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| Field name | Value |
|---|---|
| Collection Reference Number | GLC08600 |
| From Archive Folder | Documents Relating to 1830 |
| Title | A mirror for the intemperate |
| Date | 1830 |
| Author | Bowen, Henry (1794-1874) |
| Document Type | Broadside |
| Content Description | Temperance broadside with poems and extracts such as "Ode to Rum" and "Set Down that Glass." Also includes some illustrations. Printed on cloth for Nathaniel Boynton by Henry Bowen's Chemical Print. Mounted on cloth covered board; dimensions include mounting. |
| Subjects | Textile Temperance and Prohibition Alcohol Poetry Reform Movement |
| People | Bowen, Henry (1794-1874) |
| Place written | Boston, Massachusetts |
| Theme | Health & Medicine; Education; Arts & Literature |
| Sub-collection | The Gilder Lehrman Collection, 1493-1859 |
| Additional Information | During the 1820s and 1830s, evangelical reformers launched a series of crusades to eradicate sin and make the nation live up to Christian values--campaigns to suppress urban prostitution, enforce the Christian Sabbath, and curb the drinking of hard liquor. In initiating these crusades, evangelicals devised the methods and tactics that would later be used in more radical reforms to abolish slavery and win women's rights. In the decades before the Civil War, the campaign against liquor was the key unifying reform, drawing support from middle-class Protestants, skilled artisans, clerks, shopkeepers, free blacks, and Mormons, as well as many conservative clergy and Southerners who were otherwise hostile to reform. Called the temperance movement, the antebellum crusade against hard liquor in fact advocated "intemperance"--teetotal abstinence from all alcohol. In part, the rise of temperance agitation represented a response to an upsurge in heavy drinking. By 1820, the typical adult male consumed more than 7 gallons of absolute alcohol a year (compared to about 2.8 gallons today). Consumption had risen markedly, since farmers distilled corn to make cheap whiskey, which could be transported more easily than bulk corn. But the rise of the temperance movement was not simply a response to increased drinking. As the following excerpts from a temperance broadside reveal, the movement reflected broader concerns that alcohol led to economic waste, polluted youth, created crime and poverty, and led men to physically abuse their wives. |
| Copyright | The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History |
| Module | Settlement, Commerce, Revolution and Reform: 1493-1859 |
| Transcript | Show/hide |