Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 6-13-2018 1:30 PM Would You Sell Yourself For A Drink, Boy?: Masculinity and Fraternalism in the Ontario Temperance Movement, 1850-1914 Megan E. Baxter The University of Western Ontario Supervisor McKenna, Katherine M. The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in History A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Megan E. Baxter 2018 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Canadian History Commons Recommended Citation Baxter, Megan E., "Would You Sell Yourself For A Drink, Boy?: Masculinity and Fraternalism in the Ontario Temperance Movement, 1850-1914" (2018). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 5452. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/5452 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract In popular culture and in historiography, the temperance movement has often been depicted as a movement by women to control men's drinking. Forgotten have been the thousands of men who identified themselves with the campaign for prohibition, creating for themselves an image of temperate masculinity that exemplified the attributes of responsibility and respectability. In nineteenth- century Ontario, men who had never taken a drink and those who struggled with the habit often joined fraternal lodges centered around the temperance cause, looking for common ground and assistance in avoiding alcohol in a society where alcohol use was normative. The Sons of Temperance, the International Order of Good Templars, and the Royal Templars of Temperance all adapted forms of fraternalism to promote their own ideas of an orderly society, free of class conflict, populated by benevolent patriarchs and grateful wives and daughters. This dissertation draws on the histories of masculinity, women, class, religion, and culture to examine the contours of temperate masculinity in Ontario in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Influenced by emerging middle- class ideals and a Protestant post-millennial desire to create the Kingdom of God on earth, male temperance advocates worked to bring in prohibition, which they saw as a response to numerous social issues, including domestic violence, labour unrest, and poverty. Their critiques of these social issues were shallow, but they also brought early attention, in particular, to the problem of domestic violence. ii Even before the advent of the Women's Christian Temperance Union in Ontario in 1885, these three fraternal temperance lodges admitted women as full members, allowing them access to power and social events within the lodges. However, women had limited access to internal offices, and the work to be performed to host occasions was often as gendered inside the lodges as it was outside. The world temperate men envisioned was one not the one they got, but for many decades, they lobbied hard for their cause, even though they failed to recognize the partial successes they achieved along the way. Keywords: Temperance, prohibition, masculinity, fraternalism, Ontario, Sons of Temperance, International Order of Good Templars, Royal Templars of Temperance, domestic violence, class conflict, post-millennial Protestantism iii Acknowledgements Undertaking a Ph.D. is a long and winding road. I would like to thank those people who travelled with me on this journey, and to remember those who supported me whole-heartedly but are no longer here at the end to share the final steps. First, I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Katherine McKenna, who was unfailingly patient and supportive, always willing to look at new drafts and to push me to further develop and refine the ideas I was struggling with and create something stronger. She saw me through the whole process, from tentative beginning to a deeper end, and I am deeply grateful. My second reader, Dr. Monda Halpern, gave incisive critiques that added greatly to the project. I also need to thank the archivists at the Archives of Ontario, numerous county archives, and, most particularly, the Archives and Research Collection Centre at Western University. They went above and beyond to find me collections and resources that I might not otherwise have found. A special thanks goes out to Liz and Matt who put me up on their futon for more nights than I can count during research trips. Downtime is precious during a Ph.D., and I was so fortunate to have found an amazing group of people to remind me how to be human, often by pretending to be someone else. I’d like to thank my roleplaying friends for the hours in which we explored imaginary worlds, which gave me a much-needed iv break from the minutiae of academia. Bill, Amanda, Rob, John, Melissa, and many others, thank you for the drama and the memories. None of this would ever be possible without family. My parents, Andrew and Anna Lyn Baxter, loved me and supported everything I ever did, and were thrilled when I started my academic work. They both died far too young, when we should have had so many more years to enjoy each other’s company. One of the hardest things to bear is that neither of them is here for this milestone. They were the most wonderful parents ever, and I miss them every day. My sisters, Sarah and Laura, are rock stars and have offered more words of encouragement by text than I could count. My in-laws, Bill and Norma Templeton, welcomed me into their family twenty years ago, and I am so glad to be a part of it. The deepest, most-heartfelt thanks has to go to my husband, Bill, who encouraged me when I uprooted our lives and moved us across the province to start my Ph.D., and has been my rock ever since. He has taken on the vast majority of the work to keep the household going while I worked to finish my dissertation, and always believed in me most, even when I had doubts. I could not possibly have done it without his love, support, respect, and friendship. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................................. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ....................................................................................................................... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................................................... vi INTRODUCTION: WOULD YOU SELL YOURSELF FOR A DRINK, BOY? ............................... 1 CHAPTER ONE: LODGE HISTORY AND PRACTICE ................................................................... 42 CHAPTER TWO: CLASS IN THE LODGES ....................................................................................... 96 CHAPTER THREE: CLASS, POVERTY, AND THE EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL ..........................126 CHAPTER FOUR: RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION AND BELIEF IN TEMPERANCE LODGES .154 CHAPTER FIVE: DEGRADED MASCULINITIES ...........................................................................195 CHAPTER SIX: TEMPERATE MASCULINITY, RESPONSIBILITY, AND POLITICAL ACTION ....................................................................................................................................................224 CHAPTER SEVEN: WOMEN IN THE LODGES ..............................................................................262 CHAPTER EIGHT: WOMEN AS SYMBOLIC VICTIMS OF DRUNKEN MASCULINITY ....299 CONCLUSION: PROHIBITION AND AFTER .................................................................................333 BIBLIOGRAPHY .....................................................................................................................................345 CURRICULUM VITAE ..........................................................................................................................367 vi Introduction: Would You Sell Yourself For a Drink, Boy? "Would you sell yourself for a drink, boys, A drink from the poisoned cup? For a taste of the gleaming wine, boys, Would you give your manhood up? Would you bind yourselves with chains, boys, And rivet the fetters fast? Would you bolt your prison doors, boys, Preventing escape at last? … Ah, no! A thousand times no! boys, You were born for a noble end; In you are your country's hopes, boys, Her honor the boys must defend. Then join the great abstinence band, boys, And pledge yourselves strong against rum; Stand firm as a rock to your pledge, boys, And fight till the foe is o'ercome."1 This poem, published in the temperance newspaper The Camp Fire in 1895, appeals to men from a movement that has long presumed to have been the domain of women. Lost in the historical shadows have been the many men who joined the temperance cause, looking for a way to control their own drinking, and the alcohol consumption of those around them, in order to shape society at large into an abstinent paradise. For the many men who joined the temperance 1 "Would You?," The Camp Fire, Vol. 1, No. 10, April 1895. 1 movement in the nineteenth century, their identity as men was central to their commitment. The poem above displays a belief in the fettering impact of alcohol on masculinity, and makes an appeal to men to take responsibility for themselves, and for the nation. The temperance movement asked men to abstain from alcohol in order