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Caroline Amelia Nation, often referred to as Carrie, Carry, or Hatchet Granny, was an American radical member of the temperance movement, which opposed alcohol before the advent of Prohibition. Nation is known for attacking alcohol-serving establishments, most often taverns, with a hatchet. She began her crusade against alcohol in 1900, smashing up saloons in an attempt to enforce the constitutional amendment that prohibited the sale of non-medicinal alcohol, as Kansas saloon keepers generally ignored this amendment. Between 1900 and 1910, Nation was arrested more than thirty times and suffered numerous physical assaults for destroying saloons with a hatchet while singing and praying in protest of alcohol consumption.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Name | Caroline Amelia Nation |
| Nicknames | Carrie, Carry Nation, Carrie A. Nation, Hatchet Granny, Mother Nation, The Anti-Souse Queen |
| Date of Birth | November 25, 1846 |
| Place of Birth | Kentucky |
| Height | Over 6 feet tall |
| Weight | 175-180 pounds |
| Husband | David Nation |
| Activism | Smashed up saloons with a hatchet to enforce prohibition of alcohol |
| Publications | The Smasher's Mail, The Hatchet, The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation |
| Newspaper | Smasher's Mail |
| Trademark | Carry A. Nation |
| Home | Carry Nation House, Medicine Lodge, Kansas |
| Death | June 9, 1911 |
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What You'll Learn
Carrie Nation's life and work
Carrie Amelia Nation, born Caroline Amelia Moore, was an American activist and suffragist who fought against alcohol and tobacco consumption. Nation was a radical member of the temperance movement, which opposed alcohol before the advent of Prohibition. She is famously known for attacking alcohol-serving establishments, most often taverns, with a hatchet.
Born on November 25, 1846, in Garrard County, Kentucky, Nation grew up on a large farm with several siblings and people her family had enslaved. Her father was a plantation owner, and her mother occasionally believed she was Queen Victoria. Nation experienced poverty, her mother's mental instability, and frequent bouts of ill health during her childhood. Despite holding a teaching certificate, her education was intermittent. She married a young physician, Charles Gloyd, in 1867, but left him after a few months due to his alcoholism. In 1874, she married David Nation, a lawyer, journalist, and minister.
Nation entered the temperance movement in 1890 when a U.S. Supreme Court decision weakened the prohibition laws in Kansas, where she resided. She founded a local branch of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and campaigned for the enforcement of Kansas' ban on liquor sales. In addition to her anti-alcohol activism, Nation was known as "Mother Nation" for her charity and religious work. She helped people in prison and founded a sewing circle in Medicine Lodge, Kansas, to provide clothing and meals for the poor during holidays.
Nation gained national attention for her dramatic approach to temperance activism. On June 5, 1900, she entered a saloon in Kiowa, Kansas, dressed in black and carrying packages wrapped in brown paper. She announced her intention to "break up this den of vice" and proceeded to smash mirrors and liquor bottles with rocks. She then began her "`hatchetations," where she would march into saloons with a hatchet and sing and pray while smashing bar fixtures and alcohol stock. Her actions brought Kansas' failure to enforce its liquor laws to a national stage, and she was arrested over 30 times. Despite facing criticism and mockery, Nation inspired hundreds of followers, mostly women, who joined her "Home Defenders Army."
Nation also published newsletters and newspapers, including "The Smasher's Mail" and "The Hatchet," and wrote her autobiography, "The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation." She exploited her notoriety by appearing in vaudeville in the United States and music halls in Great Britain, though she found these venues uninspiring for her sermonizing. Nation's crusade against alcohol contributed to the eventual passage of the Eighteenth Amendment, which prohibited the sale of alcohol nationwide. She died on June 9, 1911, in Leavenworth, Kansas, and was buried in Belton, Missouri.
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The Temperance Movement
Nation was born in 1846 as Caroline Amelia Moore to a plantation owner and his wife, who suffered from mental illness. Her first husband, Charles Gloyd, was an alcoholic, and Nation left him after a few months of marriage. His subsequent death from alcoholism in 1869 influenced her passionate activism against alcohol. In 1874, Nation married David Nation, a lawyer, journalist, and minister. They lived in Missouri and Texas before settling in Medicine Lodge, Kansas.
In Medicine Lodge, Nation became involved in community service and religious work, lecturing against alcohol consumption. She founded a chapter of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, the most active temperance reform group. However, Nation preferred more dramatic methods to spread her message. In 1900, she began to enter saloons—areas off-limits to respectable women—and cause a commotion. On June 5, 1900, she entered a saloon in Kiowa, Kansas, and smashed all the bottles of alcohol with rocks. She continued these "hatchetations", as she called them, in other saloons, using a hatchet to destroy bar fixtures and stock. She was arrested over thirty times and suffered numerous physical assaults, but her actions brought the issue of Kansas's failure to enforce its liquor laws to national attention.
Nation also recruited fellow "Home Defenders" to join her in her hatchetations and drew supporters to her lectures, where she spoke about the evils of alcohol. She published a newspaper, The Smasher's Mail, and an autobiography, furthering her anti-alcohol message. Her work, though eccentric, is believed to have paved the way for the Eighteenth Amendment, which prohibited the sale of alcohol, and the Nineteenth Amendment, which granted women the right to vote.
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The Prohibition
One of the most notable figures of the temperance movement was Carry Nation (also known as Carrie Nation) who famously fought against alcohol by smashing up saloons with a hatchet. Nation was a radical member of the temperance movement, which opposed alcohol before the advent of Prohibition. She was known for her dramatic approach to activism, which included smashing up saloons with a hatchet while singing and praying in protest of alcohol consumption. Nation's first saloon-smashing incident took place on June 1, 1900, in Kiowa, Kansas, and she continued her crusade against alcohol across the state. She was arrested more than thirty times and suffered numerous physical assaults for her activities.
Nation's anti-alcohol activities became widely known, and she drew supporters and gawkers alike to her lectures, in which she thundered about the evils of drink. She also founded a newspaper, "The Smasher's Mail," to extend her audience and spread her message. In addition to her saloon-smashing activities, Nation conducted women's rights marches and led a "'Home Defenders Army,' comprised mostly of women, to march in opposition to saloons. She also established a shelter for the wives and children of alcoholics in Kansas City in 1901.
Nation's work, though eccentric, paved the way for two amendments to the United States Constitution: the Eighteenth Amendment, which prohibited the sale of alcohol, and the Nineteenth Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. Her activism brought national attention to the issue of alcohol consumption and the failure of Kansas to enforce its liquor laws, ultimately contributing to the enactment of Prohibition.
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The Women's Christian Temperance Union
In the 19th century, alcoholism wreaked havoc on families and communities. The Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was a powerful lobby for temperance—the prohibition of alcohol—that had gained the support of women activists. The group strove to abolish the liquor trade, reduce alcohol consumption, and secure pledges of abstinence.
The WCTU grew rapidly, adopting Willard's "Do Everything" philosophy, which meant that the group campaigned for local, state, and national prohibition, women's suffrage, protective purity legislation, scientific temperance instruction in schools, better working conditions for labor, anti-polygamy laws, Americanization, and a variety of other reforms. The organization seamlessly blended issues of grass-roots organizing, temperance, education, immigration, and cultural assimilation.
The Minnesota chapter's origin is rooted in the state's anti-saloon crusades of 1873 and 1874, where women across the United States joined together outside saloons to pray and harass customers. The women of Minnesota endured insults, cold water, and beer being thrown on them, but they persevered and formed local societies, which soon united to become the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union in 1874.
The American WCTU sponsored an international conference at which the International Women's Christian Temperance Union was formed. The World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union was founded in 1883 and became the international arm of the organization, which now has affiliates in Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Finland, India, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States, among others.
Despite being unable to vote, women were becoming more involved in politics at the time, and the WCTU provided a safe way for them to participate. One notable member of the WCTU was Carry A. Nation, also known as "Hatchet Granny", who took a more dramatic approach to activism. On June 5, 1900, she entered a saloon in Kiowa, Kansas, and destroyed bottles of liquor with rocks that she had wrapped in brown paper. She would also march into bars with other women and sing hymns while smashing fixtures and bottles with a hatchet. She was arrested more than 30 times and founded a newspaper, "The Smasher's Mail", to spread her anti-alcohol message.
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The impact of Carrie Nation
Caroline Amelia Nation, also known as Carrie Nation, was an American radical member of the temperance movement, which opposed alcohol before the advent of Prohibition. Nation is known for attacking alcohol-serving establishments, most often taverns, with a hatchet. She was also known as "Hatchet Granny", "Mother Nation", and "The Anti-Souse Queen".
Nation's activism was driven by her own experiences with alcohol. Her first husband, Charles Gloyd, was an alcoholic who could not hold down a job or support her. Her second husband, David Nation, was a preacher who shared her passion for temperance. Nation considered drunkenness to be a cause of many of society's problems and believed that she was on a mission from God to promote temperance by destroying bars.
Nation's direct action began in 1900 when she entered saloons, which were off-limits for respectable women, and caused a commotion. She would march into a bar, sing, pray, and smash bar fixtures and stock with a hatchet. She was arrested over 30 times and used rocks, or "smashers", to destroy saloons before acquiring her trademark hatchet. Her actions brought Kansas's failure to enforce its liquor laws to a national stage, and saloon doors were finally closed for good.
Nation also found ways to recruit the public into her work. She recruited fellow Home Defenders to help her with her hatchetations and drew supporters and gawkers to lectures where she spoke about the evils of drink. She founded a newspaper, The Smasher's Mail, and published written sermons, anti-alcohol content, and her autobiography. She used the proceeds to fund her crusade and sold photographs of herself, collected lecture fees, and marketed miniature souvenir hatchets.
In addition to her anti-alcohol work, Nation was also an advocate for women's rights and suffrage. She conducted women's rights marches in Topeka, Kansas, and led the Home Defender's Army, which was comprised mostly of women. She also established a shelter for wives and children of alcoholics in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1901, which has been described as an early model for today's battered women's shelters.
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Frequently asked questions
Carrie Nation, also known as Carry Nation, was a radical member of the temperance movement who fought against alcohol by smashing up saloons with a hatchet.
Carrie Nation believed that drunkenness was the cause of many of society's problems. She wanted to enforce the constitutional amendment that prohibited the sale of non-medicinal alcohol, as saloon keepers in Kansas often ignored this amendment.
Carrie Nation would march into saloons, dressed in black, carrying a hatchet and a bag of rocks. She would then proceed to smash bar fixtures, bottles of alcohol, mirrors, windows, and anything else she could.
Carrie Nation was arrested more than 30 times for her saloon-smashing activities. She also suffered numerous physical assaults. Despite this, her work brought attention to Kansas's failure to enforce its liquor laws, and saloon doors were eventually closed for good.
