Patrick Sullivan MLA

Cause and Effect: The Revolution of Alcohol on the New America

After the birth of our nation, many freedoms were welcomed, which were once an afterthought during colonial rule. With these freedoms came the opportunity for some to capitalize on the new horizon of social birth and change. In what was supposed to be a united and unilateral based government and country, came a subversive movement of temperance and prohibition shaping the cause and effect of the New America. From colonial times up into the 20th century, Alcohol was heavily consumed and thought of as a social evil. Gender social and class anxiety or built a bridge towards alcohol and the abuse it causes. Pre- revolutionary natives and immigrants both contributed to the understated causes and effects of alcohol and its future mass and celebratory consumption in the New America. People want to be happy and people want to be free, and alcohol provided a form of escapism that allowed all social classes to experience. In this essay and I will show how the birth of a nation was nurtured upon intoxicated indulgence, which transferred into social imprints, good and bad on a new society. By referencing our assigned readings, internet sources, lectures, and film, I will narrate how the effects of alcohol caused our nation to adapt, adopt, and reform itself into understanding the cause of the social and physical effects of this substance on our new nation. Beginning with pre-revolutionary times and the short time after I will explain how alcohol gripped our new nation. Secondly I will review how the abuse of alcohol tour into the fabric of the New America and produced the first temperance movement. Thirdly I will show how the effect of the Civil War and industrial revolution brought upon the urban saloon and it’s debauchery upon the less fortunate. Lastly I will explain how the effects of the Civil War made way towards prohibition. I would then conclude with a cause and effect of alcohol into the 20th century. Times before the American Revolution revealed a society not only cramped and suffocated by English rule, but also of restless template for a new social identity. Colonists along with their families were more structured with the religious community boundaries. The idea of debauchery that comes with alcohol abuse, never appeared. Many colonist religious values and morals, encouraged hard work, sacrifice, an honest character. Public drunkenness was adamantly condemned. Alcohol good play some part in colonial life such as community and religious gatherings and used to trade with the native Americans who did not have a history of daily drinking. This brought immediate social consequences among the native American culture at that time. Alcohol before and just after the revolution whether brewed, fermented, or distilled or homemade and viewed as an important part of the American diet. Native Americans were even making alcohol out of maple juices, and imported rum and brandy soon made its way to North America via England and France. Taverns were commercial establishments where people could drink alcoholic beverages in pre-revolutionary America and were also community gathering halls were plans for the revolution took place to overthrow the British. In Drinking in America: A History, Mark Lender and James Kirby Martin explain the importance of colonial taverns:
Taverns build a variety of other practical social needs. In many areas, they were the most convenient retail outlets for liquor and often the only place where travelers could find food and lodging. They provided all localities with a form for social intercourse, which often included political, religions, or other gatherings. Before and during the revolution, for example, inns were favorite places for political discussions, and they served as rallying