Temperance movement in the United States
In the United States, the temperance movement, which sought to curb the consumption of alcohol, had a large influence on American politics and American society in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, culminating in the prohibition of alcohol, through the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, from 1920 to 1933. Today, there are organizations that continue to promote the cause of temperance.[1]
Early temperance: 1784–1861
In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, various factors contributed to an epidemic of alcoholism that went hand-in-hand with spousal abuse, family neglect, and chronic unemployment. Americans who used to drink lightly alcoholic beverages, like cider "from the crack of dawn to the crack of dawn" began ingesting far more alcohol as they drank more of strong, cheap beverages like rum (in the colonial period) and whiskey (in the post-Revolutionary period).[2] Popular pressure for cheap and plentiful alcohol led to relaxed ordinances on alcohol sales.
The temperance movement was born with
Some leaders persevered in pressing their cause forward. Americans such as
The Civil War dealt the movement a crippling blow. Temperance groups in the South were then weaker than their Northern counterparts and did not pass any statewide prohibition laws, and the few prohibition laws in the North were repealed by the war's end. Both sides in the war made alcohol sales a part of the war effort by taxing brewers and distillers to finance much of the conflict. The issue of slavery crowded out temperance and temperance groups petered out until they found new life in the 1870s.[5]
Temperance theatre
Temperance birthed an entire genre of theatre. In 1825, a dramatic poem called The Forgers premiered at the Charleston Theatre in Charleston, South Carolina.[6] The next significant temperance drama to debut was titled Fifteen Years of a Drunkard's Life, written by Douglas Jerrold in 1841. As the movement began to grow and prosper, these dramas became more popular among the general public. The Drunkard by W.H. Smith premiered in 1841 in Boston, running for 144 performances before being produced at Barnum's American Museum on lower Broadway. The play was wildly popular and is often credited with the entrance of the temperance narrative into mainstream American theatre. It continued to be a staple of New York's theatre scene all the way until 1875. The Drunkard follows the typical format of a temperance drama: the main character has an alcohol-induced downfall, and he restores his life from disarray once he denounces drinking for good at the play's end. Temperance drama continued to grow as a genre of theatre, fostered by the advent of the railroad as a form of transportation. This enabled theatre companies to be much more mobile, traveling from city to city. Temperance drama would even reach as far as the West Coast, as David Belasco's adaptation of Émile Zola's novel Drink premiered at the Baldwin Theatre in San Francisco in 1879.
Early victories in Maine
Maine was an early hotbed of the temperance movement. The world's first Total Abstinence Society was formed in Portland in 1815, and a statewide temperance group formed in 1834.[7] These groups won a major victory in 1838 when they pressured the state legislature to pass the Fifteen Gallon Law, which prohibited the sale of spirits in quantities of less than that amount.[8] Its practical effect was to make hard liquor available to the wealthy, who were the only ones who could afford such quantities.[8] It was repealed within two years.[8] However, in 1851 the so-called Maine law passed, which banned the production and sale of alcoholic beverages.[7] Thus Maine became the first "dry" state. However, the law's exception for "medicinal, mechanical and manufacturing purposes" meant that liquor was still available for some.[7]
Second Wave Temperance: 1872–1893
As
Temperance education
In 1873, the WCTU established a
Because of the correlation between drinking and domestic violence—many drunken husbands abused family members—the temperance movement existed alongside various
The American Temperance University opened in 1893 in the planned town of Harriman, Tennessee, which was developed as a community with no alcoholic beverages permitted. In its second year of operation the institution enrolled 345 students from 20 states. However, it closed in 1908.
Temperance fountains
Sickening and ill-tasting drinking water encouraged many Americans to drink alcohol for health purposes, so temperance groups constructed public drinking fountains throughout the United States following the Civil War. The National Woman's Christian Temperance Union (NWCTU)'s organizing convention of 1874 strongly encouraged its attendees to erect the fountains in the places that they had come from. The NWCTU advocated public temperance fountains as a means to discourage males from entering drinking establishment for refreshment.[13]
Cast-stone statues of
Simon Benson, an Oregon lumberman, was a tee-totaler who wanted to discourage his workers from drinking alcohol in the middle of the day. In 1912, Benson gave the City of Portland USD$10,000 for the installation of twenty bronze drinking fountains. As of May 2012, these fountains, known as "Benson Bubblers", continue to be used as functional public drinking devices in downtown Portland; two Portland "Benson Bubbler" locations are Eastbank Esplanade and the corner of "3rd and Burnside".[17][18]
Third wave temperance: 1893–1933
The
Anti-Saloon League
Rev. Howard Hyde Russell founded the Anti-Saloon League (ASL) in 1893. Under the leadership of Wayne Wheeler the ASL stressed political results and perfected the art of pressure politics. It did not demand that politicians change their drinking habits, only their votes in the legislature. Other organizations like the Prohibition Party and the WCTU soon lost influence to the better-organized and more focused ASL.
The ASL's motto was "the Church in action against the saloon," and it mobilized its religious coalition to pass state (and local) legislation (establishing dry states and dry counties).
By the late nineteenth century, most Protestant denominations and the American wing of the Catholic Church supported the movement to legally restrict the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages. These groups believed that alcohol consumption led to
Energized by the anti-German sentiment during World War I, the ASL achieved its main goal of passage on December 18, 1917—the 18th Amendment. Upon ratification by three-fourths of the state legislatures by January 16, 1919, established National Prohibition. The Amendment took effect on January 16, 1920. Prohibition banned "the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages in the United States and its possessions." However, Prohibition did not outlaw the private possession or consumption of alcohol products.
Modern temperance: Post–World War II
Temperance organizations
Temperance organizations of the United States played an essential role in bringing about ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution establishing national prohibition of alcohol. Some temperance organizations in the United States include:
- The American Issue Publishing House
- The American Temperance Society
- The Anti-Saloon League (active)
- The British Women's Temperance Association(active)
- The Catholic Total Abstinence Union of America
- The Center for Science in the Public Interest (active)
- The Committee of Fifty (1893)
- The Daughters of Temperance[23]
- The Department of Scientific Temperance Instruction
- The Flying Squadron of America
- The IOGT-USA(active)
- The Knights of Father Matthew
- The Lincoln-Lee Legion
- The Marin Institute for the Prevention of Alcohol and Other Drug Problems(active)
- The Methodist Board of Temperance, Prohibition, and Public Morals
- The National Temperance Society and Publishing House
- The Pioneer Total Abstinence Association (active)
- The Prohibition Party (active)
- The Salvation Army(active)
- The Scientific Temperance Federation
- The Sons of Temperance (active)
- The Templars of Honor and Temperance (active)
- The Abstinence Society
- The Total Abstinence Society, formed in Portland, Maine in 1815.[7]
- The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (active)
- The Woman's New York State Temperance Society, founded in 1852 by Susan B. Anthony and Mary C. Vaughn[24]
- The National Temperance Council
- The World League Against Alcoholism (a pro-prohibition organization)
There was often considerable overlap in membership in these organizations, as well as in leadership. Prominent temperance leaders in the United States included
There were also commercial establishments, such as the Glenwood Inn (Hornellsville, New York), that made a point of selling no alcohol so as to attract families.
See also
- Anti-Cigarette League of America
- Daisy Douglas Barr
- Diocletian Lewis
- Edith Smith Davis
- Eliza Thompson
- Frances E. L. Preston
- Gene Amondson
- The Hallelujah Trail
- "Let Every Man Mind His Own Business" (short story)
- Mary Hunt
- Native American temperance activists
- Purley Baker
- Straight Edge
- Temperance and Good Citizenship Day
- Thomas Sewall
- Washington movement
Citations
- ^ ISBN 9781558494251.
- ISBN 978-0-1950-2990-1.
- ^ Blocker, Jack S. (1989). American Temperance Movements: Cycles of Reform. Boston: Twayne Publishers. p. 16.
- ISBN 978-0190609498.
- S2CID 150066631.
- ^ THE FORGERS; A Dramatic Poem, by John Blake White, Esqr., Performed at the Charleston Theatre, 1825 and 1826. 1899. Retrieved February 7, 2019 – via Hathi Trust.
- ^ a b c d Bouchard, Kelley (October 2, 2011). "When Maine went dry". Portland Press Herald. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
- ^ ISBN 978-1592404643.
- ^ Smith, Jean Edward (2001), Grant, p. 547
- ^ Coker, Joe L. (2007). Liquor in the Land of the Lost Cause: Southern White Evangelicals and the Prohibition Movement. Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky Press.
- ^ Wagner, Michael A. (2009). "'As Gold Is Tried In The Fire, So Hearts Must Be Tried By Pain': The Temperance Movement in Georgia and the Local Option Law of 1885". Georgia Historical Quarterly. 93 (1): 30–54. Retrieved February 14, 2018.
- ^ a b Howard Clark Kee, Emily Albu, Carter Lindberg, J. William Frost, Dana L. Robert (1998). Christianity: A Social and Cultural History. 2nd edition. Prentice Hall, River, NJ.
- ^ Staff (1996–2009). "WCTU Drinking Fountains – Then and Now". Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Archived from the original on October 14, 2011. Retrieved June 9, 2012.
- ^ "Union Square Park Monuments – Union Square Drinking Fountain : NYC Parks". nycgovparks.org.
- ^ "History lessons flow from two temperance fountains – The Villager Newspaper". thevillager.com. September 20, 2012.
- ^ "Tompkins Square Park Highlights : NYC Parks". nycgovparks.org.
- ^ Jolie Wolfe (May 20, 2012). "Water Bureau: Benson Bubbler bowl was stolen". FOX 12 Oregon. Archived from the original on June 23, 2018. Retrieved June 9, 2012.
- ^ Dan Haneckow (February 2, 2012). "Benson Bubbler, 3rd and Burnside. Portland Oregon, February 2, 2012" (Image file). flickr. Yahoo! Inc. Retrieved June 9, 2012.
- ^ "A Nation of Drunkards". Prohibition. Produced by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. 2 hours. PBS video, DVD, 2011.
- ISBN 9780070414778.
- ISBN 9780415946360.
- ISBN 9781614230892.
- ^ Staff (December 7, 2007). "1846, Martha Washington Salem Union No. 6., Daughters of Temperance". New Jersey Women's History. The Women's Project of New Jersey, Inc. Retrieved June 9, 2012.
- ^ Gately, Ian (2009). Drink: A Cultural History of Alcohol (1st ed.). London: Gotham Books. p. 319.
General and cited references
- Cherrington, Ernest. Evolution of Prohibition in the United States (1926).
- Clark, Norman H. Deliver Us From Evil: An Interpretation of American Prohibition. W. W. Norton, 1976.
- Dannenbaum, Jed. "The Origins of Temperance Activism and Militancy among American Women", Journal of Social History vol. 14 (1981): 235–36.
- Gusfield, Joseph R. Symbolic Crusade: Status Politics and the American Temperance Movement. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1963.
- Jensen, Richard. The Winning of the Midwest, Social and Political Conflict, 1888–1896. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1971.
- McConnell, D. W. Temperance Movements. In: Seligman, Edwin R. A., and Johnson, Alvin (eds.) Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 1933.
- Meyer, Sabine N. We Are What We Drink: The Temperance Battle in Minnesota. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2015.
- Odegard, Peter H. Pressure Politics: The Story of the Anti-Saloon League. 1928.
- Sheehan, Nancy M. The WCTU and education: Canadian-American illustrations. Journal of the Midwest History of Education Society, 1981, P, 115–133.
- Timberlake, James H. Prohibition and the Progressive Movement, 1900–1920. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963.
- Tracy, Sarah W. and Caroline Jean Acker; Altering American Consciousness: The History of Alcohol and Drug Use in the United States, 1800–2000. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2004.
- Tyrrell, Ian. Woman's World/Woman's Empire: The Woman's Christian Temperance Union in International Perspective, 1880–1930. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1991.
- Volk, Kyle G. Moral Minorities and the Making of American Democracy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
External links
- Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)
- American Council on Addiction & Alcohol Problems, formerly the Anti-Saloon League
- Alcohol Justice - The Marin Institute for the Prevention of Alcohol and Other Drug Problems
- In the South Archived February 1, 2013, at the Wayback Machine (entry in the New Georgia Encyclopedia)
- Temperance news page – Alcohol and Drugs History Society
- NBC News interview with CUNY's Josh Brown on the Temperance Movement[permanent dead link]
- See more images from temperance movement in the United States by selecting the "Alcohol" subject at the Persuasive Cartography, The PJ Mode Collection, Cornell University Library