Jan 14, 2026
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.
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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.
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