American Temperance Society

The American Temperance Society (ATS), also known as the American Society for the Promotion of Temperance, was a society established on February 13, 1826, in Boston, Massachusetts. Within five years there were 2,220 local chapters in the U.S. with 170,000 members who had taken a pledge to abstain from drinking distilled beverages.  Within ten years, there were over 8,000 local groups and more than 1,250,000 members who had taken the pledge.

The society benefited from, and contributed to, a reform sentiment in much of the country promoting the abolition of slavery, expanding women's rights, temperance, and the improvement of society. Possibly because of its association with the abolitionist movement, the society was most successful in northern states.

After a while, temperance groups increasingly pressed for the mandatory prohibition of alcohol rather than for voluntary abstinence. The American Temperance Society was the first U.S. social movement organization to mobilize massive and national support for a specific reform cause. Their objective was to become the national clearinghouse on the topic of temperance. Within three years of its organization, ATS had spread across the country.

Most notable people
 Lyman Beecher Preacher and Co-Founder of the ATS.
 Dr. Justin Edwards Preacher and Co-Founder of ATS
 Rev. Joshua Leavitt Lawyer, editor, writer, publisher, first secretary of ATS.
 John Wheeler Leavitt

See also
American Temperance Union
Prohibition in the United States
Temperance movement
Woman's Christian Temperance Union
Volstead Act

Further reading
Young, Michael P. (2007). Bearing Witness against Sin: The Evangelical Birth of the American Social Movement. University of Chicago Press

References

Category:Temperance organizations in the United States
Category:1826 establishments in Massachusetts