General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The corporate epidemic and meth. [View all]loyalsister
(13,390 posts)Even before prohibition was in place, moonshiners were making a living in a similar form to how meth producers do now. They had intruded on the farmers production and markets dragging down small town economies.
People make fun of it, but the temperance movement had some interesting merit.
Women's rights were limited and a husband with a drinking problem dragged families down in status and economic security. Divorce was unheard of and domestic abuse was not even a concept. Women's property rights were not present and\not enforced. Not to mention the fact that running a farm alone is not easy when there are children to raise.
Even worse, children of alcoholics were among those identified as genetically defective and were among those involuntarily sterilized.
Interesting tidbit.. "Matilda B. Carse became an activist after her son was killed in 1874 by a drunk wagon driver."
Of course Temperance aggravated many of those situations. But, it took a lot of changes in laws to get to a point where women's lives weren't totally destroyed if her husband was a drunk.