Abstract:
Recent rejection of liquor by the drink in towns across North Carolina is a reminder of our state's 150 year history supporting prohibition. The state's first temperance society was founded in Guilford County in 1822. Four years later, Orange County Presbyterians formed the Society for the Suppression of Intemperance. The Sons of Temperance, a national fraternal order, launched a Raleigh chapter in 1842, but met with limited success until an 1851 membership drive featuring temperance lecturer Philip S. White. By year's end, North Carolina boasted 12,000 members in 281 chapters.