Temperance Movement

     In the early 1800s churches began to support the Temperance Movement. The Temperance Movement was a campaign to stop the drinking of alcohol. It began in Georgia in the late 1820s. Churches supported the Temperance Movement by helping people  Many women were involved. They handed out pamphlets to support not drinking alcohol. Some were involved in plays displaying the harms of alcohol. In 1826 the American Temperance Society was formed. 6,000 local temperance groups in many states were running in the 1830s. In Connecticut, blacks had a part in the Temperance Movement. Jehiel C. Beman formed the Connecticut State Temperance Society of Colored People, the CSTSCP, in 1836. By the mid-1850s, laws prohibiting the manufacture of alcohol and sale, other than for medical reasons, had passed in several states. The first state-wide success for the temperance movement was in Maine. The law passed on June 2nd, 1851. This motivated some people, but worried others. In Ohio on January 13, 1853, temperance supporters held a women's temperance convention. The Civil War weakened the temperance movement in 1865. After this, the movement was slowly forgotten.