Lena Savoie
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. The movement was rooted in America's Protestant churches and first urged moderation before encouraging drinkers to help each other resist temptation and ultimately demanding that local, state, and national governments prohibit alcohol outright. The movement became more political during the Victorian era, advocating for the legal prohibition of all alcohol. The movement put itself at the service of the state but was critical of it, allying with conservatism in the US. Temperance advocates saw alcohol as a product that enables a few to become rich while it impoverishes the very many. The movement was also closely linked to the women's suffrage movement, as alcohol was seen as the destroyer of families and marriages, with women often left with no money to provide for their children.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Name | Temperance movement |
| Other Names | Temperance societies, "drys", prohibitionists |
| Origin | America's Protestant churches |
| Year | 1808 (first temperance organisations) |
| Goal | To curb the consumption of alcohol |
| Methods | Promoting moderation, encouraging drinkers to resist temptation, demanding that governments prohibit alcohol, lobbying, education, mutual support with other movements |
| Supporters | Women, factory owners, progressive reformers, Methodists, Baptists, Catholic priests, workers, Chartists, artisans, abolitionists, workers' rights activists, women's suffrage activists, temperance advocates, politicians, industrialists |
| Opponents | German and Irish immigrants, drinkers, the catering and entertainment industries, illegal alcohol producers, bootleggers, criminals, moderate members of the movement |
| Results | Decreased alcohol consumption, decreased arrests for drunkenness, increased illegal alcohol production, increased crime, decreased tax revenues, loss of jobs, negative impact on the economy, failure to stop alcohol consumption |
| Legacy | Alcoholics Anonymous, continued work of original temperance organisations, new "temperance enterprises" |
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![Annual convention [program] of national Woman's Christian Temperance Union](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61sEjgyggpL._AC_UY218_.jpg)
What You'll Learn
The Temperance Movement
The roots of the Temperance Movement can be traced back to the early 19th century, with the first serious anti-alcohol sentiments emerging in the 1830s and 1840s. During this period, the average American over 15 years old consumed nearly seven gallons of pure alcohol per year, leading to widespread alcohol abuse and negative societal impacts. The movement was closely tied to the Protestant churches, which urged moderation and encouraged mutual support among drinkers to resist temptation.
As the movement gained traction, it evolved from promoting moderation to demanding prohibition. The American Temperance Society, founded in 1826, played a pivotal role in spreading the message of abstinence, amassing over 1,250,000 members by 1839. The movement also found support among women, who viewed alcohol as a destroyer of families and marriages due to the correlation between drinking and domestic violence. Notable women's groups, such as the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), advocated not only for abstinence but also for women's rights and improved public morals.
Despite the mixed outcomes of Prohibition, the Temperance Movement continued to influence society. Original organizations, such as the WCTU, persist today, focusing on promoting increased taxation, reducing alcohol advertising, and supporting laws that prohibit alcohol sales on Sundays. Additionally, the movement's legacy can be seen in the creation of self-help groups like Alcoholics Anonymous, which emerged in response to the challenges faced by individuals struggling with alcohol addiction during and after Prohibition.
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Prohibition
The temperance movement, which sought to curb alcohol consumption, had a significant influence on American politics and society in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The movement was rooted in the nation's Protestant churches and first urged moderation before encouraging drinkers to resist temptation and eventually demanding that local, state, and national governments prohibit alcohol. The average American over 15 years old consumed nearly seven gallons of pure alcohol per year in 1830, which was three times the consumption a century later. Alcohol abuse, primarily by men, wreaked havoc on the lives of many, especially women who had few legal rights and were financially dependent on their husbands.
The American Temperance Society was formed in 1826 and, within 12 years, it claimed more than 8,000 local groups and over 1,250,000 members. The movement split in the late 1830s between moderates and radicals, and between voluntarists and prohibitionists. The latter group dominated many of the largest temperance organisations after the 1830s, and temperance became synonymous with prohibition. In the 1870s, thousands of women, inspired by Methodist and Baptist clergymen and distraught wives and mothers, began to protest and organise politically for temperance. Their organisation, the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), became a powerful force, with notable members including Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
The WCTU pledged to ban alcohol and drugs and improve public morals. They viewed alcohol as the underlying source of many social issues and found common cause with Progressives trying to improve living conditions for immigrants. The WCTU lobbied for local laws restricting alcohol and created an anti-alcohol educational campaign that reached nearly every schoolroom in the nation. The Salvation Army, founded in London in 1864, also emphasised abstinence from alcohol and quickly spread internationally. Other important prohibitionist groups, such as the United Kingdom Alliance (1853) and the WCTU (1873), also emerged in the latter half of the nineteenth century.
In the United States, the Anti-Saloon League (ASL), led by Wayne Wheeler, became the most successful single-issue lobbying organisation in American history. The ASL formed alliances with various constituencies, including industrialists like Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller Jr., to push for a constitutional amendment banning the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol. With the ratification of the income tax amendment in 1913, the federal government was no longer dependent on liquor taxes, and the ASL's campaign gained momentum. By 1917, the House of Representatives wanted to make Prohibition the 18th Amendment to the Constitution. The amendment was ratified by enough states within 13 months, and it successfully reduced liquor consumption and drunkenness arrests.
However, Prohibition had negative economic consequences, with job losses and decreased tax revenues. Illegal alcohol production and consumption rose, leading to increased crime and deaths from poorly made alcohol. Enforcement of the ban was expensive, and rebellion against the law was common. Ultimately, Prohibition was repealed due to the onset of the Great Depression, which shifted voters' priorities. Despite its repeal, Prohibition had a lasting impact on drinking patterns in America, and it influenced the approach of self-help groups like Alcoholics Anonymous, which formed in response to the challenges faced by those struggling with alcohol addiction during this period.
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The Women's Christian Temperance Union
Alcohol abuse was wreaking havoc on the lives of many Americans, particularly women, in the 1830s and 1840s. The country's first serious anti-alcohol movement, the Temperance Movement, emerged during this period. Inspired by the rising indignation of Methodist and Baptist clergymen, and distraught wives and mothers, thousands of women began to protest and organise politically for the cause of temperance. This led to the formation of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1873 (or 1874 according to some sources).
The initial purpose of the WCTU was to promote abstinence from alcohol, which they protested with pray-ins at local taverns and saloons. Their membership grew rapidly, and they adopted Willard's "Do Everything" philosophy, which meant that they campaigned for local, state, and national prohibition, women's suffrage, protective purity legislation, scientific temperance instruction in schools, better working conditions for labour, anti-polygamy laws, Americanisation, and a variety of other reforms. The WCTU saw alcohol as the underlying source of a long list of social ills and found common cause with Progressives trying to improve living conditions for immigrants in slums and protect the rights of the youth.
The WCTU became a powerful force, with their cause enhanced by alliances with prominent women's suffrage activists such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. By the late 19th century, the WCTU, led by Frances Willard, had achieved significant successes – it had lobbied for local laws restricting alcohol and created an anti-alcohol educational campaign that reached nearly every schoolroom in the nation. Under Willard's leadership, it became the largest women's organisation in the world by 1890.
The WCTU also operated at an international level, with affiliates in Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Finland, India, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States, among others. The organisation conducts a White Ribbon Recruit (WRR) ceremony, in which babies are dedicated to the cause of temperance through a white ribbon tied to their wrists, with adult sponsors pledging to help the child live a life free from alcohol and drugs.
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Alcoholics Anonymous
The foundation of Alcoholics Anonymous can be traced back to Bill W. and Dr. Bob, who began working with alcoholics at the Akron City Hospital. One of their patients soon achieved sobriety and joined them, forming the basis of what would become AA. In 1938, Dr. Bob and Bill created The Alcoholic Foundation in New York, with friends of John D. Rockefeller Jr. as board members. Rockefeller advised against seeking large contributions, suggesting that this might jeopardise the Fellowship. Instead, Rockefeller organised a dinner to promote AA, which led to a surge of interest and requests for help.
In 1939, the fellowship published "Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More than One Hundred Men Have Recovered from Alcoholism", also known as the "Big Book". This text introduced the Twelve-Step program, which outlines a suggested program of ongoing drug rehabilitation and self-improvement. The Twelve Steps begin with an acknowledgment of powerlessness over alcohol and the unmanageability of life due to alcoholism. Subsequent steps emphasise rigorous honesty, including the completion of a "searching and fearless moral inventory", sharing this inventory with a trusted person, making amends to individuals harmed, and engaging in regular prayer or meditation. The program also involves seeking alignment with a personally defined concept of God.
The principles of recovery in AA were influenced by Rowland Hazard's journey from Carl Jung's psychiatric treatment to spiritual conversion through the Oxford Group. Concepts such as "meetings", "sharing" (public confession), "restitution", and "surrendering one's will and life to God's care" were inspired by the Oxford Group's teachings.
Today, AA continues to help alcoholics recover through mutual support and sharing of experiences. The group provides a solution for those struggling with alcohol addiction, and has helped over two million alcoholics stop drinking.
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Progressive reformers
The temperance movement, which sought to curb the consumption of alcohol, had a large influence on American politics and society in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The movement, rooted in America's Protestant churches, first urged moderation and then encouraged drinkers to help each other resist temptation, and finally demanded that local, state, and national governments prohibit alcohol outright.
The movement put itself at the service of the state but was critical of it, making it radical with liberal and socialist aspects. Temperance advocates saw alcohol as a product that "enables a few to become rich while it impoverishes the very many". They worked closely with the labour movement and the women's suffrage movement, as there was mutual support and benefit, and the causes were seen as connected.
Women were strongly behind the temperance movement, as alcohol was seen as the destroyer of families and marriages. Men would often spend their money on alcohol, leaving women with no money to provide for their children. Factory owners also supported temperance, as the new work habits required of industrial workers—early mornings and long nights—were incompatible with drinking.
The ASL, under the leadership of Wayne Wheeler, became the most successful single-issue lobbying organization in American history, willing to form alliances with any and all constituencies that shared its sole goal: a constitutional amendment banning the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol. They united with Democrats and Republicans, Progressives, Populists, and suffragists, the Ku Klux Klan and the NAACP, the International Workers of the World, and many of America's most powerful industrialists, including Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and Andrew Carnegie.
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Frequently asked questions
The Temperance movement was a social movement that aimed to curb the consumption of alcohol and elevate morality through national legislation. It began in the early 19th century and became more political during the Victorian period, advocating for the legal prohibition of alcohol.
The movement included groups such as the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), the Band of Hope, the Methodist Board of Temperance, Prohibition, and Public Morals, and the Salvation Army. The WCTU was one of the largest women's societies in the world during the latter half of the 19th century.
The movement sought to reduce alcohol consumption and improve public morals. They believed that alcohol was a destructive force in society, leading to spousal abuse, family neglect, and unemployment. Temperance advocates also worked closely with the labour movement and women's suffrage movement, seeing alcohol as a product that "enables a few to become rich while it impoverishes the very many".
The movement was successful in passing several laws at the local and national levels, including the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic liquors. However, Prohibition had negative economic impacts, led to illegal production and consumption of alcohol, and increased crime and violence. Ultimately, the movement declined, and Prohibition was repealed due to changing societal priorities brought about by the Great Depression.
