Why is temperance movement important

Anti-immigration proponents associated alcohol with Irish and German immigrants. The Anti-Saloon League fought political opposition from brewers by connecting German beer with treason in the public imagination. The Eighteenth Amendment was passed by Congress in , ratified in , and went into effect at am on January 17, The temperance movement had triumphed. Their victory was short-lived, however, as many Americans made and drank alcohol in violation of the law.

Bootlegging and organized crime stepped in to profit from the market for spirits, while law enforcement lagged behind the rise in criminal behavior.

Prohibition was unsustainable. In the Twenty-First Amendment repealed the Eighteenth, and manufacture, sale and consumption of alcohol again became legal in the United States. Gordon, E. Mattingly, C. Well-tempered women : Nineteenth-century temperance rhetoric. Andersen, L. Give the ladies a chance: Gender and partisanship in the Prohibition Party, — In the s, hundreds of temperance groups were founded across the U.

One important group was the American Christian Temperance Union. This group started with local chapters in By , there were 8, chapters. Ohioans formed local temperance groups early in the movement. For example, Trumbull County formed a group in and Summit County formed a group in Even though the number of groups grew throughout the U.

During the s, American women were expected to keep a happy home and raise good children. Many women thought temperance would solve this problem, so they supported the movement. However, most temperance groups were run by men and many groups did not let women join. Instead, women formed their own temperance groups. Anthony in New York. With temperance groups working together to gain support, the movement grew. Many states even passed prohibition laws that made it illegal to produce and drink alcohol.

However, the American Civil War stopped these efforts, and alcohol use grew during the war. One of the temperance movement's characteristics was international cooperation. Some believe the first U. As these groups gathered political power, their strategy changed from moral suasion to agitation for government control of liquor, using social, educational and political tactics.

In fact, they succeeded in getting many liquor laws passed nationwide, partly thanks to backing from churches as well as industrialists who faced poor worker productivity and absenteeism. The WCTU became international in scope in the s. Some of the most notable figures associated with the U. Anthony , Frances E. Willard and Carry A. Nation the latter worked on her own.

A wide variety of reform movements developed to improve all aspects of society including diet, fashion, the care for the mentally ill, the treatment of prisoners, world peace, the rights of women, and the end to slavery. Temperance was at the center of most of these reform movements. Many reformers believed in abstinence and it was through their early association with temperance societies that they met other reformers and began to seek ways to improve other aspects of society.

The temperance movement was also important because it was fundamental to the concept of individual choice and responsibility. Taking the pledge was a conscious act that one person did in an effort to make himself or herself a better human being.

Temperance also embodied one of the great historical trends of the nineteenth century—the rising power and influence of the individual in politics, philosophy, and economics. Over the course of the s voting laws changed to allow all free white males to vote regardless of their ownership of land; uniquely American religions such as Unitarianism and philosophies such as Transcendentalism placed a greater emphasis on individual thought and perception than on scripture and dogma; an emerging consumer economy gave greater authority and power to individual purchasing power; and the nation faced its greatest crisis—the Civil War—over individual freedom.

Central to all of these trends and events were the questions: "How should individual human beings behave?