Washingtonian Temperance Society

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The Washingtonian Temperance Society was formed in 1840 when six men in Baltimore, Maryland, decided to sign an abstinence pledge. The Society was a forerunner of the much more organizationally successful Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). Members sought out other "drunkards" (the term alcoholic had not yet been created), told them their experiences with alcohol abuse and how the Society had helped hem achieve sobriety.

With the passage of time the Society became a prohibitionist organization in that it promoted the legal and mandatory prohibition of alcoholic beverages.

The Society was the inspiration for Timothy Shay Arthur's Six Nights with the Washingtonians and his Ten Nights in a Bar-Room.

[edit] Sources

  • Blumberg, Leonard U. The significance of the alcohol prohibitionists for the Washingtonian Temperance Society. The Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 1980, 41(L).
  • Koch, Donald A. A Dictionary of Literary Biographers; Antebellum Writers in New York and the South. Vol 3. Myers, Joe (Ed.) : Detroit: Bruccoli, 1979, 3-7.
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