Books: Review/commentary: Temperance and Racism

Abstract

Temperance and Racism: John Bull, Johnny Reb, and the Good Templars, by David M. Fahey (Lexington: University of Kentucky, 1996), 209 pp., illustrated, $39.95 (cloth only). David M. Fahey's Temperance and Racism describes the efforts of the International Order of the Good Templars (IOGT) to sustain a fraternal organization dedicated to eradicating the scourge of alcohol and, in the author's words, to search for a new, universal, reformed world order based on human equality of race, gender and class (p. 151). While Fahey's universalist claims for the Templars seem somewhat inflated, it is nonetheless the case that the order was shaped by the post-Emancipation Atlantic world and bore the marks of a new, albeit limited, internationalism. Fahey certainly provides new insights into this fraternal order, which has received very little attention from historians. the second half of the l9th century the Good Templars grew rapidly worldwide, beginning in the United States, spreading to the British Isles, and then quickly spanning the vast British Empire. By the end of the century its most ardent adherents were often to be found in Scandinavia. Fahey reaches into archives on both sides of the Atlantic to reveal the order's full diversity and complexity. Although the Templars varied from region to region, country to country, and generation to generation, Fahey asserts that a few characteristics seem clear: In the nineteenth century most Templars were young and remained members of the Order for only a short time. Most were of modest circumstances, although officers tended to be middle class. Perhaps a third of the rank and file were women, and nearly all were devout Protestants (pp. 151-52). Members were often motivated as much by the possibilities for socializing (particularly when they might be living in sparsely populated rural areas) as they were for engagement in political activism on behalf of prohibition, though this too varied according to region and country. many areas membership turnover was considerable, again indicating that sociability rather than political activism was an important motivator for members. Perhaps associated with the middling, status-anxious social position of many of the order's members, concerns over manhood and masculinity were crucial (p. 21). Templar analysis of the drink problem, according to Fahey, taking for granted that men did the drinking, called for manliness. Alcohol `robbed [the drunkard) of his manhood,' and in reclaiming him the IOGT endeavored `to make him a MAN' (p. 11). The author's appreciation of the gender aspects of lodge membership, among both men and women, is one of the strengths of this book, though its significance might have been carried over into the discussion of race and racism with advantage. Fahey also provides considerable insight into the extent of black membership within the organization on both sides of the Atlantic, the significance of black contributions to IOGT, and the importance of race and racism to its history. Like membership among whites, black membership varied also. On the British side of the Atlantic black members were found in seaports, providing further suggestive material for Paul Gilroy's descriptions of the Black Atlantic.' On the American side, black members seem to have been oriented by a number of post-Emancipation influences. Freedmen and -women, Fahey argues, saw connections between slavery and alcohol, freedom and sobriety, and so were often responsive to the missionary work of Templars in the South. northern cities black Templars shared the same combination of concerns for social interaction and political activism to combat alcohol as their white counterparts. the process of describing these contributions, Fahey brings to our awareness some almost forgotten African American leaders, such as James Walker Hood, and reveals little-known aspects of prominent leaders' lives, men such as William Wells Brown and Bishop Benjamin Tanner. …