Divorce and Temperance
But of course Lucretia Mott
did not stop there; and there was nothing to stop her. In fact, her Quaker roots were probably
prompting her on to change American society even more. She would give nothing less than her
all. Her next step then, was to press onward
for the passage of legislation regarding specific women’s rights. One concerned divorce. As a result of resolutions made at the 1860
National Women’s Rights Convention, Mott was one of a few women who were
allowed to testify on behalf of less strict divorce laws at a New York
legislative committee meeting.[48] Specifically, Mott and others wanted a law
that would permit women divorce if their husbands were drunkards.[49] Alcohol controls had become another area in
which women hoped to change American society.
Alcohol was the downfall of many men and their families. Men were most frequently alcoholics, and as
a result they often spent all the family’s money on drink and were abusive as
well. Lucretia Mott was a vital part of
the temperance movement, one that sought to put controls on alcohol consumption
in men.[50] Women zealously established societies but
had no money to keep them going; because of a generous gift from wealthy
Frances Willard, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union was able to flourish as
a women’s rights and concerns group.[51] The work of these temperance societies would
culminate in the Prohibition (Eighteenth) amendment of 1919.
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