Temperance Movement
Cole, Emily, Melanie and Toni
Background Knowledge of the
Temperance Movement
 Their objective was to become the national clearinghouse on the topic
of temperance (wanted to improve the quality of life by abolishing
alcohol)
 ATS was established in Boston, Massachusetts on February 13, 1826.
 The organization was co-founded by two Presbyterian ministers,
Dr. Justin Edwards and the better-known Lyman Beecher
 They called alcohol "Demon Rum," because it was said that the Devil
used it to take people off their righteous path
 New European Catholic immigrants opposed the temperance
movement because alcohol was drank during religious ceremonies
Leaders of the Temperance
Movement
 Frances Williard- An American educator and a leader of
Women Suffrage Movement
 Amelia Bloomer- feminist and Editor of the Lily
 Lyman Beecher- Male Protestant Prime Minister
from Connecticut and Co-Founder of the
American Temperance Society
Links to Jacksonian
Democracy
 Women were mostly behind the temperance movement,
which helped influence a change in the consumption of
alcohol, women took place in meetings and boycotts, which
had never been done before

The growing power to the common man during Jacksonian
democracy helped to increase the idea that women
deserved a fair fight in government and out of this came an
emerging movement for women’s rights
Accomplishments
 The American Temperance Society was the first U.S. social
movement organization to mobilize massive and national support for
a specific reform cause.
 Within three years of its organization, ATS had spread across the
country
 Within five years there were 2,220 local chapters in the U.S. with
170,000 members who had taken a pledge to abstain from drinking
distilled beverages. Within ten years, there were over 8,000 local
groups and more than 1,500,000 members who had taken the
pledge
 The society benefited from, and contributed to, a reform sentiment in
much of the country promoting the abolition of slavery, expanding
women's rights, temperance, and the improvement of society
 The society was most successful in the northern states
More Accomplishments
 In 1851 the state of Maine passed a law outlawing the sale of all
forms of alcohol; eleven other states and territories followed.
 Even though these laws could never really prevent those unwilling
to follow them, the ATS never really gave up in the prohibition of
alcohol.
 77 years later, the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution was
proposed to prohibit the manufacturing, sale, transporting,
importing, or exporting of alcoholic beverages. Congress voted its
approval in October 1919, and enacted it into law as the Nation
Prohibition Act of 1920.
 Even this accomplishment for the ATS never fully outlawed alcohol
from society, and eventually died out all together.
Multiple Choice Question #1
The Temperance movement was a:
a) Movement to reduce or prohibit the consumption of
alcohol.
b) Social movement mainly by women.
c) Social movement by mainly by men.
d) A and B only.
e) None of the above
Multiple Choice Question #2
Which individuals would be most against the Temperance
Movement?
a) Supporter of the Teetotalism movement (complete
abstinence of alcohol)
b) New Catholic immigrants to the United States
c) Working class women who took care of the children
d) All of the above
Multiple Choice Question #3
Which individual was a male, Protestant, Connecticut
Prime Minister and was for the abolishment of alcohol?
a) Amelia Bloomer
b) Frances Williard
c) Lyman Beecher
d) Alexander Hamilton