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ABSTRACT
Historians have characterized the nineteenth-century American temperance movement as one induced by white evangelicals eager to safeguard national prosperity. Often framed as a means through which to control racial and religious minorities, the role of Black Americans as agents of temperance has been largely overlooked. This essay departs from the white-centric narrative by examining the Black American perception of abstinence from alcohol. It delineates the multifaceted evolution of Black temperance to reveal the ardent promotion of the movement by Black men and women alike. In doing so, this work simultaneously challenges the prevailing discourse on the temperance movement as a white-led, and Black activism as male-dominated.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Beecher, Six Sermons, 7, 48–53.
2 Hamilton, “Dred: Intemperate Slavery,” 257.
3 American Temperance Society, introduction to Permanent Temperance Documents of the American Temperance Society, Vol I.
4 American Temperance Society “Fourth Annual Report,” 1; Beecher, Six Sermons, 101.
5 The Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine 14, December 1835.
6 Page, The Negro, 8, 311.
7 Beecher, Six Sermons, 66, 71.
8 Yacovone, “The Transformation,” 282; see also Schrad, Smashing the Liquor Machine, 322.
9 Douglass, “Intemperance and Slavery.”
10 The Liberator, April 2, 1831.
11 The Liberator, April 4, 1833.
12 Schrad, “Forgotten History of Black Prohibitionism.”
13 Ibid.
14 Tyrrell, Sobering Up, 284; Epstein, Politics of Domesticity, 3; Morone, Hellfire Nation, 220, 228, 294.
15 Dannenbaum, Drink and Disorder; Blocker, American Temperance Movements; Pegram, Battling Demon Rum; Rorabaugh, Alcoholic Republic; Griffin, “Washingtonian Revival,” 67–78; Kerr, “Review of Profits, Power and Prohibition, by John J. Rumbarger,” 250–1; Gilkeson, Middle-Class Providence.
16 Herd, “The Paradox of Temperance,” 354–75; Christmon, “Historical Overview of Alcohol,” 318–30.
17 Cantrell, “Dark Tactics,” 85–93; Thompson, Stirring and Significant; West, “A Hot Municipal Contest,” 519–51; Lee, “To Rise from the Darkest Ignorance,” 232–56.
18 Hutton, “Social Morality,” 71–84; Levine, “Disturbing Boundaries,” 349–74; Block, “A Revolutionary Aim,” 9–24; Jackson, “A Cultural Stronghold,” 331–57.
19 Bell, “American Moral Reform Society,” 34–40; Cooper, “Elevating the Race,” 604–25; Pease and Pease, They Who Would Be Free.
20 Yacovone, “The Transformation,” 281–97.
21 Boylan, “Benevolence and Antislavery,” 119–38; Harris, “Gatekeeping and Remaking,” 212–20; Materson, “African American Women,” 63–86; De Vera, “We the Ladies,” 1–9.
22 Dabel, A Respectable Woman, 4.
23 Yacovone, “The Transformation,” 282.
24 Gusfield, Symbolic Crusade, 5.
25 Adeleke, “Afro-Americans and Moral Suasion,” 128–9.
26 Cooper, “Elevating the Race,” 604.
27 Adeleke, “Afro-Americans and Moral Suasion,” 129; see also Levine, “Disturbing Boundaries,” 350–1; see also Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 93.
28 Levine, “Disturbing Boundaries,” 350–1; Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 93.
29 Cooper, “Elevating the Race,” 604.
30 Freedom’s Journal, March 16, 1827.
31 Ibid.
32 Freedom’s Journal, March 23, 1827.
33 Yacovone, “The Transformation,” 282.
34 Rury, “New York African Free School,” 187.
35 Hutton, “Social Morality,” 71.
36 Freedom’s Journal, March 23, 1827.
37 Freedom’s Journal, June 1, 1827.
38 Ibid.
39 Coloured Conventions Project, “About the Colored Conventions.”
40 “Minutes and Proceedings of the Third Annual Convention, 1833,” in Bell, Minutes of the Proceedings of the National Negro Conventions, 15–7.
41 Ibid., 17.
42 Freedom’s Journal, December 26, 1828.
43 The Liberator, June 21, 1834.
44 The Colored American, July 20, 1939.
45 Yacovone, “The Transformation,” 285.
46 The Colored American, March 29, 1838.
47 The Liberator, August 8, 1835.
48 Ibid., ; see also Adeleke, “Afro-Americans and Moral Suasion,” 131.
49 “James Forten,” The Liberator, April 8, 1842; William Lloyd Garrison to Robert Purvis, May 12, 1832, in Merrill, The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison, Vol. 1, 148–9.
50 The Liberator, August 8, 1835.
51 The Liberator, September 29, 1837.
52 The Coloured American, March 16, 1839.
53 Ibid.; see also Adeleke, “Afro-Americans and Moral Suasion,” 133.
54 Ibid.
55 Ibid.
56 Ibid.
57 Ibid.
58 Floyd J. Miller provides evidence that ‘Augustine’ was a pseudonym used by Woodson through a cross-examination of articles published in the Colored American and the known details of Woodson’s life. See Miller, “The Father of Black Nationalism,” 313.
59 Adeleke, “Afro-Americans and Moral Suasion,” 133.
60 The Colored American, September 9, 1837.
61 The Liberator, August 1, 1835; see also McCormick, “William Whipper: Moral Reformer,” 32–3.
62 The Liberator, August 1, 1835.
63 Aviles, “William Whipper Arguments,” 6.
64 The Colored American, March 4, 1837.
65 The Colored American, July 8, 1837.
66 The Colored American, February 23, 1839.
67 “Minutes of the National Convention, 1843,” 27–9.
68 Ibid., 28.
69 Ibid., 29.
70 The Colored American, March 6, 1841.
71 Ibid.
72 Ibid.
73 The Colored American, December 4, 1841.
74 The Liberator, September 29, 1837.
75 Ibid.
76 Christmon, “Historical Overview,” 325.
77 The Colored American, December 4, 1841.
78 Douglass, “Intemperance and Slavery.”
79 Ibid.
80 Douglass, “Temperance and Anti-Slavery, March 30, 1846."”
81 Douglass, “Speech at the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society,” 252.
82 “National Anti-Slavery Standard,” Accessible Archives Inc.
83 National Anti-Slavery Standard, October 12, 1843.
84 Ibid.
85 Yacovone, “The Transformation,” 296.
86 The North Star, February 11, 1848.
87 Walker, The Afro-American in New York City; The North Star, February 11, 1848.
88 The North Star, February 11, 1848.
89 Ibid.
90 Ibid.
91 Weekly Advocate, February 25, 1837.
92 Ibid.
93 Ibid.
94 Douglass, “Intemperance Viewed in Connection with Slavery, 18 February 1846,” 165–70.
95 Ibid., 167–8.
96 The North Star, January 7, 1848; Tillery, “Inevitability of the Douglass-Garrison Conflict,” 142–3.
97 The North Star, April 27, 1849; The North Star, May 25, 1849; The North Star, November 30, 1849; The North Star, August 10, 1849.
98 The North Star, September 21, 1849.
99 Ibid.
100 Ibid.
101 Ibid.
102 Ibid.
103 Levine, “Disturbing Boundaries,” 352.
104 Webb, The Garies and Their Friends, 200, 226–7; Mary Maillard highlights the consensus among scholars who regard Webb’s mob scene as ‘a composite of the Philadelphia race riots of 1838, 1842, and 1849.’ Maillard, “Faithfully Drawn from Real Life,” 293; see also Otter, “Frank Webb’s Still Life,” 731.
105 Burks, “The First Black Literary Magazine,” 318; Bullock, Afro-American Periodical Press, 55–7; see also Jackson, “A Cultural Stronghold,” 332.
106 “The Anglo-African Magazine,” Douglass’ Monthly, February 1859.
107 Block, “A Revolutionary Aim,” 9.
108 Ibid., 9–10.
109 Ibid., 12–13.
110 Block, “A Revolutionary Aim,” 13; Delany, Blake: Or the Huts of America, 93.
111 Delany, Blake: Or the Huts of America.
112 Block, “A Revolutionary Aim,” 14.
113 The Colored American, March 20, 1841.
114 Block, “A Revolutionary Aim,”17.
115 Frederick Douglass’ Paper, June 22, 1855.
116 Buccola, Political Thought of Frederick Douglass, 50–1; Frederick Douglass’ Paper, June 22, 1855.
117 Frederick Douglass’ Paper, June 22, 1855.
118 Much of the scholarship on Black soldiers during the Civil War fail to mention the topic of temperance. See Smith, Black Soldiers in Blue; Mendez, A Great Sacrifice; Willis, The Black Civil War Soldier. However, Keith P. Wilson acknowledges drinking habits amongst white and Black Union soldiers and mentions how some inaugurated temperance movements in their regiments. Wilson, Campfires of Freedom.
119 The National Era, May 27, 1852.
120 Kachun, “Interrogating the Silences,” 651–2; see also Gardner, Black Print Unbound, 11.
121 The Christian Recorder, March 29, 1862.
122 The Christian Recorder, August 27, 1861.
123 Ibid.
124 Leslie M. Harris describes how mobs during the 1963 riots attacked Black orphanages, women and even mutilated some Black men’s bodies. Harris, In the Shadow of Slavery, 280–4.
125 The Christian Recorder, August 1, 1863.
126 Ibid.
127 The Christian Recorder, December 3, 1864.
128 Ibid.
129 Frederick Douglass’ Paper, May 11, 1855.
130 Ibid.
131 Frederick Douglass’ Paper, October 29, 1852.
132 The Colored American, November 9, 1839.
133 Ibid.
134 The North Star, November 24, 1848.
135 Ibid.
136 Ibid.
137 Cooper, Word Like Fire, 1.
138 Stewart, “An Address Delivered at the African Masonic Hall,” 60.
139 Ibid.
140 Harris, “Gatekeeping and Remaking,” 213.
141 Forman, Casey, and Patterson, The Colored Conventions Movement.
142 The Christian Recorder, March 23, 1882; Baumgartner, “Love and Justice,” 668–9.
143 De Vera, “We the Ladies,” 3.
144 The Liberator, December 8, 1843.
145 The North Star, November 24, 1848.
146 Scheick, “Strategic Ellipsis,” 14–5.
147 Harper, “The Two Offers,” 5–6.
148 Ibid., 81.
149 Harper, “Woman’s Political Future,” 434; Parker, “Frances Watkins Harper,” 150.
150 Harper, “Minnie’s Sacrifice,” 78–9.
151 Parker, “Frances Watkins Harper,” 150.
152 Bacon, “‘One Great Bundle of Humanity,” 22.
153 Harper, “Woman’s Christian Temperance Union,” 313–6, in Boyd, Discarded Legacy, 203–7.
154 Harper, “Woman’s Christian Temperance Union,” 313–6.
155 Harper, “Mrs. Harper's Report,” 4 (Temperance and Prohibition Papers microfilm (1977), section II, reel 42, frame 5); Harper, “Work Among Colored People,” , lxxviii–lxxxiii.
156 Harper, “Mrs. Harper's Report,” 4.
157 Harper, “The Women’s Christian Temperance Union,” 203–7.
158 Mrs. Chas. Kinney to the Editor, “Work Among the Colored People,” 11 (Temperance and Prohibition Papers microfilm (1977), section III, reel 1).
159 Kinney, “Work Among the Colored People.”
160 Ibid.
161 Proceedings of a Convention of Colored Men of Ohio, held in Xenia, on the 10th, 11th and 12th days of January, 1865: with the Constitution of Ohio Equal Rights League (Cincinnati, OH: A. Moore, Book, Newspaper and Job Printer, 1865). Harvard University Library: Film W5167-3. Colored Conventions Project.
162 Early, “Work Among the Colored People,” 272–3 (Temperance and Prohibition Papers microfilm (1977), section I, reel 2, frames 814–5).
163 Ibid.
164 Ibid.
165 The Christian Recorder, May 16, 1878; Cantrell, “Dark Tactics,” 86.
166 Minutes of the Freedmen's Convention, Held in the City of Raleigh, on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th of October, 1866 (Raleigh, NC: The Standard book and job office, 1866). Library Company of Philadelphia. Colored Conventions Project.
167 Fulton, “Sowing Seeds in an Untilled Field,” 207–8.
168 Sallie Chapin, “Our Southern Letter,” 4 (Temperance and Prohibition Papers microfilm (1977), section III, reel 1).
169 Thompson, A Most Stirring and Significant Episode, 164.
170 hapin, “Our Southern Letter,” 4.
171 Ibid.
172 Rosenthal, “Deracialized Discourse,” 162.
173 Foster, “Introduction” to Minnie’s Sacrifice, xxxii.
174 Bacon, “One Great Bundle of Humanity,” 22.
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Notes on contributors
Sophie Salway
Sophie Salway is a recent first-class graduate in History from Durham University.