Background
The 19th and early 20th century saw considerable organizing for temperance or prohibition. Temperance usually refers to seeking to inspire individuals to moderate liquor use or abstain from drinking liquor. Prohibition usually refers to making it illegal to manufacture or sell alcohol.
The effects of drunkenness on families -- in a society in which women had limited rights to divorce or custody, or even to control their own earnings -- and the growing evidence of medical effects of alcohol, prompted efforts to convince individuals to "take the pledge" to abstain from alcohol, and then to persuade states, localities and eventually the nation to prohibit the manufacture and sale of alcohol. Some religious groups, notably the Methodists, believed that drinking liquor was sinful.
By the early 20th century, the liquor industry, like other industries, had extended its control. In many cities, saloons and taverns were controlled or owned by liquor companies. The growing presence of women in the political sphere, was accompanied by and reinforced by the belief that women had a special role in preserving families and health and thus to work to end liquor consumption, manufacture and sale. The Progressive movement often took the side of temperance and prohibition.
In 1918 and 1919, the federal government passed the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, making manufacture, transportation and sale of "intoxicating liquors" illegal under its power to regulate interstate commerce. The proposal became the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919, and took effect in 1920. It was the first Amendment to include a time limit for ratification, though it was quickly ratified by 46 of the 48 states.
It was soon clear that criminalizing liquor had increased the power of organized crime and the corruption of law enforcement, and that consumption of liquor continued. By the early 1930s, public sentiment was on the side of decriminalizing the liquor industry, and in 1933, the 21st Amendment overturned the 18th and prohibition ended.
Some states continued to permit a local option for prohibition, or to control liquor statewide.
The following timeline shows the chronology of some of the major events in the movement to convince individuals to abstain from liquor and the movement to prohibit commerce in liquor.
Timeline
| Year | Event |
| 1773 | John Wesley, founder of Methodism, preached that drinking alcohol was sinful. |
| 1813 | Connecticut Society for the Reformation of Morals founded. |
| 1813 | Massachusetts Society for the Suppression of Intemperance founded. |
| 1820s | The consumption of alcohol in the U.S. was 7 gallons per capita per year. |
| 1826 | Boston area ministers founded the American Temperance Society (ATS). |
| 1831 | American Temperance Society had 2,220 local chapters and 170,000 members. |
| 1833 | American Temperance Union (ATU) founded, merging two existing national temperance organizations. |
| 1834 | American Temperance Society had 5,000 local chapters, and 1 million members. |
| 1838 | Massachusetts prohibited sale of alcohol in amounts less than 15 gallons. |
| 1839 | September 28: Frances Willard born. |
| 1840 | Consumption of alcohol in the U.S. had been lowered to 3 gallons of alcohol per year per capita. |
| 1840 | Massachusetts repealed its 1838 prohibition law but permitted local option. |
| 1840 | Washington Temperance Society founded in Baltimore on April 2, named for the first U.S. president. Its members were reformed heavy drinkers from the working class who "took the pledge" to abstain from alcohol, and the movement to establish local Washington Temperance Societies was called the Washingtonian movement. |
| 1842 | John B. Gough "took the pledge" and began lecturing against drinking, becoming a major orator for the movement. |
| 1842 | Washington Society publicized that they had inspired 600,000 abstinence pledges. |
| 1843 | Washington Societies had mostly disappeared. |
| 1845 | Maine passed statewide prohibition; other states followed with what were called "Maine laws." |
| 1845 | In Massachusetts, under the 1840 local option law, 100 towns had local prohibition laws. |
| 1846 | November 25: Carrie Nation (or Carry) born in Kentucky: future prohibition activist whose method was vandalism. |
| 1850 | Consumption of alcohol in the U.S. had been lowered to 2 gallons of alcohol per year per capita. |
| 1851 | Maine prohibited the sale or making of any alcoholic beverage. |
| 1855 | 13 of the 40 states had prohibition laws. |
| 1867 | Carrie (or Carry) Amelia Moore married Dr. Charles Gloyd; he died in 1869 of the effects of alcoholism. Her second marriage was in 1874, to David A. Nation, a minister and attorney. |
| 1869 | National Prohibition Party founded. |
| 1872 | National Prohibition Party nominated James Black (Pennsylvania) for President; he received 2,100 votes |
| 1873 | December 23: Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) organized. |
| 1874 | Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) officially founded at its Cleveland national convention. Annie Wittenmyer elected president, and advocated focusing on the single issue of prohibition. |
| 1876 | World's Women's Christian Temperance Union founded. |
| 1876 | National Prohibition Party nominated Green Clay Smith (Kentucky) for President; he received 6,743 votes |
| 1879 | Frances Willard became president of the WCTU. She led the organization in being active in working for a living wage, the 8-hour day, women's suffrage, peace and other issues. |
| 1880 | National Prohibition Party nominated Neal Dow (Maine) for President; he received 9,674 votes |
| 1881 | WCTU membership was 22,800. |
| 1884 | National Prohibition Party nominated John P. St. John (Kansas) for President; he received 147,520 votes. |
| 1888 | The Supreme Court struck down state prohibition laws if they forbid sale of alcohol that was transported into the state in its original passage, on the basis of the federal power to regulate interstate commerce. Thus, hotels and clubs could sell an unopened bottle of liquor, even if the state banned alcohol sales. |
| 1888 | Frances Willard elected president of the World's WCTU. |
| 1888 | National Prohibition Party nominated Clinton B. Fisk (New Jersey) for President; he received 249,813 votes. |
| 1889 | Carry Nation and her family moved to Kansas, where she began a chapter of the WCTU and began working to enforce the liquor ban in that state. |
| 1891 | WCTU membership was 138,377. |
| 1892 | National Prohibition Party nominated John Bidwell (California) for President; he received 270,770 votes, the largest any of their candidates ever received. |
| 1895 | American Anti-Saloon League founded. (Some sources date this to 1893) |
| 1896 | National Prohibition Party nominated Joshua Levering (Maryland) for President; he received 125,072 votes. In a party fight, Charles Bentley of Nebraska was also nominated; he received 19,363 votes. |
| 1898 | February 17: Frances Willard died. Lillian M. N. Stevens succeeded her as president of the WCTU, serving until 1914. |
| 1899 | Kansas prohibition advocate, nearly six foot tall Carry Nation, began a 10-year campaign against illegal saloons in Kansas, destroying furniture and liquor containers with an ax while dressed as a Methodist deaconess. She was often jailed; lecture fees and ax sales paid her fines. |
| 1900 | National Prohibition Party nominated John G. Woolley (Illinois) for President; he received 209,004 votes. |
| 1901 | WCTU membership was 158,477. |
| 1901 | WCTU took a position against the playing of golf on Sundays. |
| 1904 | National Prohibition Party nominated Silas C. Swallow (Pennsylvania) for President; he received 258,596 votes. |
| 1907 | The state constitution of Oklahoma included prohibition. |
| 1908 | In Massachusetts, 249 towns and 18 cities banned alcohol. |
| 1908 | National Prohibition Party nominated Eugene W. Chapin (Illinois) for President; he received 252,821 votes. |
| 1909 | There were more saloons than schools, churches or libraries in the United States: one per 300 citizens. |
| 1911 | WCTU membership was 245,299. |
| 1911 | Carry Nation, prohibition activist who destroyed saloon property from 1900-1910, died. She was buried in Missouri, where the local WCTU erected a tombstone with the epitaph "She hath done what she could." |
| 1912 | National Prohibition Party nominated Eugene W. Chapin (Illinois) for President; he received 207,972 votes. Woodrow Wilson won the election. |
| 1912 | Congress passed a law overturning the Supreme Court's 1888 ruling, permitting states to forbid all alcohol, even in containers that had been sold in interstate commerce. |
| 1914 | Anna Adams Gordon became the fourth president of the WCTU, serving until 1925. |
| 1914 | The Anti-Saloon League proposed a constitutional amendment to prohibit the sale of alcohol. |
| 1916 | Sidney J. Catts elected Florida Governor as a Prohibition Party candidate. |
| 1916 | National Prohibition Party nominated J. Frank Hanly (Indiana) for President; he received 221,030 votes. |
| 1917 | Wartime prohibition passed. Anti-German feelings transferred to being against beer. Prohibition advocates argued that the liquor industry was an unpatriotic use of resources, especially grain. |
| 1917 | Senate and House passed resolutions with the language of the 18th Amendment, and sent it to the states for ratification. |
| 1918 | The following states ratified the 18th Amendment: Mississippi, Virginia, Kentucky, North Dakota, South Carolina, Maryland, Montana, Texas, Delaware, South Dakota, Massachusetts, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Florida. Connecticut voted against ratification. |
| 1919 | January 2 - 16: the following states ratified the 18th Amendment: Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Idaho, Maine, West Virginia, California, Tennessee, Washington, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Alabama, Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire, Oregon, North Carolina, Utah, Nebraska, Missouri, Wyoming. |
| 1919 | January 16: 18th Amendment ratified, establishing prohibition as the law of the land. The ratification was certified on January 29. |
| 1919 | January 17 - February 25: although the requisite number of states had already ratified the 18th Amendment, the following states also ratified it: Minnesota, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Vermond, Pennsylvania. Rhode Island became the second (of two) states to vote against ratification. |
| 1919 | Congress passed the Volstead Act over President Wilson's veto, establishing procedures and powers to enforce prohibition under the 18th Amendment. |
| 1920 | January: Prohibition Era began. |
| 1920 | National Prohibition Party nominated Aaron S. Watkins (Ohio) for President; he received 188,685 votes. |
| 1920 | August 26: the 19th Amendment, granting the vote to women, became law. (The Day the Suffrage Battle Was Won |
| 1921 | WCTU membership was 344,892. |
| 1922 | Althought the 18th Amendment had already been ratified, New Jersey added its ratification vote on March 9, becoming the 48th of 48 states to take a position on the Amendment, and the 46th state to vote for ratification. |
| 1924 | National Prohibition Party nominated Herman P. Faris (Missouri) for President, and a woman, Marie C. Brehm (California), for Vice President; they received 54,833 votes. |
| 1925 | Ella Alexander Boole became president of the WCTU, serving until 1933. |
| 1928 | National Prohibition Party nominating William F. Varney (New York) for president, narrowly failing to endorse Herbert Hoover instead. Varney received 20,095 votes. Herbert Hoover ran on the party ticket in California, and won 14,394 votes from that party line. |
| 1931 | Membership in the WCTU was at its peak, 372,355. |
| 1932 | National Prohibition Party nominated William D. Upshaw (Georgia) for President; he received 81,916 votes. |
| 1933 | Ida Belle Wise Smith became president of the WCTU, serving until 1944. |
| 1933 | 21st Amendment passed, repealing the 18th Amendment and prohibition. |
| 1933 | December: 21st Amendment took effect, repealing the 18th Amendment and thus prohibition. |
| 1936 | National Prohibition Party nominated D. Leigh Colvin (New York) for President; he received 37,667 votes. |
| 1940 | National Prohibition Party nominated Roger W. Babson (Massachusetts) for President; he received 58,743 votes. |
| 1941 | WCTU membership had fallen to 216,843. |
| 1944 | Mamie White Colvin became president of the WCTU, serving until 1953. |
| 1944 | National Prohibition Party nominated Claude A. Watson (California) for President; he received 74,735 votes |
| 1948 | National Prohibition Party nominated Claude A. Watson (California) for President; he received 103,489 votes |
| 1952 | National Prohibition Party nominated Stuart Hamblen (California) for President; he received 73,413 votes. The party continued to run candidates in subsequent elections, never gaining as many as 50,000 votes again. |
| 1953 | Agnes Dubbs Hays became president of the WCTU, serving until 1959. |
