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From Suasion to Coercion: Temperance Reform and Prohibition in Antebellum Maine

Melega, Daniel C.
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3293-6941
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1500506780101012

Abstract Details

2017, Master of Arts, Miami University, History.
Historians of nineteenth-century temperance reform are quick to elevate Neal Dow and the 1851 Maine Law as the example of antebellum prohibition efforts. While Maine’s first-in-the-nation ban on the manufacturing and selling of liquors was unique, it was anything but prohibitive. The law, complete with exceptions and limited consequences, operated more like a tax on those engaged in the practice and that was only if prosecutors and judges did not nullify the law themselves. As a result, characterizations of the Maine Law as prohibitory and Dow as the father of prohibition in Maine deserve critique. Through an examination of newspapers, judicial records, petitions, and the legislative record, one finds that the temperance reform narrative in Maine is much more complex. Mainers of dispersed geographic, socio-economic, political, and religious backgrounds grappled with what, if any, role the state should play in pursuing moral improvement. This work decenters the prohibition narrative away from Dow and focuses on the multifaceted causes of and reasons for the Maine Law’s rise and failure. As a consequence, the statewide temperance effort, including the conflicting views within it on “the drink,” receives deserved attention.
Steven Conn (Advisor)
Lindsay Schakenbach Regele (Committee Member)
Andrew Offenburger (Committee Member)
89 p.
American History; History
temperance; Maine; Neal Dow; prohibition; antebellum; coercion; suasion; Maine Law; Portland; Augusta; teetotaler; 1851 Maine Law

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Melega, D. C. (2017). From Suasion to Coercion: Temperance Reform and Prohibition in Antebellum Maine [Master's thesis, Miami University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1500506780101012

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Melega, Daniel. From Suasion to Coercion: Temperance Reform and Prohibition in Antebellum Maine. 2017. Miami University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1500506780101012.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Melega, Daniel. "From Suasion to Coercion: Temperance Reform and Prohibition in Antebellum Maine." Master's thesis, Miami University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1500506780101012

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

miami1500506780101012
991
© 2017, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Miami University and OhioLINK.