Teaching Moments: Temperance and Women's Activism

Browse Georgia Women's Christian Temperance Union records
Additional Resources on Temperance and Women's Activism

Discussion questions:

Read through the series of personal statements in the Georgia Women's Christian Temperance Union records. In Mrs. Eliza Trimble Thompson's statement, what led her to take up the temperance cause? Why do you think the temperance cause led her to activism when she had "never...presided at a meeting, nor heard the sound of my voice in public"?

In these documents, how are women's traditional roles as mothers, as teachers of religion and morality, used as a reason for activism and participation in the public sphere? How are the very gender roles that were used to relegate women to the private sphere, here used as a reason for public participation?

What arguments are made against the use of liquor? Why is it seen as dangerous, immoral, and harmful, and to whom? What types of arguments, language, metaphors are used? Who is the intended audience for these arguments?

What is the relationship between women's suffrage, abolition, and prohibition? Why might these three causes be related?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Teaching Moments