Carry Nation - An Original Social Justice Warrior

by Kim D.

We live in an era where the antics of the Social Justice Warrior (SJW) are amazing, if not downright laughable. The general viewpoints touted by the SJWs are so much in the minority, they find it excessively frustrating to win over hearts and minds of the populace and, therefore, turn to verbal and/or physical violence.  They make their opinions known by screaming the loudest, making their causes appear larger and more popular than they really are.

Take the example of Carry A. Nation, one of the original social justice warriors, who was determined to rid the country of what she saw was the number one evil of her time - alcohol. According to the Kansas Historical Society, Carry (born in 1846) married rather poorly to an insufferable drunk, whom she divorced after the birth of a child. 

The next marriage to David Nation would be a slightly better experience, being he was in the clergy.  As a minister's wife, Carry would find salvation through God's Biblical word and become a leader in the religious community of Kansas, organizing a chapter of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).

The WCTU's mission was to enforce state liquor laws. Originating in Ohio in 1874, the organization mainly followed the principles of  "non-violent protest against the dangers of alcohol. Normally quiet housewives dropped to their knees in pray-ins in local saloons and demanded that the sale of liquor be stopped." However, Carry did not find religious, non-violent tactics to be working in Kansas. She prayed for answers and believed she was given divine inspiration which led her to gather a group a like-minded SJWs to form what she called the "Home Defenders":

Nation and her “Home Defenders" conducted their first raid in December 1894 at a local “pharmacy.” Nation led the group into the store and announced, “Mr. Day, the ladies of the WCTU want to see what you have in here,” she said.  “Women, this is whiskey.” The women overturned a keg, rolled it out the door, and smashed the contents on the ground, which they lit and burned. 

Armed with a brickbat, Nation attacked as many as six bars in Kiowa in June 1900. On December 27, 1900, the women smashed the elaborate bar in the Hotel Carey in Wichita. It was here that Nation began using a hatchet. 

Imagine hanging out at the bar and seeing a rather pious godly woman walk in wielding a hatchet. Imagine the horror at witnessing this woman, whom history records as standing six feet tall and weighing nearly 200 pounds, begin smashing everything in sight. 

Signs soon appeared in bars boasting "All Nations Welcome but Carrie" as well as hatchets bearing Nation's resemblance. Carry eventually realized her SJW method of forced acceptance of her beliefs was not achieving her intended goal of banning alcohol.

Growing weary of arrests and her diminished reputation as a religious leader, she put down the hatchet and resorted to editing propaganda in the Smasher's Mail, where she continued her war on hooch. Soon after her husband filed for divorce, citing desertion, and Carrie moved to Arkansas, residing at what she named Hatchet Hall, "a boarding house for widows, battered women and college girls."  

Carry is remembered for her famed words "I have done what I could." She died in 1911, the year after suffering a nervous breakdown which denied her seeing women earn the right to vote or the temporary prohibition of her declared Satan - alcohol.