feminism, temperance and prostitution

[iverglas]

6. there is so much available on this subject on the net today

I don't want to minimize the extent to which women's early temperance work was perverted into something else ... once men took over the movement and it became Prohibition in the US.

But the work women did, and the feminism of it, was really remarkable, and has been terribly overlooked in US history.

It included African-American women ...

http://freemethodistfeminist.com/2010/09/18/the-temperance-movement-and-first-wave-feminism-part-1/

Throughout her autobiography Emma Ray’s ministry and personal life is deeply connected to the temperance movement of the early 20th century. One of the most powerful sections of Twice Sold, Twice Ransomed takes place in 1914 when the state of Washington puts the probation issue on the state ballot. The 18th amendment, outlawing alcohol nationally, wasn’t passed until 1919. So, Washington was leading the way in a national effort to ban alcohol. The work of prohibitionists such as Emma and Lloyd who worked with other Free Methodists and members of various religious movements was a driving force in Washington deciding at the state level to consider probation. Prior to the election Emma, Lloyd, members of the Free Methodist Olive Branch Mission in Seattle, and thousands of other activists marched together in a political “get out the vote” parade. Emma describes it in vivid detail: ...

I had witnessed such a sight once before when but a child, and that was when the Negro race celebrated its first national independence. I felt just such a thrill then as I did when in the parade. Every one that could walk marched in the parade. Mothers with small children holding on to their skirts, and with babies in their arms, some of the returned soldiers from the war, and old ex-slave men.” (p.242-243)

... Looking back we have the hindsight of seeing the failures of the prohibitionist movement. However, what is often overlooked is the fact that this was one of the first movements, besides the abolitionist movement, that allowed women to actively organize and participate in public politics. Both the abolitionist and temperance movement paved the way for the suffragist movement that was also gaining moment about the same time as the temperance movement. ... There is an intrinsic connection between the temperance movement and the suffragist movement; yet the connections are often ignored because the temperance movement is viewed as a conservative religious movement separate from feminism. Yet, if women, such as Emma Ray, felt empowered by their faith and their belief in prohibition then this should not be overlooked just because it might not fit into the accepted narrative of first wave feminism.

Citing scriptural authority was in fact about the only way for women to make their voices heard in public in the early days of the temperance movement. It both gave them voice, as women's voices would simply not have been listened to on their own, and protected them against accusations of self-seeking, which of course women should not be. Women should act in the interests of enslaved people, children, the poor ... but not themselves, by the standards of the times ... and not only then ...

I'd never heard of Emma Ray before 10 minutes ago; I was just googling feminism temperance.

http://freemethodistfeminist.com/freemethodistwomenpoetry/emma-rays-poetry/

Emma Ray was born a slave in Springfield, Missouri. After the Civil War her mother died, leaving her father to care for their large family by himself. Her early life was filled with periodic schooling and working as a domestic servant in white, Southern households. After marrying L.P. Ray at age twenty-eight they moved around the country looking for work. ... She devoted her life to promoting temperance issues, helping the poor, convicts, drug addicts and anyone else who needed help. She was drawn to the Free Methodist Church because of their support for the Weslyean belief in entire sanctification and their social activism and reform efforts in the Seattle area. While her autobiography contains numerous hymns and poems that have meaning to her, she did not write poetry herself. However the poem “Twice Sold, Twice Ransomed” serves as Ray’s life motto and theme for her book.

http://freemethodistfeminist.com/2011/02/11/emma-ray-and-eliza-suggs-writing-and-wesleyan-rhetoric/

While both Emma Ray and Eliza Suggs were Free Methodist African-American women at the turn of the 20th century, there stories are not identical. Both begin their personal narratives with family stories about their oppression and abuse in slavery. Yet, while both women address slavery they do not specifically blame the evils of slave holding on their white masters, instead focusing on larger social issues associated with slavery such as alcoholism, rape, and abuse, which are portrayed as elements of sinful human nature regardless of race. Thus, both women differentiate themselves from the white members of their denomination by their cultural heritage while at the same time resisting strong rhetorical claims of blame on the white audience they are appealing to through their autobiographies.

Emma Ray's autobiography can be read on line:

http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/rayemma/rayemma.html