Sowing and Reaping

'Sowing and Reaping' is a Christian-themed novel written by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. She was the first African-American woman to be published in the United States. A major theme in this novel is that of the temperance movement, which is a social movement promoting temperance or complete abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Harper, as one of the movement's activists, typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote teetotalism, and its leaders emphasize alcohol's negative effects on people's health, personalities and family lives.