In the late 1700s and early 1800s, religious revitalization and evangelism movements swept across the United States. This movement, called the Second Great Awakening, influenced several aspects of American society, manifesting itself in politics and cultural trends. One of those cultural movements, one that would have a far longer-lasting influence on American culture and politics, is the temperance movement. What was the temperance movement? Who were its leaders? And what was the temperance movement’s significance in American History?
The Temperance Movement: 1800s
Temperance Movement: A social movement in the 1820s and 1830s that promoted abstinence from the consumption of alcohol. Those who abstained usually emphasized the negative and derogatory effects of alcohol on the consumer's body and health, the social stigmatism of alcoholism, and the adverse impact on the American family. The movement promotes education on the effects of alcoholic beverages and pushes for policies ranging from regulating alcohol to its complete prohibition.
Alcohol and Antebellum Society
As a group, American men of the early nineteenth century liked to drink alcoholic spirits- whiskey, rum, and hard cider in particular. They gathered in public houses, saloons, taverns, and rural inns to socialize, discuss politics, play cards, and drink. Men drank on all occasions, social and business: contracts were sealed with a drink; celebrations were toasted with spirits; barn raisins and harvests ended with liquor. And though respectable women did not drink in public, many regularly tippled alcohol-based medicines were promoted as cure-alls.
There were economic and environmental reasons for the popularity of liquor. Spirits were more easily transported than grain; as a result, by 1810, they were surpassed only by cloth and tanned hides in the total output value. And in areas where clean water was either expensive or unobtainable, whiskey was cheaper and safer than water.
Not until the Croton Reservoir brought clean water to New York City in 1842 did New Yorkers switch from spirits to water.
The Temperance Movement
Why, then, was temperance such a vital issue? And why were women especially active in the movement? As with all reform, temperance had a strong religious base and connection to the Second Great Awakening. For many devout Christians, it was unholy to pollute your body and debase yourself with the effects of intoxicating drinks. In addition, to evangelicals, selling whiskey was a chronic symbol of violating the Sabbath, for workers commonly worked six days a week, then spent Sunday at the public house drinking and socializing. Alcohol was seen as a destroyer of families since men who drank heavily either neglected their families or could not adequately support them.
Fig. 1- This poster from 1846 by Nathaniel Currier called "The Drunkards Progress" caricatured the effects of alcohol towards a deadly end
Rum became the most demonized and the target of the most widespread and successful temperance movements. As reformers gained momentum, they shifted their emphasis from the temperate use of spirits to its voluntary abstinence and finally to a crusade to prohibit the manufacture and sale of spirits. Even though consumption of alcohol was declining, opposition to it did not weaken.
The American Temperance Society
The American Society for the Promotion of Temperance, also known as the American Temperance Society, was organized in 1826 to urge drinkers to sign an abstinence pledge; soon after, it became a pressure group for state prohibition legislation.
By the mid-1830s, there were some five thousand state and local temperance organizations, and more than a million people had taken the pledge. By the 1840s, the movement’s success was reflected in a sharp decline in alcohol consumption in the United States.
Between 1800 and 1830, annual per capita consumption of alcohol had risen from three to more than five gallons; by the mid-1840s, however, it had dropped to below two gallons. Success bred more victories. In 1851, Maine prohibited the manufacture and sale of alcohol except for medical purposes, and by 1855 similar laws had been enacted throughout New England, New York, Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
Fig. 2- This image shows temperance songs promoted by the Women's Temperance Organization from Wilkinsburg, Pa.
Temperance Movement: Leaders
The temperance movement saw several notable leaders of varying backgrounds:
Ernestine Rose (1810-1892): An American temperance reformer and advocate for women's suffrage who became heavily involved in the women's rights movement of the 1850s
Amelia Bloomer (1818-1894): An American temperance activist who married a newspaper editor, Amelie often contributed to the paper with articles promoting temperance and women's rights and was an active leader in the Temperance Society of New York.
Frances Dana Barker Gage (1808-1884): A social reformer and author who contributed letters and articles to newspapers and other periodicals throughout Ohio. In the 1850s, she was the women’s rights convention president in Ohio.
Neal Dow (1804-1897): Nicknamed the “father of prohibition,” Dow was an advocate for temperance and a politician in the 1850s. Dow served as the Mayor of Portland, Maine, and in the 1850s as the president of the Maine Temperance Society. Under his leadership, Maine passed the first prohibition laws in the nation in 1845. Is the 1880 National Prohibition Party nominee for president of the United States.
Temperance movement: Timeline
The 1820s: Per capita consumption of alcohol exceeds five gallons
1826: American Temperance Society founded in Boston by local ministers
1834: American Temperance Society boasts more than five thousand chapters and more than one million members.
1838: Massachusetts passes legislation prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages less than 15 gallons.
1840: Per capita consumption of alcoholic beverages drops to less than two gallons
1840: Massachusetts prohibition is repealed
1845: Maine passes prohibition laws
1855: 13 out of 40 states pass some form of prohibition legislation
1869: National Prohibition Party is founded
Fig. 3 - A poster advertising a lecture on the importance of temperance from 1850.
Temperance Movement: Impact
The temperance movement is one of the few social movements, especially in the 1800s, that was influential in passing legislation and influencing consumer behavior. By the 1850s, most states had chapters of the American Temperance Society, and the society had successfully lobbied to pass some form of prohibition in 13 out of 40 states. Along with state-level legislation, the society influenced local and municipal governments to enact prohibition laws that, for some, are still in effect in some form to this day. Such as age restrictions, restrictions on types of spirits sold and where, hours businesses can sell alcohol, licensing and regulation of alcohol sales and consumption, and education on the effects of alcohol on the body and society. The temperance movement may slow down in the late 1800s, but its impact resonated well into the twentieth century. In 1919, ratifying the 18th Amendment will see a national prohibition of alcohol.
Temperance movement - Key takeaways
- Temperance Movement was a social movement in the 1820s and 1830s that promoted abstinence from the consumption of alcohol.
- The temperance movement led to the prohibition movements of the late 1800s and early 1900s.
- There were economic and environmental reasons for the popularity of liquor. Spirits were more easily transported than grain.
- In areas where clean water was either expensive or unobtainable, whiskey was cheaper and safer than water.
- Temperance had a strong religious base and connection to the Second Great Awakening, it was seen as unholy to pollute your body with alcohol, and alcohol was seen as a destroyer of families.
- Rum became the most demonized and the target of the most widespread and successful temperance movements.
- The temperance movement is one of the few social movements, especially in the 1800s, that was influential in passing legislation and influencing consumer behavior.
References
- Blair, H. W. (2018). The Temperance Movement: Or the Conflict Between Man and Alcohol (Classic Reprint). Forgotten Books.
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