Carry Nation Outline

I. Introduction
Carry A. Nation was a saloon smasher and prohibitionist during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Carry Nation was an advocate for prohibition before the 18th amendment was ratified. She felt it was her duty from God to shut down alcohol sale at its source, the saloon. Carry was so against the sale of alcohol she went to saloons and destroyed them with her trusty hatchet and anything else that could be used to smash. Many other temperance movements like the Women’s Christian Temperance Union supported her cause. Historians believe she influenced early ideas for the 18th Amendment.

II. Background
Born Carry Amelia Moore she grew up around little alcohol. The most alcohol she experienced was from her mother's father,

who at each breakfast made a drink of brandy, butter, sugar and hot water. He would then offer one spoonful to each member at the table and drink whatever was left over. But this did not start her hatred for alcohol.
Carry grew up mostly with a sunday school education and then a sporadic elementary school education because of frequent sickness. She also became quite religious from spending a considerable amount of time with her father's slaves. The illnesses that caused her to be bedridden made her depressed. So she turned to the Bible to keep her occupied and memorized many passages. After her father had many losses with farming they moved many times. Carry eventually went to a boarding school while her family took in boarders to pay bills. This is how she met her first husband.

III.

Synthesis
Her hatred did not start until after she married her first husband. Carry meet Dr. Charles Gloyd at her home. He was one of the family's boarders. Her parents warned that he was a drunk. Carry did not listen because she believed “...her love for him would effect a cure.”. Dr. Gloyd's medical practice started to go downhill as a result of his drinking. Carry soon became pregnant and hoped that maybe the child could change Charles. After Carry discovered she was pregnant her father visited and realized how bad the situations was. He urged her to move back in with them.
She realized that this was not a good environment for a child. Carry moved in with her parents but continued to have hope for Charles. After her daughter was born she realized she could never move out of her parents home. Charles could not support her is his state. She spoke with him once and he claimed he would be dead in six months if she did not stay to help him with his problem. Carry received a telegram about six months later saying that Charles Gloyd had died of pneumonia which had been made worse by problems consistent with heavy

drinking.
Carry was now left with her daughter and mother-in-law. She prayed to God for a solution, whether it be a new husband or something else she did not care. God seemed to answer her prayer. She met David Nation about 10 days after praying. He was a lawyer, a minister of the Christian Church, a Union army veteran and the editor of The Warrensburg Journal.

Carry now believed that her first name was “prophetic”. She changed her name to Carry A. Nation. Many thought she could carry a nation and referred to herself as “Your loving home defender” because she was defending the nation from the evil of alcohol. Not only did she hate alcohol but she was also a representative of “the distracted, suffering, loving motherhood of the world.” Carry was becoming a heroic figure it seemed.
Carry, Charles, Carry’s daughter and Mrs. Gloyd moved many times and dealt with financial struggles. Finally they moved to Kansas. Carry looked forward to living there because it was a dry state; meaning no alcohol could be sold or manufactured. She soon found out that this was a lie. Many saloons were still open and selling, the government did not seem to care. Officials were paid off with alcohol and money, Carry could not believe the corruption. She went to Kiowa then Medicine Lodge and then Wichita smashing and warning people of alcohol along the way.
In Wichita she went to the Carey Hotel.

On December 27, 1900 she scoped out the bar. On December 28 Carry came back smashing. She threw rocks, bricks and used an iron bar to smash. From an article written for The Wichita Daily Eagle “The liquor was wasted. The sight of the liquor on the floor evidently encouraged her.” Carry smashed the mirror behind the bar, liquor cabinets and almost ruined a painting called Cleopatra at the Bath. She caused almost $400 in damages. She was arrested by Detective Park Massey. After many arrests Carry was still not deterred from her mission.
Another smash of Carry’s was in Topeka. All of the saloon owners feared her by now. "She simply called to have a talk to 'those poor, silly boys who don't know how the devil has blinded them. . . .'" Carry just wanted to warn the men about the they were causing to themselves and others. She threatened them, warning she would be back. Unless they closed their saloons. She wrote in her autobiography “Vote for our prohibition president and God will bless you.” . Carry firmly believed that she was a messenger for

God.
The 18th amendment was ratified on January 16, 1919. It prohibited the manufacture, sale, transportation and consumption of “intoxicating liquors.” It was created because of a national need for temperance: abstinence from alcoholic drink. Supporters believed prohibition would reduce crime, fix social problems, improve health and lower the need for prisons and welfare. The use of alcohol was reckless and destructive.

IV. Conclusion
Carry Nation's views of prohibition went right along with those of the 18th amendment. She helped create a strong group of people that would later ratify the 18th Amendment. From an article about Carry Nation “Nation has been credited, or blamed, with raising the profile of the temperance movement, clearing a path for the passage of the 18th Amendment.” Although she never got to see the 18th amendment ratified, her views were the same.
She wanted the same things for America that any advocate for the 18th amendment did. “The old lady with the hatchet went on swinging until her death in 1911, at age 65, eight years before her greatest victory.” This shows historians think she influenced the 18th Amendment a great deal, by referring to the 18th amendment as her greatest victory. Although it was not a personal victory, it was a victory for many other Americans at the time. Carry succeeded in her mission with the ratification of the 18th amendment.