US History

The Development of the Industrial United States (1870-1900)

Social Movements

Women

This collection uses primary sources to explore the impact and role of women in the Temperance Movement.

Teaching Guide: Exploring Women and the Temperance Movement

An excerpt from an 1827 temperance sermon by Lyman Beecher.

A 1910 illustration depicting the destruction of intemperance from a book by Matilda Erickson used in churches, schools, and youth groups.

An excerpt from an 1891 biography of Dr. Dio Lewis, who inspired the formation of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.

An excerpt from an 1852 story by Lucius M. Sargent, who used popular fiction to promote temperance.

An illustration of the heroine of the temperance novel *Sweet Cicely* (1885), who begs a bartender to stop serving her husband.

An 1877 illustration of a Sunday afternoon temperance meeting at Holy Trinity Church.

An 1832 article from the *Temperance Recorder* connecting drunkenness to cholera infection.

An 1856 cartoon depicting German Americans as drunkards and suggesting that a bar is the German idea of school.

An 1885 pamphlet published for the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union that takes a “by the numbers” look at liquor consumption and costs.

An 1893 address to the World’s Woman’s Temperance Union by Frances Willard, president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.

A letter from temperance leader Frances Willard to civil rights activist Albion Tourgée, responding to allegations of racism, 1894.

A 1901 photograph of Carrie (Carry) Nation with a hatchet and a Bible.

A 1901 photograph of damage to a Kansas saloon following a visit from Carrie Nation.

A 1906 article from the *Los Angeles Voice* supporting temperance.

A 1921 advertisement for the Keeley Institute, a for-profit treatment center for alcohol addiction.

Resources

1. [Women’s Christian Temperance Union](https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/religious/women%E2%80%99s-christian-temperance-union/), Social Welfare History Project, Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries.  
2. [Women Led the Temperance Charge](http://prohibition.themobmuseum.org/the-history/the-road-to-prohibition/the-temperance-movement/), The Mob Museum. 
3. [Temperance Movement](http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Temperance_Movement), Ohio History Central.  
4. [Roots of Prohibition](http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/prohibition/roots-of-prohibition/), *Prohibition*, PBS.  

Overview

During the late 1800s and early 1900s, the Temperance Movement fought to reduce consumption of alcohol. The movement began in the 1820s, rooted in Protestant churches, led by clergy and prominent laymen, and powered by women volunteers. More women were involved in temperance than any other cause in US history up to that point. Women’s involvement seemed natural since the movement targeted men’s alcohol abuse and how it harmed women and children. At first, the Temperance Movement sought to moderate drinking, then to promote resisting the temptation to drink. Later, the goal became outright prohibition of alcohol sales. This shift coincided with a [large wave of immigrants](https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/sets/immigration-and-americanization-1880-1930) from Southern, Central, and Eastern Europe, and some temperance advocates echoed the concerns of nativists as they objected to immigrants’ “wet” cultures and drinking customs. In addition, temperance advocates regarded urban saloons as hosts to a range of immoral behaviors beyond drunkenness, such as gambling, adultery, prostitution, profanity, and corruption.

Women rose to leadership roles with the founding of the national Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1874. Temperance became known as the “Woman’s Crusade,” and women staged peaceful demonstrations of prayer at businesses that served alcohol. These methods reflected the gentle moral guidance expected from women of the era. Later, the Temperance Movement changed its goals and tactics, and it became a powerful political force which sought to prohibit alcohol entirely. Carrie (or Carry) Nation, a radical temperance advocate, gained both support and notoriety through raiding saloons and using a hatchet to smash their liquor bottles. In the 1890s, the Anti-Saloon League rose to prominence as an influential prohibition lobby, using methods from business and government rather than the church. The League fueled the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment, or Prohibition, in 1920, which banned production and consumption of alcohol nationwide until 1933, when it was repealed by the Twenty-First Amendment. While the movement aligned itself with privileged white femininity, many women who participated in the Temperance Movement also contributed to other forms of social activism, such as abolition, women’s suffrage, and equal rights for women and people of color. 

English

Women and the Temperance Movement

women-temperance-movement_15_ef16a2049f9845e45d2adae851821180.jpg

Courtesy of Duke University Libraries via North Carolina Digital Heritage Center.

Keeley Institute, “The Beautiful Romance of life never blooms in the morass liquor or drug addiction,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/ef16a2049f9845e45d2adae851821180. 

The Keeley Institute operated from 1879 to 1965. The 1921 ad depicts a content woman sewing while a child plays nearby, proclaiming that “The Beautiful Romance of life never blooms in the morass liquor or drug addiction.” The ad included a “giveaway”: free sewing needles and a needle threader.

A 1921 advertisement for the Keeley Institute, a for-profit treatment center for alcohol addiction.

Cite this item

Tips for Students

Item 15 of 15 in the Primary Source Set Women and the Temperance Movement