Liquor and Anti-liquor in Virginia, 1619-1919The English notion that liquor was a part of man's natural food and drink, and therefore good, informed the attitude of the early colonial legislators and was clearly expressed in the laws which were in effect until long after the Civil War. Statutes against drunkenness reflected a concern with the morals and welfare of the lower classes. After the Civil War, with the coming of an increasingly urbanized and industrialized society, the temperance movement grew stronger. Its leaders began to turn to the masses of the people for support, and laws regulating the ordinary consumption of liquor were enacted. The hostility to liquor among the middle classes was as constant as was the determination of all other groups to drink. As part of a great national movement regulaulation was abandoned for state-wide prohibition, which subsequently gave way to local regulation once more. -- |
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American Temperance American Temperance Society American Temperance Union anti-liquor Anti-Saloon League ardent spirits barrooms beer Cabell Cannon Charlottesville church cities Clopton Cocke Papers committee convention counties court Delavan Democratic district drinking drunkards drunkenness election enforcement favored Governor Hening History House James James Cannon Jeter John Journal leaders league's legislation legislature license liquor local-option Lucian Minor Lynchburg machine Mann March meeting ment Methodist ministers movement Negroes newspapers Norfolk North Carolina option ordinaries organization party passim perance petition pledge political Presbyterian president Prohibition party prohibitionists regulation Religious Herald reported retailers Richmond Christian Advocate Richmond Dispatch Richmond Enquirer Richmond Virginian Roanoke saloon selling sentiment Sept social Sons of Temperance Southern state-wide prohibition Statutes at Large Staunton temperance movement Temperance Reformation Temperance Society Templars Times-Dispatch tion University of Virginia vote voters Whig whiskey William wine York