223. The ‘Great Temperance Times’ in Nineteenth-Century Black Connecticut

 

At first glance, alcohol and racial equality might seem unrelated—but for Black activists, the temperance movement was a powerful vehicle for social change. In this episode of Grating the Nutmeg, Natalie Belanger of the Connecticut Museum chats with Mackenzie Tor about her research into Black temperance activism in 1830s and 1840s Connecticut. Mackenzie talks about how people like Maria Stewart, James Pennington, and the Beman family used temperance as a strategy for civic inclusion. Through their words and organizing efforts, from newspaper columns to church halls, abstaining from the bottle became a radical tool for political belonging in the hands of Connecticut’s Black communities. She also discusses the flip side of this – how accusations of intemperance could be wielded to bring down successful Black men, like New Haven’s William Lanson, when their business and civic ventures threatened the power of white elites.  

 

Mackenzie, a PhD Candidate in History at the University of Missouri, did research for this project at the Connecticut Museum as part of the New England Regional Fellowship Consortium. Learn more about the Consortium and the support it provides for scholars here:  masshist.org/fellowships/nerfc 

 

To find out how William Lanson changed the face of New Haven, see this CT Explored article by Stacey Close: ctexplored.org/william-lanson-an-artisan-who-built-beyond-structures/ 

 

You can read more about Stewart, Pennington, and the Bemans here: ctexplored.org/site-lines-black-abolitionists-speak/ 

 

Finally, here’s a link to watch Mackenzie Tor give a more detailed look at the research she did at the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History’s Waterman Research Center on this topic: youtube.com/watch?v=bYi9JAqouTE&t=2510s 

 

Caption image #1: The Colored American newspaper, 1841.

Caption Image #2: The Tree of Temperance, Currier and Ives, 1872, Library of Congress. 

 

----------------------------------------

 

Like Grating the Nutmeg? Want to support it? Make a donation! 100% of the funds from your donation go directly to the production and promotion of the show. Go to ctexplored.org to send your donation now.

 

This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Natalie Belanger and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan at highwattagemedia.com/   Follow GTN on our socials-Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and BlueSky.

 

Follow executive producer Mary Donohue on Facebook and Instagram at West Hartford Town Historian. Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history. Thank you for listening!