Carrie Nation (1846-1911)
Carrie Nation was born on November 25, 1846, in Garrard County, Kentucky. She began her temperance work in a medicine lodge, starting a local branch of the Woman Christian Temperance Union and campaigning for the enforcement of Kansas’ ban on the sales of liquor. Her methods ranged from simple protests of vandalism to serenading saloon patrons with hymns accompanied by a hand organ, and greeting bartenders with pointed remarks such as “Good morning, destroyer of men’s souls.” Nation believed that God had called upon her to destroy places in Kiowa, Kansas, in order to save people from their drunken fate. She would go with other women or alone to bars to sing and pray while smashing bar fixtures with a hatchet. She was arrested 30 times. Nation died on June 9, 1911 after she collapsed during a speech in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.
“I felt invincible. My strength was that of a giant. God was certainly standing by me. I smashed five saloons with rocks before I ever took a hatchet.”
-Carrie Nation
Watch Women of PROHIBITION Carry Nation on PBS. See more from Prohibition.