The Forces of Bacchus
- In the essay we read by Bruce E. Stewart titled "The Forces of Bacchus Are Fast Yielding" we get a setting that takes place mainly in Rowan County, North Carolina, during the 1800s. In the beginning we read about how a group composed of 40 men and 50 women march through the streets of Gold Hill until they reach their destination of the nearby Methodist church where they began to sing and speak about temperance. Temperance is the abstaining from drinking alcohol to which reformers were successful in the north and plan on focusing their attention to the south in which they all have high hopes of succession. But when they reached the south they soon found that their hopes had failed as the south was not easy to persuade into taking on temperance being that the south was far to rural as well as agricultural. These reformers were then going to radical ways of getting the south to partake in temperance such as through legal means. During this time temperance reforms created pro-temperance groups such as the Sons of Temperance, the Daughters of Temperance, and The Club who would go around and all those about the dangers of alcohol such as how it affects not only the drinker but those around them like their family and how it was Satan himself who created distilleries. But in the end of the temperance movement the reformers had failed in their goal of spreading temperance.
- During this time the of the temperance movement those who supported it would spread word of how dangerous it is to drink alcohol. Alcohol in their minds was evil and only led to violence and reformers felt as if it was their duty to inform everyone of the dangers. When reading the article we hear the voices of temperance reforms and not much or if not anything from those who are against it.
- During our in-class discussion we were handed out an excerpt from the book The Life of P.T.Barnum written by himself in which it describes how in 1847 when he attended the New York State Fair while exhibiting Gen. Tom Thumb he witnessed so much intoxication that it made him pledge himself to temperance. After the fair he began to travel around and give speeches of how alcohol is dangerous to not only the drinkers but their families. This also reflected in the pictures we looked at in class that show this such as the picture titled The Drunkards Progress that shows the 9 steps of what alcohol does to a person. This picture correlates to what we read of how reformers say that alcohol hurts everyone.
- During the class discussion many questions were asked about temperance such as "were women allowed to drink?" to which we were informed that it was frowned upon if women drank and that if they did they would die "alone and unloved". Question about Bacchus also came up such as "who is he?" and to answer said question Bacchus is the Roman god of wine, celebration, and fertility; Bacchus is also known as Dionysus in Greek culture.
- Questions I'm left wondering is why did these temperance reformers choose that the time they lived was the time to begin this movement? Why is it that believed they could get the south to easily turn to temperance? And one last question I"m left with is what happened to those in these temperance groups once the movement ended.
