The temperance movement in the United Kingdom was a social movement that campaigned against the recreational use and sale of alcohol, and promoted total abstinence (teetotalism). In the 19th century, high levels of alcohol consumption and drunkenness were seen by social reformers as a danger to society's wellbeing, leading to social issues such as poverty, child neglect, immorality and economic decline. Temperance societies began to be formed in the 1830s to campaign against alcohol. Specific groups were created over periods of time dedicated to the different aspects of drinking. For example, in 1847, the Band of Hope was created to persuade children not to start drinking alcohol. Most of these temperance groups were aimed at the working class. Temperance was also supported by some religious groups, particularly the Nonconformist Churches. Although the temperance movement met with local success in parts of Britain, it failed to impose national prohibition, and disappeared as a significant force following the Second World War.
Before the 19th century, there were diatribes published against drunkenness and excess, but total abstinence from alcohol was very rarely advocated or practised. In the 18th century, there was a "gin craze" in Great Britain, as satirised in William Hogarth's Gin Lane.[1] The bourgeoisie became increasingly critical of the widespread drunkenness among the lower classes. Motivated by the bourgeoisie's desire for order, and amplified by the population growth in the cities, the drinking of gin became the subject of critical national debate.[2] In 1743, John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Churches, proclaimed "that buying, selling, and drinking of liquor, unless absolutely necessary, were evils to be avoided".[3]
Early movement
The early temperance movement was inspired by the actions of Irish Presbyterian Church minister John Edgar, who poured his stock of whiskey out of his window in 1829. On 14 August 1829 he wrote a letter in the Belfast Telegraph advocating temperance. Edgar and other early advocates concentrated their efforts on the elimination of spirits rather than wine and beer.[4][5]:141–144 The first organisation that promoted temperance was founded in 1829 by John Dunlop and his aunt, Lilias Graham of Gairbraid,[6] and named the Glasgow and West of Scotland Temperance Society.[7]
Joseph Livesey was another British temperance advocate who financed his philanthropic work with the profits attained from cheese production, following an introduction to the food product by a doctor he had consulted with regards to a serious ailment in 1816.[8] Livesey opened the first temperance hotel in 1833 and the next year founded the first temperance magazine, The Preston Temperance Advocate (1834–37).[5]:146 The British Association for the Promotion of Temperance was established by 1835.[4]:132
As a response to rising social problems in the newly industrialised cities, a stricter form of temperance emerged called teetotalism, which promoted the complete abstinence from alcoholic beverages, this time including wine and beer, not just ardent spirits. The term teetotal is apocryphally said to derive from a speech by Richard "Dickie" Turner, a follower of Livesey, in Preston in 1833.[9]
In 1838, the mass working class movement for universal suffrage, Chartism, included a current called "temperance chartism". Faced with the refusal of the parliament of the time to give the right to vote to working people, the temperance chartists saw the campaign against alcohol as a way of proving to the elites that working-class people were responsible enough to be granted the vote.[10][11] In short, the 1830s was mostly characterised by moral persuasion of workers.[12]:25
Band of Hope Banner supporting temperance, located in the village of Constantine in Cornwall
In 1847, the Band of Hope was founded in Leeds, with the stated aim of saving working class children from the perils of drink. It promoted alcohol education. Band members had to pledge to abstain "from all liquors of an intoxicating quality, whether ale, porter, wine or ardent spirits, except as medicine"[13]:99
In 1853, inspired by the Maine liquor law in the US, the United Kingdom Alliance was formed with the aim of promoting a similar law prohibiting the sale of alcohol in the UK. This hard-line group of prohibitionists was opposed by other temperance organisations who preferred moral persuasion to a legal ban. This division in the ranks limited the effectiveness of the temperance movement as a whole. The impotence of legislation in this field was demonstrated when the Sale of Beer Act 1854 which restricted Sunday opening hours had to be repealed, following widespread rioting. In 1859 a prototype prohibition bill was overwhelmingly defeated in the House of Commons.[13]:99–100
One of the most active advocates of temperance was Dr. Norman Shanks Kerr. He promoted the treatment of inebriates and held that inebriety was a disease, not a vice, and that it should be treated accordingly. In 1884, in response to the inadequacy of the Habitual Drunkards Act of 1879, he founded the Society for the Study and Cure of Inebriety and was the first president.[18]:135 The society still exists as the Society for the Study of Addiction.
In 1884 the National Temperance Federation, which was associated with the Liberal Party, was founded as an umbrella organisation. The Conservative Party largely supported the interests of the alcohol industry and opposed temperance.[19]
The various Nonconformist Churches actively encouraged total abstinence among their congregations, and lobbied parliament to restrict alcohol sales. By the 1870s most young ministers abstained from alcohol. In 1886 a survey of 1,900 Baptist ministers revealed that 1,000 were total abstainers.[19]
In the 19th century, the Methodist Churches were aligned with the temperance movement.[20] Methodists believed that despite the supposed economic benefits of liquor traffic such as job creation and taxes, the harm that it caused society through its contribution to murder, gambling, prostitution, and political corruption outweighed its economic benefits.[21]:7 Both Wesleyan Methodists and Primitive Methodists championed the cause of temperance.[22] The Wesleyan Methodists built around 100 'Central Halls', large venues which hosted cheap concerts, comedy shows and films, intended to keep the urban working classes away from public houses.[23]
In 1864, another Methodist group, the Salvation Army was founded in London with a heavy emphasis on abstinence from alcohol and ministering to the working class, which led publicans to fund a Skeleton Army in order to disrupt their meetings. The Salvation Army quickly spread internationally, maintaining an emphasis on abstinence.[24][18]:542
In Wales Lady Llanover, motivated by Calvinistic Methodist teachings, was an outspoken critic of the evils of alcohol and closed all the public houses on her estate.[25]
Many Quakers (members of the Religious Society of Friends) took an active role in the temperance movement. Chocolatier John Cadbury was a temperance Quaker and he viewed drinking chocolate as an alternative to alcoholic beverages.[26] He prohibited the sale of alcohol in Bournville, the model village he founded, and no public houses have been built there.[27]
The Church of England Temperance Society, which had roots in the Anglo-Catholic tradition was founded in 1862 by Henry Ellison,[28][29] and its volunteers within the court system would lead to the first probation service. The League of the Cross was founded in 1873 by Cardinal Manning. A Roman Catholic-only organisation, the League's members took a pledge of total abstinence.[30]
From 1880 to 1882 the cause of abstinence was revived by the Gospel Temperance or Blue Ribbon movement, based in America. They sent a member named Richard Booth to promote their cause in England through mass meetings held up and down the country.[5]:153–4
Later movement and decline
Temperance fountain at the end of Blackfriars Bridge, London. Temperance fountains were installed to encourage people not to drink beer by the provision of safe and free water.
By the end of the 19th century, it was estimated that about a tenth of the adult population were total abstainers of alcohol.[19][31]
The temperance movement received an unexpected boost due to state intervention when the Liberal government passed the Defence of the Realm Act in 1914 at the beginning of the First World War. According to the provisions of the Act, pub hours were licensed, beer was watered down and was subject to a penny a pint extra tax.[13]:106 This situation was maintained by the subsequent establishment of the State Management Scheme in 1916 which nationalised breweries and pubs in certain areas of Britain where armaments manufacture was taking place.[32]
Between the wars, American exponents of the sterling example set to Britain by National Prohibition, such as William "Pussyfoot" Johnson and Mary Harris Armor, toured the country, to be met with derision, and in Johnson's case, violence.[5]:171–3 In the end, the example of the failure of prohibition in America put paid to any remote chance that the temperance lobby would succeed in achieving its aims in the UK.[13]:107
In February 1960 Forte applied for a table licence for its new Newport Pagnell services, but after opposition from local vicars, and the Methodist and Baptist churches, and not least the local police, the local magistrates refused the table licence, setting a precedent for all British motorway service stations, to this day.[35][36]
Legacy
The former Manchester City F.C. football stadium Maine Road took its name from a street that had been renamed Maine Road (from Dog Kennel Lane) by members of the temperance movement. They selected the name as a result of the 1853 Maine law.[37]
Vimto, originally "Vim Tonic", was concocted in 1908 as a healthy alternative to alcohol, and originally sold in temperance bars.[38] Fitzpatrick's Herbal Health in Rawtenstall, Lancashire, is thought to be the oldest surviving temperance bar – other such establishments have become popular in recent times.[39][40]
Several of the largest temperance organisations survive under different names. For example, the Band of Hope is now named Hope UK, with the stated aim of "providing drug and alcohol education and training for children and young people, parents and youth workers".[41]
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage, transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic beverages. The word is also used to refer to a period of time during which such bans are enforced.
The temperance movement is a social movement promoting temperance or complete abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants in the movement typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote teetotalism, and its leaders emphasize alcohol's negative effects on people's health, personalities and family lives. Typically the movement promotes alcohol education and it also demands the passage of new laws against the sale of alcohol, either regulations on the availability of alcohol, or the complete prohibition of it.
The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is an international temperance organization. It was among the first organizations of women devoted to social reform with a program that "linked the religious and the secular through concerted and far-reaching reform strategies based on applied Christianity." It plays an influential role in the temperance movement. Originating among women in the United States Prohibition movement, the organization supported the 18th Amendment and was also influential in social reform issues that came to prominence in the progressive era.
Abstinence pledges are commitments made by people, often though not always teenagers and young adults, to practice abstinence, usually in the case of practicing teetotalism with respect to abstaining from alcohol and other drugs, or chastity, with respect to abstaining from sexual intercourse until marriage; in the case of sexual abstinence, they are sometimes also known as purity pledges or virginity pledges. They are most common in the United States among Catholic and Evangelical Christian denominations, while others are nonsectarian.
The Independent Order of Rechabites (IOR), also known as the Sons and Daughters of Rechab, is a fraternal organisation and friendly society founded in England in 1835 as part of the wider temperance movement to promote total abstinence from alcoholic beverages. The Order has been active in Australia from 1843, promoting temperance and as a benefit society. A branch was established in the United States in 1842, and also flourished for a time. In the United Kingdom, the Order trades under the name of Healthy Investment, being well connected in upper society and involved in financial matters; there it gradually transformed into a financial institution which promotes teetotalism.
The Washingtonian movement was a 19th-century temperance fellowship founded on Thursday, April 2, 1840, by six alcoholics at Chase's Tavern on Liberty Street in Baltimore, Maryland. The idea was that by relying on each other, sharing their alcoholic experiences, and creating an atmosphere of conviviality, they could keep each other sober. Total abstinence from alcohol (teetotalism) was their goal. The group taught sobriety and preceded Alcoholics Anonymous by almost a century. Members sought out other "drunkards", told them their experiences with excessive alcohol use, and how the Society had helped them achieve sobriety. With the passage of time the Society became a prohibitionist organization in that it promoted the legal and mandatory prohibition of alcoholic beverages. The Society was the inspiration for Timothy Shay Arthur's Six Nights with the Washingtonians and his Ten Nights in a Bar-Room.
Hope UK is a United Kingdom Christian charity based in London, England which educates children and young people about drug and alcohol abuse. Local meetings started in 1847 and a formal organisation was established in 1855 with the name The United Kingdom Band of Hope Union.
The American Temperance Society (ATS), also known as the American Society for the Promotion of Temperance, was a society established on February 13, 1826, in Boston, Massachusetts. 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, though not including wine and beer; it permitted the medicinal use of alcohol as well. Within ten years, there were over 8,000 local groups and more than 1,250,000 members who had taken the pledge.
The United Kingdom Alliance (UKA) was a temperance movement in the United Kingdom founded in 1853 in Manchester to work for the prohibition of the trade in alcohol in the United Kingdom. This occurred in a context of support for the type of law passed by General Neal Dow in Maine, United States, in 1851, prohibiting the sale of intoxicants.
Christian views on alcohol are varied. Throughout the first 1,800 years of Church history, Christians generally consumed alcoholic beverages as a common part of everyday life and used "the fruit of the vine" in their central rite—the Eucharist or Lord's Supper. They held that both the Bible and Christian tradition taught that alcohol is a gift from God that makes life more joyous, but that over-indulgence leading to drunkenness is sinful. However, the alcoholic content of ancient alcoholic beverages was significantly lower than that of modern alcoholic beverages. The low alcoholic content was due to the limitations of fermentation and the nonexistence of distillation methods in the ancient world. Rabbinic teachers wrote acceptance criteria on consumability of ancient alcoholic beverages after significant dilution with water, and prohibited undiluted wine.
A temperance bar, also known as an alcohol-free bar, sober bar, or dry bar, is a type of bar that does not serve alcoholic beverages. An alcohol-free bar can be a business establishment or located in a non-business environment or event, such as at a wedding. Alcohol-free bars typically serve non-alcoholic beverages, such as non-alcoholic cocktails known as mocktails, alcohol-free beer or low-alcohol beer, alcohol-free wine, juice, soft drinks and water. Popular temperance drinks include cream soda, dandelion and burdock, sarsaparilla, and Vimto, among others. Various foods may also be served.
Prohibition in Canada was a ban on alcoholic beverages that arose in various stages, from local municipal bans in the late 19th century, to provincial bans in the early 20th century, and national prohibition from 1918 to 1920. The relatively large and powerful beer and alcohol manufacturing sector, and the huge working class that purchased their products, failed to convince any of the governments to reverse their stance on prohibition. Most provinces repealed their bans in the 1920s, though alcohol was illegal in Prince Edward Island from 1901 to 1948. By comparison, Ontario's temperance act was in effect from 1916 to 1927.
The Catholic Total Abstinence Union of America was a Roman Catholic temperance organization active in the 19th and 20th centuries. The work of Father Mathew in promoting temperance across the U.S. led to the establishment of numerous separate and independent Catholic temperance groups. The Catholic temperance societies of Connecticut created a state union in 1871, from which a national union was formed the following year at a convention in Baltimore, Maryland. 177 such societies from 10 states and the District of Columbia, representing a total of 26,481 members, created the Catholic Total Abstinence Union of America. In total, over 500,000 Roman Catholics made the temperance of the Catholic Total Abstinence Union of America.
Abstinence is the practice of self-enforced restraint from indulging in bodily activities that are widely experienced as giving pleasure. Most frequently, the term refers to sexual abstinence, but it can also mean abstinence from alcohol, drugs, food, or other comforts.
The Prohibition era was the period from 1920 to 1933 when the United States prohibited the production, importation, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages. The alcohol industry was curtailed by a succession of state legislatures, and finally ended nationwide under the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified on January 16, 1919. Prohibition ended with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment on December 5, 1933.
In the United States, the temperance movement, which sought to curb the consumption of alcohol, had a large influence on American politics and American society in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, culminating in the prohibition of alcohol, through the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, from 1920 to 1933. Today, there are organizations that continue to promote the cause of temperance.
The temperance movement in New Zealand originated as a social movement in the late-19th century. In general, the temperance movement aims at curbing the consumption of alcohol. Although it met with local success, it narrowly failed to impose national prohibition on a number of occasions in the early-20th century. Temperance organisations remain active in New Zealand today.
The Temperance movement in Ireland was an influential movement dedicated to lowering consumption of alcohol that involved both Protestant and Catholic religious leaders.
Catholic involvement in the temperance movement has been very strong since at least the nineteenth century, with a number of specifically Catholic societies formed to encourage moderation or total abstinence from alcohol.
Teetotalism is the practice or promotion of total personal abstinence from the consumption of alcohol, specifically in alcoholic drinks. A person who practices teetotalism is called a teetotaler or teetotaller, or is simply said to be teetotal. Globally, almost half of adults do not drink alcohol. A number of temperance organisations have been founded in order to promote teetotalism and provide spaces for non-drinkers to socialise.
↑ "Our History". White Ribbon Association. Retrieved 24 April 2021.
1 2 Blocker, Jack S.; David, M. Fahey; Tyrrell, Ian R., eds. (2003). Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History: An International Encyclopedia. p.542.
1 2 3 "Temperance Society". Spartacus Educational. Spartacus Educational Publishers Ltd. Archived from the original on 20 May 2012. Retrieved 9 June 2012.
↑ Vickers, John A. (ed.). "Temperance". A Dictionary of Methodism in Britain and Ireland. Retrieved 24 April 2021.
↑ Timberlake, James H. (1963). Prohibition and the Progressive Movement 1900-1920. London: Harvard University Press.
↑ Wheeler, Henry (1882). Methodism and the Temperance Reformation. Walden and Stowe. p.278.
↑ Duncan, Robert (2010). "Lord D'Abernon's "Model Farm": The Central Control Board's Carlisle Experiment". Social History of Alcohol & Drugs. 24 (2): 119–140. doi:10.1086/SHAD24020119. S2CID158837534.
↑ Eby, Margaret (19 July 2019). "The rise of the sober bar". BBC. Retrieved 21 August 2019. In the late 19th Century, a number of alcohol-free bars known as temperance bars were established in the UK on the heels of the temperance movement, which advocated abstinence. Fitzpatrick's Temperance Bar, founded in 1890 in Rawtenstall, north of Manchester, is still slinging root beer and glasses of dandelion and burdock today. (...) The audience isn't just non-drinkers but anyone who wants a fun bar environment without the threat of a hangover the next day.
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