Growing A Cause
Carrie Nation garnered numerous followers during her “smashing” activism. People wrote to her and she replied with advice on how to win against the saloon owners. She began a new publishing venture, a magazine entitled The Hatchet. She included letters from women in the field, supporters of her cause, and she even offered parenting advice. A large part of the magazine’s editorial and reporting was devoted to the evils of distilled spirits and the need for women to earn the right to vote.
In 1903, Carrie Nation officially change the spelling of her fist name to Carry. She proclaimed that her name was meant to “Carry A Nation for Prohibition.” Encouraged to tell her story, she published an autobiography entitled, “The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation.” The book was a financial success for Nation and she was able to purchase a house in Kansas City, Kansas where she housed women and children that had been abused by their drunk husbands and fathers.
Carry Nation was a controversial figure. The tactics she used to close bars horrified many. Yet, Nation’s message of prohibition resonated with thousands of women and children that had been victimized by drunk husbands and fathers. In a world where women had no vote and very few legal rights, Carry Nation advocated for women’s suffrage. She believed that women and mothers in particular needed the vote so that they could participate in the democratic process of implementing change. She proclaimed that “The loving moral influence of mothers must be put in the ballot box.”
After years of speaking engagements and activism, Carry Nation was exhausted. She moved to Eureka Springs, Arkansas where she purchased a house. Again, her house was large enough to house herself and several other women who had been victimized by their drunkard husbands. At a lecture in Eureka Springs in January 1911, Carry Nation collapsed. She died on June 2nd and was transported to Belton, Missouri and buried next to her mother.
Carry Nation gained national attention for the temperance movement and women’s suffrage. After her death, the Eighteenth Amendment to United States Constitution passed and was ratified in 1919 prohibiting the sale of alcohol. A year later the Nineteenth Amendment granted women the right to vote. In 1933 the United States Constitution was changed again. This time Carry Nation must have rolled over in her grave for Prohibition ended with another constitutional amendment. Carry Nation’s home in Medicine Lodge, Kansas is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Where did we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
Carry A. Nation – Historic Missourians.
The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation – Carry A. Nation. October 1998.
National Register of Historic Places – National Park Service