Featured American revivalism and Teetotalism

Revivalism (particular in its Holiness phase) was an influence, but hardly the only one.

Temperance began as a middle-class movement among the new middle class, that is, primarily among the entrepreneurs and commercial classes. A drunken farmer behind a plow may be a pitiable sight, but there's a limit to the damage he can do (usually). A drunken mill worker or an inebriated clerk can make mistakes that can cost lives, reduce productivity and make bookkeeping errors that can sink a business.

The rise of the middle class in the Victorian era — on both sides of the Atlantic — increased demands for temperance, and it was only a matter of time that temperance became prohibition. And, yes, temperance societies adopted the methods of the revivalists: religious ardour and public spectacle.

And anti-foreign sentiment also played a part. Alcoholism came to be considered a particular vice of the big cities and, you guessed it, the Irish in particular. Something had to be done to civilize the Irish, and cutting off their alcohol was a good start. Prohibition became a stamp of "true" Protestantism, as opposed to the habits of the degenerate papists.

Add to that the industrialization of alcohol in the late 19th century. Alcohol was once an expensive commodity, but industrialization made it cheap and more accessible. Not only that, giant beer brewers (making use of new-fangled refrigeration) flooded the cities with cheap beer served at their own bars. That created an explosion of taverns in the large cities as the brewers jostled for market share. They were everywhere.

It was not for nothing that Presbyterian minister Samuel Burchard described the Democratic Party as the party of “rum, Romanism, and rebellion,” which ended up costing H.G. Blaine the presidential election in 1884.

Some ramblings that may or may not be worth considering.

 

Billy Sunday made a ministry out of attacking the liquor industry, as did J. Frank Norris.

 

As Billy Sunday was a Presbyterian, and most Baptists thought Norris was nuts, probably not.

 

When Baptists were moving west and south in the early 19th century, it was common (and an economic necessity) to convert grain into alcohol. Many Baptists were involved in the Whiskey Rebellion because they were accustomed to bartering whiskey for other goods and had no cash to pay the taxes.

There are records of Baptist associational meetings being disturbed by too many draws at the keg. And while prohibitionism made great strides among Baptists after the Civil War, there were dissenters.

"In February 1887 the Tennessee Temperance Alliance held a convention in Nashville to organize county committees statewide to generate public support for the amendment when presented to the voters for the final referendum. Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian churches participated in the campaign. In Morgan County, for example, Reverend A. B. Wright, a circuit rider in the Upper Cumberland region, served as chairman. For two weeks, he made speeches in favor of the prohibition amendment to groups assembled in schoolhouses and churches. When he arrived at an engagement scheduled at the Baptist Church in Sunbright, he discovered the preacher and his father had 'locked us out,' and he was forced to speak at a nearby building."

 

Many factors lead to the popular adoption of the total abstinence position.

• Alcohol was the crack cocaine of the Victorian and Edwardian periods.
• Women and children didn't have the legal protections from drunkard spouses and fathers they have today.
• The anti-foreigner sentiment was directed not only at the "whiskey drinking" Irish but also at the "beer drinking" Germans (many from Catholic Bavaria) and the "wine drinking" Italians and Jews.

 

I would agree with that. I should have mentioned the Germans (who created the national beer industry) but I excluded the Italians (and the Slavs and Jews) because they largely came after the Temperance movement was already in full swing. However, they probably played a role in the final "victory" of Prohibition, so I should have included them. Just trying to not overreach.