The Temperance Movement Early 19th Century Reform The Temperance Movement Early 19th Century

What caused the movement? Americans were drinking a lot in the early 19th century. The amount was equivalent to an adult drinking 800 shots of whiskey a year. Liquor was an absolute normal accompaniment to whatever men did in groups. The dram was a part of the daily wages. Workmen drank with their employees.

“An Alcoholic Republic” Work was producing alcoholics Low quality work “Blue Mondays” Rise in crime Abuse Family Breakup

A Case of Infectious Fever

“The Drunkards”

A Swell Head

Who is part of the reform? It became a middle class obsession. Upper middle class wanted workers to show up sober. The will be the birth of the Middle Class. In 1828, gentlemen formed the Rochester Society for the Promotion of Temperance.

A Moral Thermometer

Changes that came about as a result of the reform movement. Until 1830’s mail was delivered 7 days a week. Temperance was advanced as a sign of respectability, reliability, and general moral and economic worth. The good old days of drinking as a sign of manliness, had long passed. A printer gave his workers a Bible and a glass of cold water instead of a dram of whiskey. Leading men encouraged temperance.

Maine Liquor Law

Root Beer a Temperance Drink

The Temperance Pledge

Pennsylvania Catholic Total Abstinence Society Pledge I promise to abstain from ALL intoxicating drinks, except used medicinally and by order of a medical man, and to discountenance the cause and practice of intemperance.

Pledge for Children I do hereby pledge myself to abstain entirely and forever from the use of all intoxicating liquor as a drink.

American Temperance Union Pledge We whose names are hereunto annexed, believing that the use of intoxicating liquor, as a beverage, is not only needless, but hurtful to the social, civil, and religious interests of men: that it tends to form intemperate appetites and habits, and that while it is continued, the evils of intemperance can never be done away: do therefore agree that we will not use it or traffic in it: that we will not provide it as an article of entertainment or for persons in our employment: and that in all suitable ways, we will discountenance the use of it throughout the community.

Summary Overall consumption of alcohol decreased from 7 gallons per capita in 1830 to 2 gallons per capita in 1860.

Sources Johnson, Paul E.- “Class, Liquor, and Reform in Rochester” Ryan, Mary P.- “Middle-Class Women and Moral Reform” www.librarycompany.org/ArdentSpirits/index.htm