Carry A. Nation

Anti-Smoking and Other Crusades

Carry's prohibition crusade occurred in a time of many reform movements. Reformers advocated change on issues such as votes for women, smoking, women's dress, and gambling. They believed that human behavior could be corrected through persuasion and legislation.

Like many reformers, Carry did not limit herself to a single cause. She saw her actions as part of a larger effort to improve society. In addition to her anti-alcohol campaign, Carry was outspoken on a number of other reform issues.

The concept of women as "Home Defenders" was central to the prohibition movement. Women were seen as protecting the home from the ravages of alcohol and other vices.

Carry was concerned for the wives and children of drunkards. She raised money to purchase this building (pictured at left) for them in Kansas City, Kansas, by selling her Medicine Lodge home after the divorce from David Nation.

Reformers also were concerned about women's clothing. Doctors advised women not to wear corsets because of the negative effects on women's vital organs. But efforts to make women's dress more comfortable didn't catch on because corsets had long been fashionable.

The restrictive nature of the corset was unnatural, and Carry refused to wear one. She advised young men not to marry a girl who wore a corset.

Of all the reform movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, women's suffrage (allowing women to vote in elections) was perhaps the most controversial. Women realized that without the power to vote, their reform efforts would be much more difficult.

The Women's Christian Temperance Union organized and gained strength in the second half of the 19th century. Much of its success was attributed to the leadership of the distinguished and well-educated Frances Willard.

Commissioned in 1893, the pastel "American Woman and her Political Peers" (right) comments on the limited political power of women. Willard is portrayed in the center, surrounded by depictions of other citizens who were denied the vote.

Kansas women received the right to vote in 1912, eight years before national suffrage took effect. Carry took up the cause of women's suffrage as part of her prohibition crusade, saying, "You refused me the vote and I had to use a rock."

Smoking's effects on health and hygiene have long generated controversy. Reformers attacked tobacco use because they saw it as unhealthy and a dirty, rude habit. Cigarettes in particular were singled out because they were cheap and readily available to children.

Tobacco earned Carry's wrath almost as much as alcohol. It was not unusual for Carry to approach a man on the street, pull a cigar out of his mouth, throw it down, and stomp on it.

"[It is] the rudest thing . . . a man throwing his smoke into the face of women and children as they pass up and down the street. Have you a right to throw in my mouth what you puff out of yours? That foul smoke and breath! And you would like to be called a gentleman."
--The Smasher's Mail, March 23, 1901

In 1904 a story circulated that Carry had placed a wager with anti-cigarette crusader Lucy Page Gaston over whether President Theodore Roosevelt smoked. Read more about Carry's wager.

Back Next