Temperance Movement in the United States

By Andres1430

  • Benjamin Rush

    An Inquiry Into the Effects of Ardent Spirits Upon the Human Body and Mind, which judged the excessive use of alcohol injurious to physical and psychological health. http://books.google.com/books/about/An_Inquiry_Into_the_Effects_of_Ardent_Sp.html?id=-6UoAAAAYAAJ

  • New York

    Temperance association was formed in New York

  • Connecticut

    Connecticut Society for the Reformation of Morals founded

  • Massachusetts

    Massachusetts Society for the Suppression of Intemperance founded
  • Period: to

    The consumption of alcohol in the U.S. was 7 gallons per capita per year.

  • The American Temperance Society (ATS)

    first national temperance organization in America, The Society ruled that it was mandatory for all of it's members must abstain from drinking alcohol. In addition to temperance, the Society also promoted the abolition of slavery, the expansion of women's rights, and the improvement of society

  • American Temperance Society

    American Temperance Society had 170,000 members.

  • American Temperance Society

    American Temperance Society had 1 million members.

  • American Temperance Union (ATU)

    American Temperance Union (ATU) founded

  • Massachusetts

    Massachusetts prohibited sale of alcohol in amounts less than 15 gallons.

  • Washingtonian Movement

    The Washingtonian Movement was founded after six heavy drinkers gave up alcohol. Their goal was to help members give up alcohol by relying on each other and also with divine help. The members shared their experiences with one another, as well as encouraging mutual aid.

  • Massachusetts

    Massachusetts repealed its 1838 prohibition law but permitted local option.

  • Sons of Temperance

    The Sons of Temperance was a brotherhood of men who promoted the temperance movement throughout the United States and parts of Canada.

  • Maine

    The first prohibition law is passed in Maine

  • Consumption of alcohol in the U.S. had been lowered to 2 gallons of alcohol per year per capita.

  • Maine

    Maine prohibited the sale or making of any alcoholic beverage.

  • 13 of the 40 states had prohibition laws.

  • Period: to

    American Civil War

  • Prohibition Party

    The Prohibition Party was founded in 1869 for the purpose of banning the sale and manufacture of intoxicating liquor in the United States. The Prohibition Party believed political activity was the most feasible means of enacting more effective and widespread antiliquor laws. the Prohibition Party saw its highest aims enacted into law with the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919.

  • Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)

    The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was created in 1874 in Cleveland, Ohio. Its goal was to reform American life into a more orderly, Christian society. In the 1870s, the WCTU saw alcohol as the primary corrupting influence in the United States, believing that it caused crime, violence, poverty, incompetence in the workplace, and general discontent.

  • Kansas

    Kansas became the first state to outlaw alcoholic beverages in its state constitution.

  • Women's Christian Temperance Union

    WCTU membership was 22,800.

  • The Supreme Court

    The Supreme Court struck down state prohibition laws if they forbid sale of alcohol that was transported into the state in its original passage, on the basis of the federal power to regulate interstate commerce. Thus, hotels and clubs could sell an unopened bottle of liquor, even if the state banned alcohol sales.

  • Anti-Saloon League was founded

    The organization was to work for unification of public anti-alcohol sentiment, enforcement of existing temperance laws, and enactment of further anti-alcohol legislation. Under the leadership of temperance activist Wayne Wheeler, the league gained significant influence and was successful in getting several state legislatures to ban saloons and pass antiliquor laws, or "dry" laws.

  • Congress

    Congress passed a law overturning the Supreme Court's 1888 ruling, permitting states to forbid all alcohol

  • The Eighteenth Amendment

    The Eighteenth Amendment was adopted in 1919 which prohibited the sale and manufacture of alcohol.

  • The Volstead Act

    The Volstead Act stated that "beer, wine, or other intoxicating malt or vinous liquors" meant any beverage that was more than 0.5% alcohol by volume. The Act also stated that owning any item designed to manufacture alcohol was illegal and it set specific fines and jail sentences for violating Prohibition.

  • 18th Amendment goes into affect

  • loopholes

    People bought cases of then-legal alcohol and stored them for personal use. Large numbers of new prescriptions were written for alcohol. whiskey from Canada then brought into the U.S. People would by large quantities of liquor made in homemade stills.

  • Prohibition Era began.

  • Women's Christian Temperance Union

    Membership in the WCTU was at its peak, 372,355.

  • Cullen–Harrison Act

    signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, it legalized the sale in the United States of beer with an alcohol content of 3.2% (by weight) and wine of similarly low alcohol content, thought to be too low to be intoxicating.

  • The 21st Amendment

    The 21st Amendment repealed the 18th Amendment, making alcohol once again legal. This was the first and only time in U.S. history that an Amendment has been repealed.