The Temperance Movement to Early Antislavery

The Temperance Movement

• argued alcohol abuse caused social problems

  • women and children as main victims

• The American Temperance Society, established 1826

  • 5,000 branches

  • over 1 million members

  • liquor prohibition in several states

• consumption of alcohol fell 50% by the 1840s

Early Antislavery: The Colonization Movement

• the idea:

• resettle former slaves overseas

• American Colonization Society was established 1817, popular through 1860s

• moderate, mainstream anti-slavery

• 1820s, established a west African colony

  • Liberia 1847

• later critics argue Black Americans deserved freedom and citizenship

  • first, free Black activists like David Walker

  • later, growing numbers of white allies

“Moral Suasion”

• 1831-37, print culture to win hearts and minds

  • sentimental storytelling and persuasive essays

  • newspapers, pamphlets, books…

  • sent out in millions of copies

• established hundreds of local anti-slavery societies

• 1835 mail campaign:

  • sent over 1 million copies of Abolitionist texts, including directly to southern slaveholders

  • thousands of petitions to Congress