History of the Woman's Temperance Crusade by Annie Wittenmyer
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"History of the Woman's Temperance Crusade" by Annie Wittenmyer is a historical account written in the late 19th century. It chronicles the faith-led uprising of Christian women against the liquor trade, highlighting their street prayers, saloon visitations, and the organizational growth that culminated in the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. Drawn from official reports and eyewitness narratives, it follows confrontations, legal struggles, and public surrenders that propelled the Gospel Temperance movement. The opening
of the work sets its purpose in a preface that pledges an official, fact-based record, followed by Frances E. Willard’s impassioned introduction framing the Crusade as a defense of home that united women across denominations and evolved from spontaneous praying bands into disciplined unions and urban outreach. Chapter I portrays a nation enriched yet imperiled by government-supported liquor commerce, laments church silence, and describes a spiritual awakening that sent women into saloons to pray. Chapter II turns to Ohio, where Hillsboro’s women—led by Eliza J. Thompson after Dio Lewis’s appeal—hold the first saloon prayer-meetings, face a defiant druggist through injunctions and a protracted trial, and see conversions and symbolic liquor destructions. Parallel accounts in Washington Court House and Wilmington show swift mobilization: locked doors answered with street prayers and makeshift tabernacles, nightly mass-meetings, and dramatic dealer surrenders. Together these early chapters sketch the movement’s pattern of fervent prayer, public pressure, and contested but rapid early victories. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Wittenmyer, Annie, 1827-1900 |
|---|---|
| Author of introduction, etc. | Willard, Frances E. (Frances Elizabeth), 1839-1898 |
| LoC No. | 10004678 |
| Title | History of the Woman's Temperance Crusade |
| Original Publication | Boston: James H. Earle, 1882. |
| Credits | PrimeNumber and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | HV: Social sciences: Social pathology, Social and Public Welfare |
| Subject | Woman's Temperance Crusade, 1873-1874 |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 77878 |
| Release Date | Feb 7, 2026 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 659 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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