Changes

Through the revolution, major political and social leaders drank alcohol and extolled its virtues as part of the natural social process. This began to change with the advent of industrial production, however, and the rise in religiosity fueled by the Second Great Awakening. Throughout most of the 19th century, Temperance, (the desire to moderate and restrain from all sorts of excesses, but mostly alcohol) was one of the most important social issues of the day. With the Second Great Awakening and the social movements of the 1820s and 1830s, alcohol became a scapegoat for a wide range of social problems that included joblessness, domestic abuse, immorality, and declining adherence to religious beliefs.

The Second Great Awakening also advocated the belief that humans could be individually reformed with effort and proper instruction in order to bring about a perfect society on earth. This foundational belief in the perfectability of human society sparked wide-ranging reform movements, including attempts to reform prisons and education systems, expand suffrage rights, and abolish slavery. As part of these wider efforts, Temperance first encouraged moderation in the consumption of alcohol. From this start, a wider acceptance of controlling the amount people drink and the increasingly common view of inebriation as sinful began to change the American relationship with alcohol. Throughout the antebellum period, there was palpable tension between teetotalers (those who wanted complete abstinence from alcohol) and the more traditional view that drinking was a normal social activity. As the nation tore itself apart over the issue of slavery, little meaningful progress came on the temperance front, although the movement slowly increased its membership throughout the 1800s.