WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION: ASPECTS OF EARLY FEMINISM IR THE CAPH, 1889 TO 1930 by JUBB HcKIRROR submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of KASTER OF ARTS in the subject of HISTORY at the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA SUPERVISOR: DR B J CARRUTHERS JOINT SUPERVISOR: DR T H DRDBRING NOVEMBER 1995 ABSTRACT. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union of the Cape Colony/ Province began in 1889 as an offshoot of an organization founded in the United States. It's leaders included prominent Cape women, while rank-and-file members were middle-class and working-class women of all races. As its name indicates, the Union dedicated itself to Christian evangelism and to prohibiting the use of alcohol. In these fields it made significant gains. However, its mission at the Cape was broader than strictly religious and temperance issues as Union members came to recognise that their goals could only be attained through empowering women, particularly by way of gender equality and the female franchise. Thus it is argued in this dissertation that the most lasting achievement of the Union at the Cape was its contribution to raising female consciousness against the injustices suffered in a male-dominated society. (i) CONTENTS. ABSTRACT (i) LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS (v) ACKNOWLEDGMENTS (vi) INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 1. 13 THE BACKGROUND TO THE FOUNDING OF THE WCTU IN THE CAPE COLONY. 1.1. 1800 to 1889, New Wave Feminism in the United States and the founding of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. 1.2. 1829 to 1893, The British Women's Temperance Movement. 1.3. 1876 to 1889, Temperance, Evangelism and Philanthropy in the Cape Colony. 1.4. The Anglo-American Influence in the CC.WCTU and Dutch women. 1.5. 1889 to 1915, Coloured Temperance Societies. 1.6. 1889 to 1895, African Temperance Societies. 1.7. Young Women's Associations, 1886-1895. 1.8. The Organization of the Unions. 1.9. Summary of Chapter 1. CHAPTER 2 THE LEADERS OF THE CC.WCTU 44 2.1. The Role of Religion. 2.2. Personal Magnetism and Public Speaking Ability. 2.3. The Importance of Education. 2.4. The Contribution of Economic Security. 2.5. A Liberal Political Background. 2.6. Male Support and Opposition. (ii) COBTBBTS 2.7. The Schreiner Family Influence. 2.8. Coloured Leadership. 2.9. The Influence of Travel. 2.10. Characteristics of the Leaders and Effect on the CC/CP.WCTU. CHAPTER 3 THE PASSIVE ASPECTS OF THE TEMPERANCE CAMPAIGN. 74 3.1. The Commencement of the CC.WCTU Temperance Campaign. 3.2. Coffee Houses, Scientific Education Instruction, Mothers' Meetings and Hospital Work. 3.3. The Department for Soldiers and Sailors, 3.4. The Press Department, Raisin and Grape Drives, and the Anti-Narcotics Campaign. CHAPTER 4 103 THE CONTROVERSIAL TACTICS OF THE TEMPERANCE CAMPAIGN AND THE WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT. 4.1. International Petitions. 4.2. Local Petitions, 1889 to 1899. 4.3. Municipal Votes, the Light Wines Bill, Act 8 of 1907, Establishment of the Women's Enfranchisement League and School Board Elections, 1899 to 1912. 4.4. The Local Veto Bill, the Roos Bill, World War I, Municipal Councils, 1912 to 1920. 4.5. American Prohibition, the Roos Bill, The Women's Enfranchisement Bill, Suffrage, 1920 to 1930. CHAPTER 5 THE PURITY CAMPAIGN AND ITS IMPACT ON THE GROWTH OF FEMINISM IN THE CAPE COLONY. 137 5.1. The Start of the Purity Campaign - American and British Women Missionaries, 1889 to 1893. 5.2. The CDA - Their Application and Enforcement in the 1890s. (iii) CONTENTS. 5.3. Promotion of the Purity Campaign in the £ape Colony, 1892 to 1898. 5.4. The Campaign against the CDA, 1894 to 1896. 5.5. The South African War and Union, 1899 to 1914. 5.6. The Campaign for a wider field of Employment, 1894 to 1925. 5.7. The Repeal of the CDA and Ca~paign for Suffrage, 1916 to 1930. ~ CONCLUSION 168 SOURCE LIST 175 DISCUSSION ON SOURCES 190 (iv) LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ACVV Zuid Afrikaanse Vrouen Christelike Vereeniging. BTWA British Temperance Women's Association. CA Cape Archives, Cape Town. CC.WCTU Cape Colonial Women's Christian Union. CDA Contagious Diseases Acts. CP.WCTU Cape Provincial Women's Christian Union. DRC Dutch Reformed Church. IOGT International Order of the Grand Templars. IOTT International Order of the True Templars. LBS Cape Town and Suburban Ladies Benevolent Society. SAL South African Library, Cape Town. WEL Women's Enfranchisement League. WEAU Women's Enfranchisement Association Union. WCTU Woman's Christian Temperance Union of America. WWCTU World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union. "Y's•· Young Women's Christian Temperance Union. YWCA Young Women's Christian Association. (v) ACKNOILBDGEHBHTS. This dissertation could not have been written without the expert academic advice and moral support of my supervisors, Dr Jane Carruthers and Dr Tilman Dedering. As a student of a distance teaching institution there are difficulties in keeping contact with supervisors, but Dr Carruthers and Dr Dedering answered- - all queries and returned revised work promptly. Dr Carruthers kept contact telephonically, boosting my fading morale and succinctly answering queries she thought would be better explained verbally than in writing. Both my supervisors, despite their heavy work schedules, generously offered their time unstintingly and most important, were unselfish in sharing their wealth of knowledge in guiding me through this dissertation. My gratitude must also be expressed to the staff of various institutions, the librarians at Stellenbosch University, the University of Cape Town, The Centre for African Studies of the the University of Cape Town, Dutch Reformed Church Archives, the Secretary at the Women's Christian Temperance Union headquarters ir Observatory, and in particular to the always helpful and pleasant librarians at the South African Library and staff of the Cape Town Archives. To Mrs Hilda Powell, Public Relations Officer of the Women's Christian Temperance Union of the Cape Province, I am deeply grateful for the many interviews, telephone calls and information she supplied. I would also like to thank Dr Elizabeth van Heyningen, Dr Edna Bradlow and Dr Richard Elphick for their advice. Most of all, together with my supervisors, my most grateful thanks go to my family. My husband, John, who provided (vi) ACKBOWLKDGEKKNTS. coffee, photostats, and emergency transport to the Archives and the South African Library, my son, Jonathan, for teaching me the intricacies of the computer, and my daughter, Chantal, who did the final proofreading, and to all three for their continual love and encouragement. I also appreciate the time and effort expended by my brother, Tony Collins, in printing the examination copies of this dissertation. I am deeply grateful to the Human Sciences Research Council for awarding me a bursary towards funding this dissertation. The views expressed in this dissertation are my own and do not in any way reflect those of the Human Sciences Research Council. This dissertation is dedicated to my family and in particular to my granddaughter, Alexandra, in the hope that she will benefit from the fight by women in the past for her rights as woman. (vii) TBTBODIJCTTOB. On 4 June 1889, Mary Clement Leavitt, a missionary of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of America, (WCTU), established the first branch of this organization in the Cape Colony, at Wellington.1 The contribution of the WCTU to the history of Christianity and women's history, has received recognition in the U.S.A, Canada, Britain and New Zealand, but little has been written about it in South Africa.2 One of the aims of this dissertation is to remedy in part this deficiency. The WCTU in the Cape Colony was known as the Women's Christian Temperance Union of the Cape Colony (CC.WCTU). After 1910 the CC.WCTU became known as the Cape Provincial Women's Christian Temperance Union (CP.WCTU). The CC.WCTU was a Protestant organization whose membership was open only to women. The CC.WCTU had three main drives, the Temperance Campaign, the Social Purity Campaign and Evan- gelism. The Temperance Campaign aimed at ridding society of alcohol, drugs, tobacco and any substance abuse. The basic objective of the Purity Campaign was to equalize the moral standards of a male-ordered society which ruled that women were the "pure" and moral guardians of the home and the community, while men were excused from sexual immorality.s Evangelism was 1. Cape Archives, Vll, vol.2/3/1, Letter A. Ferguson to Maggie Allen, June 11, 1889, (Vll is the abbreviation for the Huguenot Seminary Collection. These documents are housed at the Cape Archives, Cape Town, hereinafter referred to as CA). 2. Richard Elphick, "Writing about Christianity in History: Some Issues of Theory and Method", (unpubl. paper, Conference on People, Power and Culture: The History of Christianity in South Africa, 1792-1992, held at the University of the Western Cape, Bellville, 12 to 15, August 1992), p.9. 3. CA, A.1696, vol.2/2, Minutes of the 2nd Annual Convention, 1891, pp.2-4, (A.1696 is the Women's Christian Temperance Union Collection). 1 INTRODUCTION. the driving force of the CC.WCTU. All the work of the CC.WCTU was undertaken with the aim of making as many converts to Christianity as possible. Yet, in the work of the CC.WCTU the achievements of the Temperance and Purity Campaigns dominated those of the evangelical mission work. Although this organization's ideology and practical works in the Temperance and Purity Campaigns were heavily overlaid with Christian evangelism, the CC.WCTU's greatest contribution has been in the field of advancing feminism. There is also the contrary argument that WCTU involvement in the Temperance and Purity Campaigns showed it to be an ultra-conservative organization seeking by means of a patriarchal religion merely to reinforce women's submissive role in the domestic, social, economic and political spheres.