Morphine A Southern Lady’s Drug
Morphine is a highly addictive pain reliever that is still used today, although it is
strictly regulated. In the early 1900’s, morphine addiction was more than an isolated
occurrence. Following is a look at the “typical” morphine addict of the early 20th
century. David T. Courtwright summarizes the data from Dark Paradise.
1920’s Typical Morphine Addict:
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White female
Middle aged or older
Widowed
Homebound
Lives in the South
Property owner
Began using morphine for medical
reasons
The account that follows is from Dark Paradise and shows how Mrs. Dubose in To
Kill a Mockingbird typifies the morphine addict of her time.
There is, by way of summing up, a character in Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird named
Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose. Mrs. Dubose is a propertied and cantankerous widow residing in a
small Alabama town. She is also a morphine addict, having become addicted years ago as a
consequence of a chronic, painful condition. Informed that she has only a short while to live, she
struggles to quit taking the drug, for she is determined to “leave this world beholden to nothing and
nobody.” Although fictitious, Mrs. Dubose personifies the American opium or morphine addict of
the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. If all of the foregoing statistics were condensed
into a single, modal type, it would closely resemble Mrs. Dubose: a native Southerner, possessed of
a servant and property, once married, now widowed and homebound, evidently addicted since late
middle age. In all respects – her sex, age of addiction, race, nationality, region, class, and
occupation (or lack thereof) – she is typical. Typical, too, is the origin of her condition: she was
addicted by her physician.
Drug Addictions
The majority of nineteenth-century morphine and opium addicts were native-born white women,
with a heavy concentration among Southern middle and upper classes, which persisted into the
early twentieth century. The typical morphine addict of the 1920s was a Southern white female,
middle-aged or older, widowed, homebound and a property owner. It was not uncommon for
women to become addicted by their physicians who prescribed the medicine. According to David
T. Courtwright's Dark Paradise: Opiate Addiction in America Before 1940:
The most common occupation among female addicts was that of housewife. The
majority of nineteenth-century female addicts were married and therefore stayed at
home. Unmarried female addicts were observed among domestics, teachers,
actresses, and especially prostitutes. Another type, mentioned as early as 1832, was
the harried society lady, who downed opium or morphine to steady her nerve and
enhance her wit. Women associated with the medical profession—nurses and
doctors' wives—also had an unusually high rate of addiction.
Southern plantation women as early as the 1850s commonly used opium as a base for many of their
home remedies. Mary Chesnut, a typical upper class Southern woman during the time of the Civil
War, kept a diary in which she records her regular use of opium and morphine. Historians consider
Mary's diary to be one of the best sources for women's views and lives during this time.
Laudanum was another addictive drug that was in wide use in the nineteenth century and freely
prescribed by doctors for “female complaints.” It was used among middle- and upper class women
to relieve depression and insomnia.
Since women were in charge of the family's medicine and
home remedies, addictive drugs were a constant temptation.
Patent medicines contained opium, morphine and/or
alcohol. Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound, for
example, contained from 19 to 35 percent alcohol and could
be purchased at local pharmacies and through mail-order
advertisements in newspapers and magazines. Addictive
patent medicines and syrups were also administered to
babies; some were advertised specifically as infant pacifiers,
such as Winslow's Baby Syrup and Kapp's Baby Friend, both
of which contained morphine. Even heroin found its way into
cough medicine manufactured by the Bayer Company in
1898. Women of the nineteenth century who were treated in insane asylums often left as drug
addicts. Surviving letters and diaries may give clues to use of addictive drugs and patent medicines.
Answer the following questions on a separate piece of paper:
1.
Summarize your reading. What was one important thing you learned from this article?
2.
Compare the information about morphine addicts with the behavior of Mrs. Dubose in
Chapter 11.
3.
Considering what you now know about morphine addiction among southern females,
what is your opinion of Mrs. Dubose? How does her character contribute to the theme
of moral courage found in To Kill a Mockingbird?