Edith Smith Davis (January 20, 1869
– 1918) was a major leader in the
temperance movement
The temperance movement is a social movement promoting temperance or complete abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants in the movement typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote teetotalism, and its leaders emph ...
. She served as Superintendent of the Bureau of Scientific Investigation and the
Department of Scientific Temperance Instruction of both the U.S and the World's
Woman's Christian Temperance Union
The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is an international temperance organization, originating among women in the United States Prohibition movement. It was among the first organizations of women devoted to social reform with a program th ...
. Mrs. Smith also edited ''The Temperance Education Quarterly'' (1910–1917). In 1884 she married Rev. J. S. Davis and began her work in the WCTU.
In 1907, she received an honorary Doctor of Letters (Litt.D) degree from Lawrence University.
Her book ''Whether White or Black a Man''—a critique of racist attitudes in the Jim Crow Era—was published in 1898 by the Fleming H. Revell religious publishers. She considered it to be in the footsteps of
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe (; June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896) was an American author and abolitionist. She came from the religious Beecher family and became best known for her novel '' Uncle Tom's Cabin'' (1852), which depicts the har ...
's ''
Uncle Tom's Cabin
''Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly'' is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in two volumes in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U ...
''.
References
Sources
The Temperance Educational Quarterly
1869 births
1918 deaths
American temperance activists
Woman's Christian Temperance Union people
American magazine editors
19th-century American non-fiction writers
19th-century American women writers
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