One per group. Four zones, and the links between them are what gets graded.
  3. The teacher key — 1 page, for you only. What each card contributes and the causal overreach to correct.

18 cards · 3 pages at 6 per page · cut on the dashed lines

Second Great Awakening Cause CardsCauses, methods, consequences. Cut on the dashed lines. thesimulationlabedu.com

The cards

Why revival spread, how it actually worked, and what it produced — including movements that pointed in opposite directions.

Revival Network BoardOne per group. Cause, method, consequence, and the limit. thesimulationlabedu.com

The network board

Four zones. The fourth exists because revival did not produce one politics — it produced several that fought each other.

Causes

Why revival spread when it did.

Methods

How it actually reached people.

Consequences

What organized movements followed.

Pointing opposite ways

Two consequences that contradict each other.

The cause we rank first — and why
A method that only worked because of a specific cause
Two consequences that contradict each other
Something revival does NOT explain about this period
Teacher key — what each card contributes and the overreach to correct (click to open)
Teacher Key — Second Great Awakening Cause CardsDo not hand to students. thesimulationlabedu.com

Kept closed by default so it is not on the board behind you.

Free from The Simulation Lab · https://thesimulationlabedu.com/history/apush/tools/second-great-awakening-cause-cards/

Run it in one class period

  1. Opener, 5 minutes. Ask why a person would ride a horse for days to preach to strangers outdoors. Hold the answers.
  2. Sort, 15 minutes. All 18 cards into causes, methods, consequences, with a defense for contested placements.
  3. Link, 12 minutes. Find a method that only worked because of a specific cause. Circuit riders and westward settlement is the clean pair.
  4. The contradiction, 10 minutes. Name two consequences that point opposite ways and explain how both came from the same movement.
  5. Exit, 5 minutes. One sentence naming something revival does not explain about this period.

The correction this set is built around. Textbook treatments make revival the engine of reform and stop there. The same movement supplied abolitionists with their language and southern churches with their defense of slavery, and it fed hostility toward Catholic immigrants. Students who can hold all three have understood it.

These are teacher-authored cards, not sermons or primary texts. For documents, use the Evidence and Source Guide in the lesson kit.

All free printable card sets · Back to the APUSH Skills Lab

Written and reviewed by Josh, classroom history teacher and Simulation Lab creator. Published and reviewed August 19, 2026. Print and copy freely for your own classroom. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the College Board.