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

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