Changes

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.