The Temperance Movement: Feminism, Nativism, Religious Identity, and Race

Over the course of the nineteenth century, an anti-alcohol movement known as the Temperance movement, supported mainly by Protestant women, grew in America. Despite being unable to vote, many of these women were hugely influential in politics, creating the foundation for the Prohibition movement. The ways in which drunkards were discussed and depicted was often as racialized Irish and Italian Catholics: both European groups were not considered “White” at the time, and many of the men came from Catholic countries, which was viewed as a threat by American Protestants. Depicting non-white people as agents of both violence and uncontrollable sexuality was in many ways an appeal to the American people, who at the time were caught up in Nativist anti-Catholic and anti-Irish/Italian beliefs. Political cartoons during the late nineteenth century give modern-day historians a window into the mind of the American people during the Temperance movement, including but not limited to how they viewed women, race, religion, and the prohibition of alcohol