IMMORAL AMERICA: THE STRUGGLE TO DEFINE SEXUAL MORALITY
DURING THE AMERICAN PROGRESSIVE ERA
A Report of Senior Study
by
Jacqueline Suzanne Shelton
Major: History
Maryville College
Fall, 2010
Date Approved _____________, by ________________________
Faculty Supervisor
Date Approved ______________, by ________________________
Editor
ABSTRACT
The social and economic changes of mid- to late-nineteenth century America
induced panic while officials struggled to sort out the changing definitions of family,
motherhood, sexuality, and ethnicity. As a result of this struggle, Americans misread the
changes taking place as leading to the destruction of the so-FDOOHG³<DQNHHVWRFN´DQG
creating an immoral America. The blame for this was placed squarely on ³HYLO´
LPPLJUDQWVZLWKWKHLU³EDUEDULF´ZD\VDQG3URJUHVVLYHUHIRUPHUVSOHGJHGWRUHWDLQ
$PHULFD¶VPRUDOVWKURXJKSROLWLFDOIRUFH7KHRXWFRPHZDVDPL[LQJRIPRUDOVDQG
politics that continues to this day. This study analyzes panic-stricken America from three
different anxiety-inducing aspects. Chapter one looks at immigration and the overall
mood of America during the wave of immigration that took place in the 1890s. Chapter
WZRIRFXVHVRQSURVWLWXWLRQDQGWKHJURZLQJIHDURI³ZKLWHVODYHU\´LQ$PHULFD. Finally,
chapter three concentrates on the debate surrounding birth control and other immoral and
obscene materials. Through these chapters I provide an understanding into why America
felt the need to panic over such moral issues and why they ultimately entered the political
realm and remain there today.
iii TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Introduction
Chapter I
Immigration and Race Suicide:
1
$PHULFD¶V5LVLQJ)HDURI³2WKHUV´
Chapter II
Prostitution and White Slavery:
America Fights Immorality
31
Chapter III
Birth Control vs. Anthony Comstock
65
Conclusion
94
Bibliography
99
iv INTRODUCTION
Sen Iseno reached San Francisco on July 26, 1915, after a long journey from
Fukushima, Japan, aboard the Tenyo Maru. She underwent a primary inspection upon
DUULYDOZKLFKZRXOGKDYHLQFOXGHGGHWHUPLQLQJZKHWKHURUQRWVKHKDGDQ\³FRQWDJLRXV
GLVHDVHV´WKDt would have barred her entrance into the United States.1 The Immigration
$FWRISUHYHQWHGWKRVHZLWK³DORDWKVRPHRUGDQJHURXVFRQWDJLRXVGLVHDVH´IURP
entering the United States, and the Public Health Service understood this to include
venereal disease.2 It was expensive to administer thorough tests to every immigrant,
however. Thus, health inspectors in immigration offices only looked for external signs
indicating a contagious disease was present. Sen Iseno was checked for open chancres,
ataxia, and dementia, all signs that she could have syphilis or gonorrhea.3
Other activists and reformers were less concerned with her physical health and
more concerned with her moral state. When asked if he favored exclusion of immigrants
based on being physically unfit or if he preferred an educational test, Rev. Dr. Joseph
Silverman, of Temple Emanu-(OLQ1HZ<RUNVDLGWKDWKH³IDYRU>HG@DPRUDOWHVW/HW
intending immigrants furnish a certificate of character obtained from an American
officials stationed in European centres [sic] for the purpose of determining the moral
1
Eithne Luibhéid, Entry Denied: Controlling Sexuality at the Border (Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press, 2002), 60.
2
Allan M. Brandt, No Magic Bullet: A Social History of Venereal Disease in the United States S ince 1880
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), 20.
3
Ibid.
v ILWQHVVRISHUVRQVGHVLULQJWRHPLJUDWH´4 Sen was thus administered tests that would
prove that she was not a prostitute, a carrier of moral rather than actual disease.
Physicians at the time tROGRIILFLDOVWRORRNIRU³PDUNV´RQWKHERGLHVRIZRPHQWR
GHWHUPLQHLIWKH\ZHUHLQIDFWSURVWLWXWHV7KH\DUJXHGWKDW³WKHIDFHVRISURVWLWXWHV
ORRNHGPRUHGHJHQHUDWHDQGPRUHPDQQLVKDQGWKHLUJHQLWDOLDEHFDPHYLVLEO\DOWHUHG´5
Not only this, but some argued that prostitutes had prehensile feet.6 Sen Iseno did not
show any visible signs of physical or moral disease and was admitted on grounds that she
was immigrating to be with her husband.7 If this had not been the case, she would have
undergone a much closer inspection to determine her moral character.
6HQ¶VVWRU\LVRQO\RQHRIWKRXVDQGVWKDWGHWDLOVWKHSDQLFVXUURXQGLQJQRWRQO\
immigration but also venereal disease, prostitution, changing sexual mores, and an
RYHUDOOIHDURI³UDFHVXLFLGH´LQWhe United States in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth century. Since the 1830s a wave of economic and social changes had swept the
United States, and officials were struggling to make sense of it all. The market
revolution, brought on by rapid industrialization, created an economic system in the U.S.
dependent on wage labor, most of which was centered in the North. As the century
progressed, immigrants as well as Anglo-Americans flocked to Northern cities and
Midwestern cities, which promoted the growth of cities and the spread westward. In the
1890s, immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe in addition to traditional sources in
Germany and the British Isles, along with East Asian Immigrants like Sen Iseno, headed
for California and the West. Many were pegged as sexual deviants and prostitutes. This
4
³/LPLWVRQ,PPLJUDWLRQ'U6LOYHUPDQ7KLQNV5HVWULFWLRQV6KRXOGEH0HUHO\0RUDO2QHV´1HZ<RUN
Times, 7 March 1904.
5
Luibhéid, Entry Denied, 48.
6
Ceseare Lombroso, The F em ale Offender (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1909), 85.
7
Luibhéid, Entry Denied, 60.
vi created unease among Americans as many lived in close proximity to these new
LPPLJUDQWVZKRZHUHVHHQDVEULQJLQJZLWKWKHPWKH³EDUEDULF´DQG³HYLO´FXVWRPVRI
their homelands.
The American family also underwent a change in the nineteenth century as more
families moved away from having six or seven children and toward only two to four
children. This is the result of the growth of cities as well as changing economics because
it was more economically viable to have smaller families living in the city as children
cost more than they contributed to the family. Additionally, women had begun to move
from the private sphere of domestic activity to the public sphere. Women began to
believe that they could control aspects of their lives previously determined by men, and
WKHUHIRUHWRRNFRQWURORYHUWKHLUUHSURGXFWLRQ0DQ\ZRPHQSDUWLFLSDWHGLQ³YROXQWDU\
PRWKHUKRRG´RUQRWKDYLQJFKLOGUHQE\XWLOL]LQJVRPHIRUPRIELUWKFRQWURO
The changing American society led to a panic among those who hoped to return
to the old way of life, which included large native-born families in rural environments.
0RUDOFUXVDGHUVDWWHPSWHGWRVDYH$PHULFDIURPWKH³GHJHQHUDWH´LPPLJUDQWVDQGWKHLU
immoral ways. Anthony Comstock of New York was primary among this group and
pushed a law through Congress that outlawed any obscene or lewd material to be bought,
sold, or transported in the United States. This included birth control as well as sporting
magazines that advertised brothels in major cities. Comstock remained convinced that
much of the obscene material being distributed in American came from immigrant hands.
In 1905 Theodore Roosevelt fretted over the decline in native-born white birth
rates compared to the rising birth rates of immigrants in America. Roosevelt called upon
women to have more children and castigated those who had small families as selfish. He
vii worried that the ³<DQNHHVWRFN´ZKLFKKHVDZDVWKH³ILWWHVW´JHQHWLFDOO\DQGRWKHUZLVH
would die out at the hands of tKHVHZRPHQFDOOLQJWKHVLWXDWLRQ³UDFHVXLFLGH´7KXVKH
supported the outlaw of birth control. It was also found that venereal disease, spread
PRVWO\WKURXJKSURVWLWXWHVZDVDPDMRUFDXVHRI³UDFHVXLFLGH´DVLWPDGHZRPHQ
infertile. Moreover, even if venereal disease did not render a woman infertile, it could be
passed to her children who could in turn be rendered infertile. It was not, however, the
men who visited prostitutes who were attacked; it was the immigrants who were thought
to be the major supplier of prostitutes who were attacked. The irony is that birth control
provided the only real protection against venereal disease but was outlawed because it
was said to also be a cause of race suicide.
Not only this, but immigrants were also thought to be taking young Anglo-Saxon
women from the countryside or women newly arrived in a strange city and turning them
into prostitutes against their will. Thus, immigrants imposed their bad morals upon
Americans and robbed it of its innocence in the same way the young women were robbed
RIWKHLUYLUJLQLW\&KLFDJR¶V-DPHV0DQQOHGWKHFKDUJHDJDLQVWVXFKDKRUULILF
phenomenon, known as white slavery, and the Mann Act was passed in 1910, at the
height of the white slave panic. The Mann Act outlawed the interstate traffic of women
IRU³LPPRUDOSXUSRVHV´
The panic over immigration, prostitution, and birth control that gripped the United
States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century were not separate panics but were
interwoven fears of a changing America. The growth of cities, the changing model of
families, the new roles for women in society, and the diversifying American demographic
all led to panics that America attempted to solve by enforcing a rigid code of morals on
viii the population. Immigrants weUHWDUJHWHGDV³RWKHUV´ZKREURXJKWZLWKWKHPLPPRUDO
ways, and officials thought that they sought to force these ways on America. Native-born
Americans created a mostly false story about white slavery in which American women
were forced to adopt immoral ways of life as they entered the world of prostitution
against their will. Prostitution itself was considered an immigrant enterprise that spread
not only moral disease but also literal diseases. These were seen as contributing to a
falling birth rate among native-born Americans who had simply created a different idea
of what family should look like. Yet, they were considered selfish and complicit in the
destruction of the Anglo-Saxon race, which simply could not keep up with rising
immigrant birth rates. Therefore, the only means of protection against venereal disease,
contraception, was outlawed.
Immigration stood at the heart of the panics over white slavery and prostitution as
well as the panic over birth control. American society experienced an unsettling change
that many native-born Americans viewed as a time of immorality and the death of AngloSaxon values. American moral and political leaders of the late nineteenth century, known
DV3URJUHVVLYHVVRXJKWWRLQVWLOOPRUDOVLQWRDVRFLHW\IXOORI³VLQ´ DQG³ZD\ZDUG
FLWL]HQV´7KXVWKH\FDPSDLJQHGEHJLQQLQJZLWKDWWHPSWVWRUHDFKFLWL]HQVGLUHFWO\DQG
moving on to changing the law in an endeavor to impose Victorian morals on a society
that had simply outgrown them. The new social patterns that emerged in America in the
mid-nineteenth century would touch and alter the very soul of America.
ix CHAPTER I
IMMIGRATION AND RACE SUICIDE: THE RISING AMERICAN FEAR OF
³27+(56´
As she stepped foot on American soil, the Czech-speaking immigrant Vera
Gauditsa met with bewilderment. She knew what questions to expect from the
immigration officials at Ellis Island, but she remained fearful that one mix up would send
her back to Austria-Hungary. The extremely pregnant Vera did not want to be excluded
from entering the country based on just how pregnant she really was. A Czech-speaking
immigration official interrogated Vera and asked her when she was due. Vera claimed to
be merely five months pregnant, but she remaineGDIUDLGWKDWVKH³ZDVJRLQJWRPL[
HYHU\WKLQJXSDQGVD\HLJKWPRQWKV´1 If found to be more than five-months pregnant,
Vera would be shipped back to Austria-Hungary, excluded from entering the United
States. Vera managed to keep her story straight and consistently told officials that she
was merely five months pregnant.2 As a result, she was ultimately allowed to enter the
United States.
Immigrants who arrived in 1903, when Vera did, met with similar questioning
from officials at Ellis or Angel Island. Federal immigration control of this kind began in
1
Eithne Luibhéid, Entry Denied: Controlling Sexuality at the Border (Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press, 2002), 10.
2
Ibid.
1 1875 and would hold steady well into the twentieth century. Immigration laws had a firm
grasp on the nation because of fears that surrounded the skyrocketing birth rates of
LPPLJUDQWV7KHIRUHLJQHUVKDGEHJXQWRRXWSURGXFHWKRVHRI³<DQNHHVWRFN´ZKLFKOHG
some to fear the death of the race entirely. Francis A. Walker first proposed this idea of
³UDFHVXLFLGH´EXWDV3UHVLGHQW7KHRGRUH5RRVHYHOWFDWDSXOWHGLWLQWRPDLQVWUHDP
$PHULFD¶VFRQVFLRXVQHVV)RUWKRVHRI<DQNHHVWRFNVPDOOIDPLOLHVEHFDPHDVLJQRI
moral disease. Even worse, sexual relations between the races could ultimately lead to a
³EDVWDUGL]LQJRI$PHULFD´ZKHUHWKHUHVSHFWDEOHPLGGOHFODVVQRORQJHUKHOGVZD\,Q
GXHFRXUVHIHDUVRYHU³UDFHVXLFLGH´IXHOHGWKH(XJHQLFVPRYHPHQWZKLFKKLWLWVSHDNLQ
the 1920s and failed to fade until after World War II when the idea of exterminating
entire races or promoting one race over another became unpopular as a result of the
Holocaust.
7KHGHDWKRIWKH³WUXH$PHULFDQ´ZDVQRWWKHRQO\LVVXHWKDWPDGHIHGHUDO
LPPLJUDWLRQFRQWURODSULRULW\9HQHUHDODQG³PRUDO´GLVHDVHVSODJXHGWKHQDtion, and
immigrants appeared to be the culprits spreading them. Physicians at Ellis Island checked
immigrants for literal disease, like gonorrhea and syphilis, upon their attempted entry into
the U.S. Venereal disease was seen as a cause of race suicide that rivaled that of
contraception, and the immigrants seemed to be infecting the entire nation. Virtuous
Yankee wives could be infected through husbands who contracted venereal disease from
prostitutes, and immigrants constituted the bulk of the prostitute population in the minds
of most Americans. What is more, doctors believed that venereal disease could be spread
WKURXJK³LQQRFHQW´WUDQVPLVVLRQPHDQLQJWKDWGLVHDVHVFRXOGEHVSUHDGWKURXJKVLPSOH
contact with objects that immigrants had touched, such as pens and drinking fountains.
2 Of course an idea of this sort promoted a fear of immigrants, especially in cities, which
FRQWDLQHGPRUHSXEOLFIDFLOLWLHV7KHLGHDRI³LQQRFHQW´WUDQVPLVVLRQEHFDPHDMXVWLILDEOH
way for the middle class to avoid contact with lower and immigrant classes. The fear of
degeneration of the U.S. population through both race suicide and diseases (literal and
moral) helped propel the U.S. government to action, first passing the Page Law in 1875,
which outlawed Asian women from entering the U.S. for purposes of prostitution. The
later Immigration Act of 1891 made exclusion encompass a broader set of standards with
an emphasis on venereal disease. Immigrants were barred from entering the U.S. if they
had a contagious disease, which could apply to dangerous diseases like tuberculosis but
more often applied to diseases of a sexual nature, such as syphilis and gonorrhea. Even
after admission into the U.S. immigrants faced troubling biases in local and state laws.
Judges often punished immigrants and those of foreign descent more harshly to prevent
³PRUDOGHFD\´EHFDXVHWKH\IHOWWKDWWKHLPPLJUDQWVSRVVHVVHGORZPRUDOVDQGLPSRUWHG
bad habits from their home countries. In order to protect the United States and its
UHSXWDEOH³<DQNHHVWRFN´Irom a burgeoning immigrant population that reproduced at
higher rates than the respectable U.S. middle class and to keep both literal and moral
diseases away from the middle class, federal immigration control laws grew stricter and
more comprehensive. The Yankee stock appeared on the brink of extinction, and the U.S.
government had to take control of the situation to prevent the race from committing
suicide. The immigrants had to be controlled or they would contaminate and slowly kill
off the remainder of the respectable middle class with their literal and moral decay.
The hysteria surrounding the so-FDOOHGGHDWKRIWKH³<DQNHHVWRFN´KDGLWVURRWV
in the skyrocketing birth rates of immigrants in the late nineteenth century. From before
3 the Civil War physicians and statisticians noted the increasing rates of reproduction
among immigrant women. In 1860 physician Nathan Allen reported that the foreign-born
SRSXODWLRQRI0DVVDFKXVHWWV³SURGXFHGPRUHFKLOGUHQWKDQWKH<DQNHHV´3 In fact,
0DVVDFKXVHWWV¶VSRSXODWion growth appeared to stem entirely from foreigners.4 The trend
could be found not only in Massachusetts but throughout the nation, which led physicians
WRDWURXEOLQJFRQFOXVLRQ,QRQHSK\VLFLDQH[FODLPHGWKDW³WKH3XULWDQLFEORRGRI
¶ZLOOEHEXWVSDULQJO\UHSUHVHQWHGLQWKHDSSURDFKLQJFHQWXU\´5 The Germans,
,WDOLDQV&]HFKV3ROHVDQGRWKHUDOLHQVWKUHDWHQHGWRILOO$PHULFD¶VFLWLHVZLWKWKHLU
children and drive out those of true American stock. The hysteria could not be contained
along raciaOOLQHV7KRVHRI&DWKROLFIDLWKDOVREHJDQWREHVLQJOHGRXWDV³RWKHUV´DPRQJ
a Protestant-majority American population. This, however, was not new in the 1870s. In
the 1850s, the American Party, or Know-1RWKLQJ3DUW\GHILQHG$PHULFDDV³DPRUDO
ProtestDQWQDWLRQ´6 7KHLUPDLQDLPZDVWRVWRSWKHVSUHDGRI³UXP5RPDQLVPDQG
VODYHU\´ZKLFKDSSHDUHGWREHLQFUHDVLQJPHQDFHVWRWKH$PHULFDQVRFLHW\7 By 1877 it
ZDVUHSRUWHGWKDW³SHUFHQWRIWKHELUWKVLQDOO1HZ(QJODQGZHUH&DWKROLF´8 In 1890,
of the 62.2 million residents of the U.S., 9.2 million were foreign-born.9 Physicians
warned over and over again in medical journals that the lowest and foreign-born classes
ZHUHUHSURGXFLQJIDVWHUWKDQWKRVHLQWKH³PRVWLQWHOOLJHQW´$PHULFDQFRPPXQLWLHV10
3
Linda Gordon, :RPDQ¶V%RG\:RPDQ¶V5LJKW%LUWK&RQWUROLQ$PHUL ca (New York: Penguin Group,
1990), 135.
4
James A. Morone, Hellfire Nation: The Politics of S in in American History (New Haven: Yale University
Press, 2003), 253.
5
--0XOKHURQ³)RHWLFLGH´ Peninsular Journal of Medicine 10 (September 1874): 390-391.
6
Morone, Hellfire Nation, 198.
7
Ibid.
8
Gordon, :RPDQ¶V%RG\135.
9
"Francis A. Walker on Restriction of Immigration into the United States," Population & Development
Review 30, no. 4 (December 2004): 743.
10
Gordon, :RPDQ¶V%RG\135.
4 AmHULFDQVEHJDQWRVHHWKLVWURXEOLQJWUHQGDVOHDGLQJWRWKHGHDWKRIWKHLU³UDFH´7KH
foreign-born, they theorized, should not outnumber those of respectable American
heritage. The future of the very race was at stake.
Francis Amasa Walker, President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and superintendent of the 1870 and 1880 censuses, contributed to the growing argument
RYHUWKHGHDWKRIWKHUDFH:DONHU¶VLGHDVVWHPPHGIURPWKRVHRI6RFLDO'DUZLQLVP
which was a theory of how society worked through which British philosopher Herbert
6SHQFHUDSSOLHG&KDUOHV'DUZLQ¶VWKHRU\RIHYROXWLRQ11 Like Spencer, Walker claimed
that in society only the fittest survive.12 He characterized the Europeans as possessing
³LQVROHQFHDQGVDYDJHU\´ZKLFKWKUHDWHQHGWR plummet the nation into darkness.13
Walker further stated in 1891 that the reproductive decline among those of Yankee stock
stemmed from immigration, not domestic conditions.14 He claimed that as a result of
immigrants coming into the country and replacing the native stock as cheap labor, in
order to keep up economic and social superiority the native population cut back on its
family size, and thus, Americans began to succumb to biological defeat.15 Walker further
VXJJHVWHGWKDWWKHQDWLYHSRSXODWLRQ³VKUDQNfrom bringing children into the world to
FRPSHWHZLWKWKHORZHUVWDQGDUGVRILPPLJUDQWV´16 Walker thought that as a result of
seeing the lower standards in which immigrants lived, native-born citizens by no means
desired to bring children into the world to live in that repulsiveness. By the early 1900s,
11
James West Davidson et al., Nation of Nations: A Narrative History of the American Republic (Boston:
McGraw-Hill, 2005), 628.
12
John Highman, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of A merican Nativism, 1860-1925, ( New Brunswick:
Rutgers University Press, 1998), 142.
13
Ibid.
14
Ibid., 143.
15
Ibid.
16
Mark Haller, Eugenics: Hereditarian Attitudes in American Thought (New Brunswick: Rutgers
University Press, 1963), 54.
5 :DONHU¶VLGHDVKDGEHHQWUDQVIRUPHGLQWRWKHWKHRU\RI³UDFHVXLFLGH´,QIDFW(GZDUG$
Ross, a progressive American sociologist and eugenicist, XVHG:DONHU¶VWKHRULHVLQDQ
address before the American Academy of Political and Social Science in a claim that
³XQFKHFNHG$VLDWLFLPPLJUDWLRQPLJKWOHDGWRWKHH[WLQFWLRQRIWKH$PHULFDQSHRSOH´17
:DONHU¶VLGHDVKRZHYHUGLGQRWLQLWLDOO\VXJJHVWWKDWWKHVXEVWLWXWLRQRIRQHUDFHIRU
another was a bad outcome. In fact, Walker suggested that the immigrants possessed the
means and will to survive despite their economic and social standing, which the nativeERUQSRSXODWLRQUHIXVHGWRJLYHXS2WKHUVVXFKDV5RVVWRRN:DONHU¶VLGHDVDQGZDUSHG
them into a reason for immigration control in the late nineteenth century.
,QDGGLWLRQWRVRFLRORJLVWVOLNH(GZDUG5RVVZKRXWLOL]HG:DONHU¶VLGHDVWR
IXUWKHUDFDXVH3UHVLGHQW7KHRGRUH5RRVHYHOWSRSXODUL]HGWKHLGHDRI³UDFHVXLFLGH´DVD
means for encouraging reproduction among the native population. Roosevelt, the
optimistic nativist who took office as the twenty-sixth U.S. President in 1901, could not
help but worry over the future of the Yankee stock. After all, physicians warned the U.S.
population about an immigrant tDNHRYHUDVHDUO\DV)XUWKHUPRUH5RRVHYHOW¶V
PHQWRURQWKHVXEMHFWRI³LQIHULRUUDFHV´ZDVQRQHRWKHUWKDQ(GZDUG5RVV18 Roosevelt
IHDUHGWKHGHDWKRIWKH³JUHDWZKLWHPLGGOHFODVV´19 Despite his nativist tendencies,
Roosevelt expressed his uneasiness over the future of the race in vague expressions that
petitioned mothers to have more children to stave off the suicide of the race. The
President popularized the notion of race suicide, and between 1905 and 1909 magazines
17
Highman, Strangers, 147.
Morone, Hellfire Nation, 15.
19
Allan M. Brandt, No Magic Bullet: A Social History of Venereal Disease in the United States Since
1880, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), 7.
18
6 throughout the U.S. published over thirty-five articles devoted to the topic.20 In fact, it
could be argued that Roosevelt asserted race suicide as a national phobia. Race-suicide
fears peaked during the years between 1905 and 1910, which fell squarely under the
influence of President Roosevelt, the ever-newsworthy President.21In 1903 Roosevelt
ZURWHWKDW³DGHVLUHWREHµLQGHSHQGHQW¶²WKDWLVWROLYHRQH¶VOLIHSXUHO\DFFRUGLQJWR
RQH¶VRZQGHVLUHV«LQQRVHQVHVXEVWLWXWHVIRUWKHIXQGDPHQWDOYLUWXHVIRUWKHSUDFWLFHRI
the strong, raciDOTXDOLWLHVZLWKRXWZKLFKWKHUHFDQEHQRVWURQJUDFHV´22 Roosevelt
basically told the citizens of the United States that if they did not begin to produce large
families, the strong genes of the Yankee stock will cease to exist altogether. In 1905
Roosevelt cited the low birth rate and the use of birth control as leading causes of race
suicide.23 &LWL]HQVEHJDQWRIHDU³WKHSDVVLQJRIWKLVJUHDW$QJOR-7HXWRQSHRSOH´OHDGLQJ
WRWKH³VXUUHQGHURIWKHQDWLRQWRWKH/DWLQDQGWKH+XQ´24 0RUHRYHU5RRVHYHOW¶VPHntor
(GZDUG5RVVZDUQHGWKDW³WKH0HGLWHUUDQHDQSHRSOHVDUHPRUDOO\EHORZWKHUDFHVRI
QRUWKHUQ(XURSH´DQGVDLGWKDWWKLVZDV³DVFHUWDLQDVDQ\VRFLDOIDFW´25 The surrender of
the nation to a group of people so morally below those of the Anglo races seemed like a
grave result of race suicide. In order to prevent this from occurring, Roosevelt called
XSRQPRWKHUVWRSHUIRUPWKHLU³GXW\WRWKHQDWLRQ´DQGKDYHPRUHFKLOGUHQ,QIDFW
3UHVLGHQW5RRVHYHOW¶VPRWWREHFDPH³:RUNILJKWDQGEUHHG´LQHIIHFWFRPparing a
ZRPDQ¶VUHSURGXFWLYHREOLJDWLRQWRWKHGXW\RIDVROGLHU26 Roosevelt detested those who
ZLWKKHOGIURPWKHLUGXW\WRWKHQDWLRQDQGVDLG³7KHPDQRUZRPDQZKR«KDVDKHDUWVR
20
Highman, Strangers, 147.
Gordon, :RPDQ¶V%RG\134.
22
Theodore Roosevelt, Introduction to Mrs. John Van Vorst and Marie Van Vorst, The Woman Who Toils
(New York: Doubleday, Page, 1903): vii.
23
Gordon, :RPDQ¶V%RG\139.
24
Highman, Strangers, 147-148.
25
E.A. Ross, The Old World in the New (New York: Century, 1913), 303.
26
Morone, Hellfire Nation, 273.
21
7 FROG«DQGDEUDLQVRVKDOORZDQGVHOILVKDVWRGLVOLNHKDYLQJFKLOGUHQLs in effect a
criminal against the race and should be an object of contemptuous abhorrence by all
KHDOWK\SHRSOH´27 In effect, Roosevelt said that it was equivalent to treason for healthy
native-born Americans to withhold from having children. The native population would be
handing the country over to immigrants if they did not step up and do their part, and that
part was reproduction. Roosevelt did blame both men and women in his speeches for the
death of the race, but he agreed with most physicians that women were the ultimate cause
ZLWKWKHLU³XQQDWXUDOLQFOLQDWLRQWRVXSSUHVVWKHPDWHUQDOLQVWLQFW´ZKLFKLVSDUWLFXODUO\
VXUSULVLQJJLYHQWKH\RXQJ5RRVHYHOW¶VVXSSRUWRIZRPHQ¶VHPDQFLSDWLRQ28 The
President considered the preference for smaller families a ³VLJQRIPRUDOGLVHDVH´
something which only foreigners were considered to possess.29 Roosevelt considered
³YLULOHPHQZRPDQO\ZRPHQDQGODUJHIDPLOLHV´QHFHVVDU\WRVXVWDLQ<DQNHH
supremacy.30
Roosevelt did not even stop promoting the idea of race suicide after his
presidency had ended. Into his older years, he actually grew more outspoken about the
LGHDRIUDFHVXLFLGH,QKHVDLGWKDW³WKH$PHULFDQVWRFNLVEHLQJFXUVHGZLWKWKH
FXUVHRIVWHULOLW\´ZKLFKRIFRXUVHKDGGLUHFRQVHTXHQFHVIRUWKHQation.31 The race
would not be able to survive the immigrant invasion unless the native population began to
reproduce faster or unless some sort of immigration control was set in place. The danger
to the race came from all over the world, too. Filipinos in the Pacific Rim, Latin
27
Theodore Roosevelt, Presidential Addresses and State Papers (New York: Review of Reviews, 1910),
vol. 2: 509.
28
Brandt, No Magic Bullet, 8.
29
Gordon, :RPDQ¶V%RG\133.
30
Ibid., 138.
31
7KHRGRUH5RRVHYHOW´5DFH'HFDGHQFH´ Outlook, 8 April 1911, 764.
8 Americans in the American Southwest, Southern Italians in eastern cities, and African
Americans in the American South.32 Roosevelt ultimately called upon women to forsake
their selfish ways and bear children because it was the only way that the Yankee stock
could ever survive.
The only thing Americans considered worse than the death of the Yankee stock
HQWLUHO\ZDVWKH³PRQJUHOL]DWLRQ´RI$PHULFD0LVFHJHQDWLRQRUWKHPL[LQJRIUDFHV
through sexual relations (also known as amalgamation), established itself as a prominent
fear among Americans. In 1864, David Croly published a pamphlet entitled
Miscegenation in an effort to ensure that Abraham Lincoln was not re-elected. Croly
invented the word when he published his pamphlet, and the fear of mixing races
continued strongly long after the Civil War had ended.33 The foreigners threatened not
only the Yankee stock through death but also through bastardization. This fear most often
reared its ugly head in the South, represented by the panic over black men having sexual
relations with white women.34 The fear, however, was also common in the North among
the immigrant-ODGHQFLWLHV(XJHQLFLVWVFODLPHGWKDW³PRQJUHOL]DWLRQRIGLVWLQFWO\
XQUHODWHGUDFHV«LVDJUHDWKD]DUG´35 The great hazard was the demoralization of
America as well as the spread of disease. The immigrants increased in number constantly,
and their dirty habits and attitudes were thrust upon those who lived, worked, or even
UHPRWHO\FDPHLQWRFRQWDFWZLWKWKHP1RWRQO\WKDWEXW³WKHLU\RXWKPLQJOHGZLWKRXUV´
DQG³WKHLUµSULYDWH¶GLVHDVHVLQIHFWHGXV´36 In addition to literal diseases, immigrants
VSUHDGWKHLULPPRUDOZD\V)RUHLJQHUVVHHPHGDOZD\VUHDG\WR³VHGXFHDQGUXLQ\RXQJ
32
Morone, Hellfire Nation, 274.
Morone, Hellfire Nation, 196.
34
Ibid., 255.
35
Highman, Strangers, 150-151.
36
Morone, Hellfire Nation, 227.
33
9 $PHULFD´37 The very state of Victorian morality was at stake. Even the question of
successfully fusing different races was at hand. William Z. Ripley, an economist, cited
Mendelian genetic tests as proof that intermixing races would result in terrible
consequences. $FFRUGLQJWR0HQGHOLDQJHQHWLFLVWV³K\EULGL]DWLRQVRPHWLPHVFDXVHGD
UHDVVHUWLRQRIODWHQWFKDUDFWHUVLQKHULWHGIURPDUHPRWHDQFHVWRU´38 Therefore, the least
desired traits of the racially inferior when mixed with the racially superior could show up
generations later. Ripley thought that the mixing of races that was so feared in America
PLJKW³SURGXFHDUHYHUVLRQWRDSULPLWLYHW\SH´39 Thus, this scientific theory provided
more evidence that the foreigners were to be feared. Furthermore, many Americans saw
UDFLDOPL[LQJDV³GHVWUR\LQJUDFLDOSXULW\´ZKLFKZRXOGLQWXUQGHVWUR\WKHYHU\
IRXQGDWLRQRI³HYHU\QDWLRQDODQGFXOWXUDOYDOXH´40 Harry Laughlin, the Expert Eugenics
$JHQWWRWKH:KLWH+RXVHGXULQJWKHVDQGVPDGHFOHDUWKDW³UDGLFDOO\
diffHUHQWUDFHV´FRXOGQRWEHVDIHO\IXVHGZLWKWKHZKLWHUDFH41 Theories surrounding
miscegenation claimed that children born to parents of radically different races were
unstable because they lacked the best qualities of either parent.42 Thus, racial mixing
would result in a situation far worse than the simple death of the Yankee stock. It would
result in a nation of children unfit to survive in the world at large. The U.S. faced two
different, yet equally dismal, fates: race suicide or reversion. Mendelian genetics
simplified to the theory of reversion promoted racial purity and immigration control laws.
37
Ibid., 228.
Highman, Strangers, 155.
39
WilliDP=5LSOH\³5DFHVLQWKH8QLWHG6WDWHV´ The Atlantic Monthly, 102 no. 6, (Dec. 1908), 755.
40
Highman, Strangers, 156.
41
Lubhéid, Entry Denied, 66.
42
American History in Terms of Human Migration, Extracts from Hearings before the Committee on
Immigration and Naturalization, House of Representatives, 70th Cong., 2d Sess., 7 March 1928
(Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1928), 7.
38
10 The successor to the theory of race suicide, eugenics, took hold in the U.S. with a
PRUHVFLHQWLILFIHHOWKDQWKDWRIUDFHVXLFLGH(XJHQLFVSXW³UDFH-thinking on scientific
WHUPVUDWKHUWKDQURPDQWLFSUHPLVHV´VXFKDVWKRVHRIUDFHVXLFLGHDQG³YLQGLFDWHGWKH
hereditarian assumptions of the Anglo-6D[RQWUDGLWLRQ´DVZHOODVDOORZHGIRUUDWKHU
loose discussions of race in intellectual circles.43 Until the Eugenics movement came
along, discussions of racial presuppositions had begun to seriously be questioned by the
intellectual world.44 Darwinian theories applied to race-WKLQNLQJZHUHVHHQDV³URPDQWLF´
rather than scientific and factual by much of the intellectual world.45 Eugenics became
the vehicle through which racial presuppositions could be voiced and be accepted as
scientific and accurate because eugenics fused science with race suicide to produce the
theory that all human behavior was shaped through hereGLW\*UHJRU0HQGHO¶VPRGHORI
LQKHULWDQFHIXVHGZLWKWKRVHRI$XJXVW:HLVPDQQ¶VJHUPWKHRU\:HLVPDQQZDVD
German evolutionary biologist whose main contribution to the world was the germ plasm
theory.46 :HLVPDQQ¶VWKHRU\ZDVWKDWLQKHULWDQFHRQO\WDNHVSOace by way of what he
WHUPHGWKH³JHUP´FHOOVNQRZQWRGD\DVWKHJDPHWHV²egg and sperm cells.47 Through
WKLVQHZPRGHORILQKHULWDQFH(XJHQLFLVWVEHOLHYHGWKDW³WKHWUDQVPLVVLRQIURP
generation to generation of characteristics obeyed their own fixed laws without regard to
WKHH[WHUQDOOLIHRIWKHRUJDQLVP´48 Thus, it seemed unlikely that any attempt to
assimilate immigrants into American society would not work because their behaviors
were pre-determined through genetics. Individual strivings had been altogether taken out
43
Highman, Strangers, 152.
Ibid., 152.
45
Ibid.
46
August Weismann, Essays Upon Heredity and Kindred Biological Problems (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1891): 169.
47
Ibid.
48
Highman, Strangers, 150.
44
11 RIWKHHTXDWLRQRIZKRRUZKDWSHRSOHEHFRPHWKH³JHUPSODVP´VHHPHGWRKROGDOORI
the secrets. Not only did this confirm the worst fears of those who wanted the new wave
RILPPLJUDQWVFRQWUROOHGEXWLWDOVR³V\QFKURQL]HG´ZLWKWKHQRWLRn of race suicide.49 By
1914 Eugenics had become a mainstay in American society as more magazines
³GLVFXVVHGHXJHQLFVWKDQVOXPVWHQHPHQWVDQGOLYLQJVWDQGDUGVFRPELQHG´50
Charles B. Davenport, the leading U.S. Eugenicist, attempted to test Mendelian
herHGLW\SULQFLSOHVWKURXJKDQLPDOEUHHGLQJDQGE\³KHZDVEHJLQQLQJWRDSSO\
WKHPWRWKHVWXG\RIKXPDQKHUHGLW\´51 As a result, racial implications that applied to
immigration soon emerged. The immigration question had gone from being a question of
kLOOLQJRIIWKH<DQNHHVWRFNWRDEDQRQ³VFLHQWLILFDOO\SURYHQ´LQIHULRUUDFHV(XJHQLFLVWV
saw the immigration question as a biological one, and to them, allowing immigrants to
HQWHU$PHULFDDQGLQIHFWLWZLWKWKHLU³GHJHQHUDWHEUHHGLQJVWRFN´VHHPHGDOPRst
sinful.52 Eugenicists wanted to select only the best immigrant stock for admittance to the
U.S. so that later generations would be improved rather than continue to pollute the
nation. By 1906 the Immigration Restriction League pointed out that immigration
UHVWULFWLRQRIIHUHGDVHQVHRIFRQWUROIRU³$PHULFD¶VIXWXUHUDFLDOGHYHORSPHQW´53 The
very conservation of the American race was once again at the center of immigration
FRQWUROSROLWLFV0DQ\³FULWLFVRILPPLJUDWLRQ´KDGEHJXQWRSHWLWLRQWKHJRYHUQPHQW by
IRUD³UDWLRQDOSROLF\´RILPPLJUDWLRQ³EDVHGXSRQDQREOHFXOWXUHRIUDFLDO
SXULW\´54 According to one Eugenicist, colonial settlement in the United States had been
49
Ibid.
Davidson et al., Nation of Nations, 724.
51
Highman, Strangers, 151.
52
Ibid.
53
Ibid., 152.
54
Ibid.
50
12 ³RQHFRQWLQXRXVGUDVWLFF\FOHRIHXJHQLFVHOHFWLRQ«7KHHXJHQLFUHVXOWVZHUH
magnLILFHQW´55 Yet, the immigrants had begun to threaten this country full of racially
magnificent peoples. The immigrants had, in effect, become a menace to the race.
Eugenics went above and beyond race suicide because it supported the idea that
lesser races existed and that not only were they reproducing more quickly than true
$PHULFDQVWKH\ZHUHSROOXWLQJWKHFRXQWU\¶VRYHUDOOJHQHSRRO7KHIRUHLJQHUVSRXULQJ
LQWRWKHFRXQWU\LQIDFWZHUHPRVWO\³FULPLQDOVSURVWLWXWHVDQGLGLRWV´56 According to
EugenicLVWVWKLVFRXOGRQO\PHDQEDGQHZVIRUWKH8QLWHG6WDWHVVHHLQJDV³GHIHFWLYH
SHRSOHVSUDQJIURPGHIHFWLYHSDUHQWV´57 This could lead to only one conclusion: the
United Sates would soon be full of prostitutes, paupers, thieves, murderers, alcoholics,
and bootleggers, which constituted the immigrant population coming to the United States.
Continuing to allow these aliens to enter the U.S. seemed simply careless in light of this
information. Some sort of control had to be enacted. In addition, Eugenicists often
³HTXDWHGODFNRILQWHOOLJHQFHZLWKYLFLRXVQHVVDQGLQWHOOLJHQFHZLWKJRRGQHVV´DQGWKH
inferior immigrants were of course seen as lacking intelligence leading to the conclusion
that they must also be vicious.58 $HXJHQLFVWH[WERRNVXJJHVWHGWKDW³the rate at
ZKLFKLPPLJUDQWVDUHLQFUHDVLQJ´PDGHLW³REYLRXVWKDWRXUYHU\OLIH-EORRGLVDWVWDNH´59
7KHWH[WERRNJRHVRQWRVD\³)RURXURZQSURWHFWLRQZHPXVWIDFHWKHTXHVWLRQRIZKDW
W\SHVRIUDFHVVKRXOGEHUXOHGRXW´60 Lothrop Stoddard, one of the most influential
$PHULFDQHXJHQLFLVWVIXUWKHUVWDWHVWKDWLPPLJUDQWV³DUHLQFDSDEOHRIHLWKHUFUHDWLQJRU
55
Lothrop Stoddard, The Rising Tide of Color against White Supremacy 1HZ<RUN&KDUOHV6FULEQHU¶V
Sons, 1920), 261.
56
Morone, Hellfire Nation, 275.
57
Ibid.
58
Gordon, :RPDQ¶V%RG\273.
59
Michael F. Guyer, Being Well-Born: An Introduction to Eugenics (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1916),
296.
60
Ibid.
13 IXUWKHULQJFLYLOL]DWLRQDQGDUHWKXVDQHJDWLYHKLQGUDQFHWRSURJUHVV´61 Prince Morrow, a
leading American dermatologist, further argued that because immigrants possessed
YHQHUHDOGLVHDVHVWKH\ZHUH³GLUHFWO\DQWDJRQLVWLFWRWKHHXJHQLFLGHDO´62 Margaret
Sanger, the main advocate for birth control rights for women, even warned the country
WKDWLOOLWHUDWHDQG³GHJHQHUDWH´LPPLJUDQWVPLJKWDQQLKLODWH³RXUZD\RIOLIH´63 Sanger
IXUWKHUZDUQHGWKHQDWLRQWKDW³WKHSDXSHUHOHPHQW´ZKRMXVWKDSSHQHGWREHLPPLJUDQWV
ZRXOGVORZO\EXWVXUHO\EHFRPH³GHSHQGHQWXSRQWKHQRUPDODQGILWPHPEHUVRI
VRFLHW\´64 In light of warnings such as these many American latched onto the eugenics
movement and sterilization of immigrants and criminals began to be seriously suggested.
Additionally, tighter controls on who entered the Unites States were possible since
defectives could be determined simply from appearance.65
In the Eugenics heyday of the 1920s, eugenicists developed the theory of positive
DQGQHJDWLYHHXJHQLFVZKLFKHQFRXUDJHGUHSURGXFWLRQLQWKRVHRI³EHWWHUVWRFN´DQG
GLVFRXUDJHUHSURGXFWLRQLQWKRVHRI³LQIHULRUVWRFN´66 In addition to judging from
appearance, the Binet intelligence test could be used to ensure that no feebleminded
immigrants entered the U.S.67 Eugenicists administered Binet intelligence tests to various
populations, especially those labeled as delinquents. Through this eugenicists determined
thDW³IHHEOHPLQGHGQHVV´ZDVWKHRIDYDULHW\RIGHOLQTXHQF\ZKLFKLQFOXGHGVH[XDO
IRUPVDVZHOODVPRUDOIRUPVDVWKH\KDGEHJXQWRODEHOVRPHGHOLQTXHQWV³PRUDO
61
Lothrop Stoddard, Revolt Against Civilization: The Menace of the Under Man (New York: Scribners,
1922), 21.
62
Prince A. Morrow, Eugenics and Racial Poisons (New York, 1912), 11.
63
Margaret Sanger, The Pivot of Civilization (1HZ<RUN%UHQWDQR¶V-78.
64
Stenographic Record of the Proceedings of the F irst A merican Birth Control Conference, ed. Raymond
Pierpont (London: Heinemann, 1922).
65
Morone, Hellfire Nation, 276.
66
Gordon, :RPDQ¶V%RG\274.
67
Haller, Eugenics, 103.
14 LPEHFLOHV´RUSV\FKRSDWKV68 Binet tests became a way to screen immigrants objectively
without having to rely on an immigration official visually determining if the immigrant
was feebleminded and therefore a sexual and moral danger to the U.S. population or
not.69 &LWL]HQVSHWLWLRQHGWKHJRYHUQPHQWDVLWTXLFNO\EHFDPHWKHJRYHUQPHQW¶VMREWR
protect the future of the race. Immigrants could no longer be allowed to enter the country
ZLWKRXWVRPHVRUWRIUHJXODWLRQEHFDXVHWKH\SRVHGDUHDODQGVFLHQWLILFDOO\³SURYHQ´
threat to the country, not just genetically but as financial dependents of the state and as
criminals, alcoholics, and general moral threats. Some anthropologists, however, such as
Franz Boas, challenged biological racism, but views such as his remained minorities until
WWII. Boas was an immigrant himself, from Germany, and he dismissed theories about
WKHLQIHULRULW\RIPL[HGUDFHVWRXWLQJWKHPWREH³KDUGO\PRUHVFLHQWLILFWKDQWKRVHDERXW
WKHJUHDWQHVVRISXUHRQHV´70 %RDVEHOLHYHGWKDWWKHHQYLURQPHQWFKDQJHGDQLQGLYLGXDO¶V
WUDLWVQRWWKDWWKHLQGLYLGXDO¶VWUDLWVZHUHVWDWLFEDVHGSXUHOy upon heredity.71 In 1911
Boas performed a study in which he measured the head forms of second-generation
LPPLJUDQWVEHFDXVHKHDGVZHUHFRQVLGHUHGWREH³RQHRIWKHPRVWVWDEOHLQGLFHVRI
UDFH´72 Boas found that second-generation immigrants had changed head forms
VLJQLILFDQWO\IURPWKRVHRIQHZLPPLJUDQWVDQGFRQFOXGHGWKDW³LPPLJUDQWV¶ERGLO\DQG
PHQWDOFKDUDFWHULVWLFVPXVWEHSRZHUIXOO\DIIHFWHGE\$PHULFDQFRQGLWLRQV´ZKLFKOHG
WKHPWREHFRPHPRUHDQGPRUHOLNHDXQLIRUP³$PHULFDQW\SH´73 Despite his extensive
studies, views like those of Boas remained a minority until the Nazi horrors of WWII
68
Lubhéid, Entry Denied, 174.
Ibid., 66.
70
Highman, Strangers, 125.
71
Ibid.
72
Ibid.
73
Ibid.
69
15 caused eugenics fall into disrepute. It had begun to look sinister, but for decades it had
held sway over immigration control policies.
Furthermore, venereal diseases thought to be imported to America by the
³GHJHQHUDWH´LPPLJUDQWVFDXVHGPRUHRIDWKUHDWWRWKHUDFH9HQHUHDOGLVHDVHVZHUHVHHQ
as a major cause of race suicide, to the point that they were said to rival contraception in
inhibiting the advancement of the Yankee stock. Prince A Morrow, an American
GHUPDWRORJLVWDQGHDUO\FDPSDLJQHUIRUVH[HGXFDWLRQFODLPHGWKDWWKH³HIIHFWRI
venereal diseases is to produce a race of inferior beings, by poisoning the sources of life,
and sapping the vitality and healWKRIWKHRIIVSULQJ´74 Morrow argued that although these
diseases were not transmitted in a hereditary fashion, they should be a concern of
eugenics because they affected the future of the race.75 Venereal disease was considered
³GLUHFWO\DQWDJRQLVWLFWRWKHHXJHQLFLGHDO´76 In 1907 the United States Immigration
&RPPLVVLRQREVHUYHGWKDW³LWVHHPVSUREDEOHWKDWDFRQVLGHUDEOHQXPEHURISHUVRQV
afflicted with venereal disease are admitted to this country, and that such diseases have
been spread in many communiWLHVDVDUHVXOWRILPPLJUDWLRQ´77
Immigrants were seen as particularly prone to venereal diseases based on a
number of theories. One of the more widely circulated was that immigrants followed ³D
FRPPRQIRONUHPHG\RILQWHUFRXUVHZLWKDYLUJLQ´LQZKLFKWKH\³UDSHGWKHLURZQ
children as a means of attempting to rid themselves of infection.78 Doctors fully believed
WKDW³,WDOLDQV&KLQHVH1HJURHV´HVSHFLDOO\DWWHPSWHGWRULGWKHPVHOYHVRIGLVHDVH
74
Morrow, Eugenics, 11.
Brandt, No Magic Bullet, 19.
76
Ibid.
77
U.S. Senate, Reports of the U.S. I mmigration Commission, 61st Congress, 3rd Session, Senate doc. 747
(Washington, D.C., 1911), 1:34.
78
Brandt, No Magic Bullet, 20.
75
16 through sex with a virgin.79 Other doctors felt that the conditions of the slums where
many immigrants lived contributed greatly to the spread of venereal diseases. Dr. L.
Duncan Bulkey, who pioneered the treatment of cancer through medicine, claimed that
³V\SKLOLVLV«PRVWDEXQGDQWO\PHWZLWKLQFLWLHVDQGLWVIUHTuency is commonly seen to
GLPLQLVKLQDSUHWW\GLUHFWUDWLRQWRWKHVXEXUEDQRUUXUDOFKDUDFWHURIWKHSHRSOH´80
³9LUWXRXV$PHULFDQZLYHV´ZHUHWKHPRVWDWULVNRIYHQHUHDOGLVHDVHDVWKH\
could become infected through husbands who had visited prostitutes. Foreigners were
alleged to provide the majority of prostitutes in the growing American cities, and
³SK\VLFLDQVEHOLHYHGSURVWLWXWHVWREHWKHSULPDU\ORFXVRILQIHFWLRQ´81 In fact, in 1858
William Sanger, husband of birth control enthusiast Margaret Sanger, completed a study
RISURVWLWXWHVLQ1HZ<RUN+HIRXQGWKDW³KDOIRIWKHSURVWLWXWHVZHUHUHFHQWLPPLJUDQWV
WRWKH8QLWHG6WDWHV´82 Later studies would refute these findings, but until the 1910s,
physicians and U.S. officials insisted that immigrants constituted the bulk of prostitutes.
The ultimate result of interaction with prostitutes was seen as race suicide via projected
IDOOLQJELUWKUDWHVDUHVXOWRI³VWHULOLW\FDXVHGE\YHQHUHDOLQIHFWLRQRILQQRFHQWZLYHVDQG
PRWKHUV´83 One doctor stated that ³WKHIORZHURIRXUODQGRXU\RXQJZRPHQWKH
mothers of our future citizenship are being mutilated by life-saving measures because of
WKHVHGLVHDVHV´84 Therefore, Americans had a right to be alarmed because venereal
disease prevented the growth of the population, which could ultimately lead to the death
of the Yankee stock.
79
:7UDYLV*LEE³&ULPLQDO$VSHFWRI9HQHUHDO'LVHDVHVLQ&KLOGUHQ´ TASS MP 2 (1908): 25.
L. Duncan Bulkey, Syphilis in the Innocent (New York, 1894), 3-4.
81
Brandt, No Magic Bullet, 21.
82
Ruth Rosen, The Lost S isterhood (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982), 139.
83
Ruth Rosen, The Lost S isterhood, 45.
84
$EUDKDP/:ROEDUVW³7KH9HQHUHDO'LVHDVHV$0HQDFHWRWKH1DWLRQDO:HOIDUH´ American Journal
of Dermatology 14 (June 1910): 268.
80
17 Furthermore, venereal disease contributed to race suicide through damage
imposed on future generations due to venereal diseases being passed from mother to child
during the process of giving birth, which ultimately caused sterility in future generations.
9HQHUHDOGLVHDVHRQHSK\VLFLDQSURFODLPHGLQIHFWHG³QRWRQO\WKHJXLOW\EXW«WKH
LQQRFHQWZLIHDQGFKLOGLQWKHKRPHZLWKVLFNHQLQJFHUWDLQW\´DQGLWOHGWR³VWHULOLW\
insanity, paralysis, the blinded eyes of little babes, the twisted limbs of deformed
FKLOGUHQGHJUDGDWLRQSK\VLFDODQGPHQWDOGHFD\´85 Men threatened the race through
visits to foreign-born prostitutes who, according to the philosophy of the time, were more
than likHO\OLWHUDOO\LQIHFWHGDVZHOODV³PRUDOO\GLVHDVHG´3K\VLFLDQVXUJHGWKHPHQWR
practice restraint for the sake of the race. Frank D. Watson, of the New York School of
Philanthropy, emphasized the importance of their germ-plasm, of which it was their
³REligation and privilege to pass on that germ-SODVPXQFRQWDPLQDWHGDQGXQLPSDLUHG´86
Reformers of the Progressive Era even warned that women were petitioning for divorce
PRUHRIWHQDVDUHVXOWRI³KXVEDQGV¶FRQWDFWZLWKSURVWLWXWHVDQGYHQHUHDOGLVHDVH´87 In
DFFRUGDQFHPDQ\VWDWHVSDVVHGZKDWEHFDPHNQRZQDV³HXJHQLFPDUULDJHODZV´LQ
which a physician had to be consulted and the groom examined in order to receive a
certificate guaranteeing his health before a marriage license could be obtained.88 In 1899,
Michigan became the first state to prevent those who had venereal diseases from
PDUU\LQJDQGE\³DWRWDORIVHYHQVWDWHVKDGODZVGHVLJQHGWRHOLPLQDWHYHQHUHDO
FRQWDJLRQLQWKHIDPLO\´89 Not only were immigrants literally infecting the Yankee stock
85
Chicago, Vice Commission of Chicago, The Social Evil in Chicago, 25.
)UDQN':DWVRQ³'LVFXVVLRQ´JSS MP 5 (April 1915): 111.
87
Rosen, The Lost S isterhood, 45.
88
Chicago, Vice Commission of Chicago, The Social Evil in Chicago, 19.
89
Ibid.
86
18 with their degrading diseases, but they were also held responsible for the decay of
Victorian family values, which would ultimately lead to the decline of civilization.
³,PPRUDO´FRQWUDFWLRQRIYHQHUHDOGLVHDVHVIURPLPPLJUDQWVZDVQRWWKHRQO\
concern of reIRUPHUVDQGSK\VLFLDQV³LQQRFHQW´WUDQVPLVVLRQRIYHQHUHDOGLVHDVHV
through non-sexual contact also gained ground as a legitimate fear among Americans.
Physicians alerted Americans that syphilis and gonorrhea could be contracted by way of
³PHWDOGULQNLQJcups attached to public water fountains, eating utensils, towels and
EHGGLQJ´90 The possibilities for catching non-venereal syphilis and gonorrhea were
almost innumerable. For instance, Dr. L Duncan Bulkey, noted authority on cancer,
GRFXPHQWHG³UHFRUGVRI extra-genital infections caused by whistles, pens, pencils, toilets,
PHGLFDOSURFHGXUHVWDWWRRVDQGWRRWKEUXVKHV´91 Alarms such as these only led to greater
fears of immigrants by associating them with the public places in which the diseases
could most UHDGLO\EH³FRQWUDFWHG´9HQHUHDOGLVHDVHVRIFRXUVHZRXOGEHPRUH
FRPPRQDPRQJLPPLJUDQWVZKRGLVSOD\HG³ORRVHPRUDOV´&RQVHTXHQWO\$PHULFDQV
JUHZPRUHDSSUHKHQVLYHRI³WKHFLW\WKHZRUNLQJFODVVDQGWKHQHZLPPLJUDQW
populations, ultimately encourDJLQJUDFLVPDQGQDWLYLVP´92 (YHQ³PRUDO´PLGGOHFODVV
$PHULFDQVFRXOGQRZFDWFKWKHVHRQFH³LPPRUDO´GLVHDVHV/'XQFDQ%XONH\DUJXHG
WKDWEHFDXVHYHQHUHDOGLVHDVHVZUHDNHG³KDYRFDPRQJWKRVHZKRDUHLQQRFHQW´LWZRXOG
QHYHUEHVWRSSHG³XQWLOLQVRPHZD\ even the lowest levels of society are influenced
WRZDUGWKHLUSUHYHQWLRQ´93Thus, the whole society was in danger as long as those of the
working class and immigrant populations could not be controlled. Dr. Howard Kelly, a
90
Brandt, No Magic Bullet, 21.
Ibid.
92
Ibid., 22.
93
/'XQFDQ%XONH\³6KRXOG6H[,QVWUXFWLRQEH*LYHQWR<RXQJ0HQRIWKH:RUNLQJ&ODVV"´ TASS MP 1
(1906): 104.
91
19 noted American gynecologist, asserted that the increase in venereal disease cases was the
UHVXOWRI³LQFHVVDQWLPSRXULQJ>VLF@RIDODUJHIRUHLJQSRSXODWLRQZLWKORZHULGHDOV´94
Venereal diseases threatened the American population as a result of foreigners with
³ORRVHPRUDOV´ZKRXWLOL]HG SXEOLFIDFLOLWLHVDQGVSUHDGWKHGLVHDVHVRQWR³PRUDO´DQG
³UHVSHFWDEOH´PLGGOHFODVV$PHULFDQV7KHYHU\LGHDZDVDSSDOOLQJWKDWXSVWDQGLQJ
FLWL]HQVVKRXOGEHLQIHFWHGE\³LPPRUDOGHJHQHUDWHV´ZKRWKUHDWHQHGWKHIXWXUHRIWKH
race not only with their high birth rates but also with their literal infections and moral
decay.
Ultimately, the future of the race had to be protected, and this led Federal officials
to enact a series of immigration control laws beginning in 1875 with the Page Law. The
Page Law EHJDQWKHSURFHVVRI³VHOHFWLYH´LPPLJUDWLRQDVD86SROLF\,WXOWLPDWHO\
allowed for Federal regulation of immigrants by prohibiting ³XQVDYRU\´LPPLJUDQWVIURP
entering the U.S.95 7KHVHXQGHVLUDEOHVWXUQHGRXWWREH³FRQWUDFWODERUHUVIHORQVDQG
Asian ZRPHQEURXJKWWRWKH8QLWHG6WDWHVIRUOHZGDQGLPPRUDOSXUSRVHV´96 As a result,
the ability of Chinese women to immigrate to the United States was greatly hampered,
even if they sought legitimate professions in the United States. The Page Law was, in
effHFWWKHILUVWRI$PHULFD¶VHIIRUWVWRSURWHFWLWVFLWL]HQVIURPWKHPRUDOGHFD\SURPRWHG
by immigrants. It served as a harbinger for later immigration laws relating to sexuality.
The Immigration Act of 1891 served as the first major piece of legislation
concerning immigrants as it extended its reach from Asian women to all immigrants who
wished to enter the U.S. William E. Chandler, a Republican Congressman from New
94
+RZDUG.HOO\³6RFLDO'LVHDVHVDQG7KHLU3UHYHQWLRQ´SocDis 1 (July 1910):17.
U.S Immigration and Naturalization Service, Statistical Yearbook of the I mmigration and Naturalization
Service, 1991, A1-2.
96
Luibhéid, Entry Denied, 2.
95
20 +DPSVKLUHGLUHFWHGWKH6HQDWH¶VILUVWVWDQGLQJFRPPLWWHHRQLPPLJUDWLRQDQGZLWKD
House committee on immigration, jumpstarted the drive for stricter federal immigration
control policies.97 Thus far an effective system of federal immigration regulation had yet
to be set up, despite previous laws such as the Page Law. At the time Congressmen
wanted to reduce the overall number of immigrants coming to the U.S., but they set aside
WKLVJRDOLQRUGHUWRIRFXVRQUHJXODWLRQDQG³VHOHFWLRQ´98 The result was the Immigration
Act of 1891. Federal immigration control became fully institutionalized under this act
when, on July 12, 1891, the Bureau of Immigration commenced operations in the
Department of the Treasury.99 The federal government set up twenty-four border stations
as well as implemented a medical inspection system.100 The U.S.-owned Ellis Island in
New York was also built with the passing of this act.101
7KH,PPLJUDWLRQ$FWRIFRQWLQXHGLQWKHVDPHYHLQRI³VHOHFWLYH
LPPLJUDWLRQ´WKDWWKH3DJH/DZKDGVHWXSLQ7KH,PPLJUDWLRQ$FWRI
however, expanded upon the Page Law by excluding immigrants who were not only a
VH[XDOGDQJHUEXWDOVRWKRVHZKRVHHPHG³OLNHO\WREHFRPHSXEOLFFKDUJHVIHORQV
LPPLJUDQWVZKRVHSDVVDJHZDVSDLGE\DQRWKHUµDVVLVWHGDOLHQV¶DQGWKRVHZLWK
µORDWKVRPHDQGFRQWDJLRXVGLVHDVHV¶´102 Thus, it attempted to exclude those who would
become dependent upon the state or others as well as those who posed a moral danger to
WKH86LHIHORQV<HWWKHODZGLGQRWVWRSWKHUH,WDOVR³IRUEDGHWKHHQFRXUDJHPHQW
RILPPLJUDWLRQE\PHDQVRIDGYHUWLVLQJ´DQGHVWDEOLVhed the idea of deportation.103 Any
97
Highman, Strangers, 99.
Ibid.
99
Luibhéid, Entry Denied, 8.
100
Ibid., 9.
101
Highman, Strangers, 99.
102
Luibhéid, Entry Denied, 9.
103
Ibid.
98
21 alien who entered the U.S. illegally could expect to be expelled within a year and any
immigrant who became a public charge could also expect to be deported.104 Immigrants
who hoped to enter the U.S. also faced a tough code of what was and was not acceptable
LQUHJDUGWRVH[XDOLW\LQWKH,PPLJUDWLRQ$FWDVZHOO$Q\LPPLJUDQWJXLOW\RI³PRUDO
WXUSLWXGH´ZDVLPPHGLDWHO\H[FOXGHGIURPHQWUDQFH105 These crimes were difficult to
identify and included, as well as extended beyond, sexuality. Immigrants convicted of
³DGXOWHU\ELJDP\UDSHVWDWXWRU\UDSHDQGVRGRP\´KDGQRKRSHRIHQWHULQJWKH86 106
Polygamists were also excluded.107 Immigration officials saw these measures as
appropriate in order to prevent the total moral and literal infestation of the country.
3K\VLFLDQVWHDPHGXSZLWKLPPLJUDWLRQRIILFLDOVWRFUHDWHDZD\WRFKHFNIRU³PRUDO
WXUSLWXGH´LQLPPLJUDQWV1RWRQO\WKLVEXW³ORDWKVRPHDQGFRQWDJLRXVGLVHDVHV´ZDV
interpreted to mean venereal diseases. Consequently, those who could literally infect U.S.
citizens were also barred from entering. Physicians and immigration officials looked for
³VLJQVRIVH[XDOO\µDEQRUPDO¶DSSHWLWHVDQGEHKDYLRU´DVZHOODVYHQHUHDOGLVHDVH108
After inspection, if any immigrant was excluded from entrance, the steamship that had
carried him or her there was required to take him or her back to Europe.109 This had an
effect on those who sold tickets to Europeans who wished to immigrate. Ticket agents
EHFDPHSVHXGRLQVSHFWRUVVLQFH³FRPSDQLHVKHOGtheir agents responsible for the return
SDVVDJH´110 Thus, ticket agents only sold to those who they thought would make it past
inspectors and into the U.S. As a result, encouraging immigration became quite risky and
104
Highman, Strangers, 100.
Luibhéid, Entry Denied, 9.
106
Ibid.
107
Ibid.
108
Ibid.
109
Highman, Strangers, 99.
110
Ibid., 100.
105
22 an undesirable task. The Immigration Act of 1891 would remain the framework of the
United States immigration laws for decades to come, but those worried about race suicide
still seemed unsatisfied with the new and stricter controls.
Presented with the opinion that immigrant women and men were a major cause of
the growing moral decay of the nation through prostitution, Congress passed the
Immigration Act of 1910, which extended exclusion to immigrants who were prostitutes
RUZKRVRXJKWWRVHFXUHSURVWLWXWHVDVZHOODVSURKLELWHGWKH³LPSRUWDWLRQof aliens for
SURVWLWXWLRQRUDQ\RWKHULPPRUDOSXUSRVH´111 The Immigration Act of 1910 amended the
existing Immigration Act of 1891 to further deny entrance of criminals, paupers, and
diseased persons. At the time, Congress was highly concerned with foreign women
infiltrating the U.S. and spreading prostitution and other loose morals. Foreigners had
recently become associated with extreme coercion or forceful entry into prostitution
NQRZQDVZKLWHVODYHU\ZLWKWKHSXEOLFDWLRQRI*HRUJH.LEEH7XUQHU¶VDnti-Semitic
HVVD\³'DXJKWHUVRIWKH3RRU´112 Although immigrants had previously been regarded as
a major makeup of the prostitute population, now immigrants stood accused of
organizing the traffic in women, and not just any group of women, young and vulnerable
American girls. At the same time, Congress was presented with a report entitled
Importation and Harboring of Women for Immoral Purposes, ZKLFK³H[DPLQHGWKH
WUDIILFNLQJLQZRPHQWKURXJKWKHLPPLJUDWLRQV\VWHP´113 Also added to the list of
H[FOXGHGLPPLJUDQWVZHUHWKRVHZKR³DUHVXSSRUWHGE\RUUHFHLYHLQZKROHRULQSDUWWKH
111
Luibhéid, Entry Denied, 13.
*HRUJH.LEEH7XUQHU³'DXJKWHUVRIWKH3RRU´0F&OXUH¶V0DJD]LQH(November 1909), 45-61.
113
Luibhéid, Entry Denied, 13.
112
23 SURFHHGVRISURVWLWXWLRQ´114 European women had a much harder time gaining entrance
to the U.S. under this new Immigration Act as immigration inspectors tried to determine
whether they were being imported for prostitution, knowingly or through trickery.
Additionally, foreigners were often accused of tricking and forcing innocent white
girls who had just moved to a big city into prostitution. This type of trade came to be
NQRZQDV³ZKLWHVODYHU\´DQGZDVVHQVDWLRQDOL]HGE\ERRNVVXFKDV5HJLQDOG
.DXIIPDQ¶V House of Bondage, and films, such as Traffic in Souls.115 Stories about
young, innocent women being lured into slavery by Jews, French men, and other crafty
immigrants permeated the media. Not only this, but white slavery was taken just as
seriously as black enslavement had been. Clifford Roe, U.S. District Attorney of
&KLFDJRSURFODLPHGWKDW³7KHZKLWHVODYHRI&KLFDJRLVDVODYHDVPXFKDVWKHNegro
was before the Civil war, as the African is in the districts of the Congo, as much as any
SHRSOHDUHVODYHVZKRDUHRZQHGIOHVKDQGERQHERG\DQGVRXOE\DQRWKHUSHUVRQ´116
Legislators attempted to calm the rising hysteria over prostitution and increased
immigration numbers even since the last Immigration Act was passed. The Mann Act
supplemented the Immigration Act of 1910 and sought to eliminate white slavery as it
³SURKLELWHGWKHLPSRUWDWLRQDQGLQWHUVWDWHWUDQVSRUWDWLRQRIZRPHQIRULPPRUDO
purSRVHV´117 Immigrants could also be deported for violating the Mann Act.118
$GYRFDWHVRIODZVVXFKDVWKHVHFODLPHGWKDW³LPPLJUDWLRQZDVWKHFDXVHRI$PHULFD¶V
114
Grounds for the Exclusion of Aliens Under the Immigration and Nationality Act. Historical Background
and Analysis, Committee of the Judiciary, U.S. House of Representatives, 100 th Congress, 2d Sess.,
September 1988 (Washington, D.C .: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1988), 15.
115
Rosen, Lost S isterhood, 114.
116
Clifford Roe, former United States District Attorney in Chicago, quoted in E. Norine Law, The Sha me of
a Great Nation, 143.
117
Luibhéid, Entry Denied, 13.
118
Ibid.
24 XUEDQXQUHVWDQGDOLHQSLPSVDQGSURFXUHUVZHUHWKHFDXVHRIZKLWHVODYHU\´119
Sentiments such as these created the image of evil immigrant men deceiving innocent
white U.S.-born women into becoming a part of the world of prostitution. This could only
lead to moral decay, something that legislators sought to keep from occurring along with
hysteria surrounding prostitution and white slavery. The Mann Act along with the
Immigration Act of 1910 would remain in place for many years without hefty changes to
their content.
In 1917, with the onset of World War I and popularized eugenic thinking,
Congress revised and passed a new immigration act, the Immigration Act of 1917. The
Espionage and Sedition Acts were also passed in 1917 as communism began to threaten
the U.S. The Espionage and Sedition Acts gave the government the power to crack down
on critics, especiaOO\LPPLJUDQWVFRQVLGHUHGWREH³XQGHVLUDEOH´120 Since the 1890s those
who had wanted immigration regulated had been asking the government to add a literacy
test component to the Immigration Act of 1891, but they did not receive such a
component until the Immigration Act of 1917.121 The literacy test was supposed to reduce
the number of immigrants who were qualified to enter the U.S. from Southern and
Eastern Europe.122 7KHOLWHUDF\WHVWVH[FOXGHGDQ\³DGXOWLPPLJUDQWVXQDEOHWRUHDGD
simple passage in some lanJXDJH´123 Unfortunately this did not reduce the number of
immigrants coming from those areas of Europe substantially, but it did serve to calm the
fears of those who saw Southern and Eastern Europeans as having divided loyalties
119
Frederick Grittner, White S lavery: Myth, Ideology, and American Law (New York: Garland, 1990), 94.
Luibhéid, Entry Denied, 14.
121
Ibid.
122
Ibid.
123
Highman, Strangers, 203.
120
25 during the war.124 This was peUKDSVEHFDXVHWKHODZPDGHWKHH[FHSWLRQWKDW³DQ
DGPLVVLEOHDOLHQPLJKWEULQJLQPHPEHUVRIKLVLPPHGLDWHIDPLO\GHVSLWHWKHLULOOLWHUDF\´
and any immigrant who could prove they were fleeing religious persecution was
admitted.125 The Chicago Tribune saw the QHHGIRU³LQWHQVHDQGLQVSLULQJQDWLRQDOLW\´
during the aftermath of WWI, and immigration restriction therefore became a part of the
national defense.126 $GGLWLRQDOO\WKH,PPLJUDWLRQ$FWRIFUHDWHGWKH³$VLDWLF
%DUUHG=RQH´DQGDQ\LPPLJUDQW-hopefuls from this area were now barred from entering
the United States.127 7KH%DUUHG=RQHLQFOXGHG³,QGLD%XUPD6LDPWKH0DOD\6WDWHV
$UDELD$IJKDQLVWDQSDUWRI5XVVLDDQGPRVWRIWKH3RO\QHVLDQ,VODQGV´128 The Asiatic
Barred Zone attempted to exclude Hindu and East Indian labor from entering the U.S.129
The Act also expanded the list of foreigners who were to be excluded or deported to
LQFOXGH³YDJUDQF\FKURQLFDOFRKROLVPDQGWXEHUFXORVLVLQDQ\IRUP´130 Eugenics played
DPDMRUUROHLQWKLVDVHXJHQLFV³H[SHUWV´ZHUHEURXJKWLQWRH[DPLQHLPPLJUDQWVDW(OOLV
Island after the press claimed that regular inspectors allowed too many immigrants with
undesirable qualities to enter the U.S.131 7KH$FWIXUWKHUH[FOXGHG³SRO\JDPLVWVRU
persons who practice polygamy or EHOLHYHLQRUDGYRFDWHWKHSUDFWLFHRISRO\JDP\´132
The Act further repeated the desire to eliminate the entrance of women for immoral
purposes by banning these women and girls as well as allowing these women to be
124
Ibid., 202.
Ibid., 203.
126
Qtd. in Ibid., 203.
127
Luibhéid, Entry Denied, 14.
128
Lucy Salyer, Laws Harsh as Tigers (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995), 133.
129
Highman, Strangers, 204.
130
Luibhéid, Entry Denied, 14.
131
Ibid., 174.
132
Edward P. Hutchinson, Legislative History of A merican Immigration Policy 1798-1965 (Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1981), 422.
125
26 deported if they acted in immoral ways after their arrival to the U.S.133 New medical
FRQGLWLRQVLQDGGLWLRQWRWKHEDQRQLQGLYLGXDOVZKRKDG³ORDWKVRPHDQGFRQWDJLRXV
GLVHDVHV´ZHUHDGGHGDQGLQFOXGHGLQGLYLGXDOVZKRZHUHFRQVLGHUHG³SV\FKRSDWKLF
LQIHULRUV´134 This term was a medical classification that included individuals who were
WKRXJKWWR³VKRZDOLIHORQJDQGFRQVWLWXWLRQDOWHQGHQF\QRWWRFRQIRUPWRWKHWHQGHQFLHV
RIWKHJURXS´135 7KH3XEOLF+HDOWK6HUYLFH¶V Manual for the Mental Examination of
Aliens defined psychopathic inferiors to includH³PRUDOLPEHFLOHVSDWKRORJLFDOOLDUVDQG
VZLQGOHUV«DQGSHUVRQVZLWKDEQRUPDOVH[XDOLQVWLQFWV´136 Binet tests were used by
immigration officials to determine who fell into this category. Immigrants of this variety
posed a great danger to the Yankee stock because, as eugenicists had warned Americans,
they would create a whole race of degenerates that would overwhelm the U.S.-born
population.
Sexual behavior was not beyond the scope of the Immigration Act of 1917,
especially not prostitution. Immigrants utilized for purposes of prostitution, whether as an
attempt to import or employ them, caused steep fines and imprisonment on the part of
both the immigrant and the citizen looking to procure.137 Immigrants who were convicted
also faced the possibility of deportation even after fines and imprisonment.138
)XUWKHUPRUH³DQ\DOLHQUHFHLYLQJDQ\VKDUHLQRUGHULYLQJDQ\EHQHILWVIURPWKHHDUQLQJ
of a prostitute; or managing or employed by, or in connection with, a house of
prostitution, music or dance hall, or place of amusement or resort habitually frequented
133
Luibhéid, Entry Denied, 15.
Ibid.
135
5LFKDUG*UHHQ³µ*LYH0H<RXU7LUHG<RXU3RRU<RXU+XGGOHG0DVVHV¶RI+HWHURVH[XDOV$Q
Analysis of American and CanaGLDQ,PPLJUDWLRQ/DZ3ROLF\´ Anglo American Law Review 16 (1987):
140.
136
Qtd. in Ibid., 141.
137
Luibhéid, Entry Denied, 15.
138
Ibid.
134
27 E\SURVWLWXWHV´DOVRIDFHGGHSRUWDWLRQ139 Conviction was not even necessary with this
SURYLVLRQ7KHODZVWDWHGWKDW³LISURVWLWXWLRQFDQEHVKRZQWRKDYHEHHQpracticed,
GHSRUWDWLRQIROORZV´140 Provisions such as this meant that even if a girl had entered the
country as a child, if she practiced prostitution years later she could be sent back to the
country from which she originally came.141 The Act further prevented women found
JXLOW\RI³LPPRUDO´SUDFWLFHVIURPPDUU\LQJWRDYRLGGHSRUWDWLRQ142 Aliens could not
even hope to return to the United States after deportation because if anyone connected to
SURVWLWXWLRQDWWHPSWHGWRUHWXUQDIWHUGHSRUWDWLRQ³VKHRUKHZRXOGEHLPSULVRQHGIRUXS
to two yearVDQGWKHQGHSRUWHGDJDLQ´143 However, it seemed that legislators finally hit a
home run with these overly strict laws for regulating sexuality. There was no change to
the law until 1921 when quotas were added.144 With the Immigration Act of 1917 firmly
in place the question of immigration restriction was at peace for a while. By 1917 most
Americans worried about the aliens already among them, not those wishing to gain
entrance.145 The war only served to stir these fears more adamantly. For a while though,
Americans were content with the legislation that served to keep their beloved race safe
from degenerates bringing moral decay and venereal diseases to the country.
Even after gaining entrance to the United States, immigrants faced not only the
possibility of deportation but also racial biases in punishments at the local level.
Americans had a strong urge to teach immigrant men a lesson about morals. One specific
case is that of an Italian immigrant who faced the wrath of Judge Ogden of Arkansas.
139
Jane Perry Clark, The Deportation of Aliens from the United States to Europe (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1931), 236.
140
Ibid.
141
Ibid., 235.
142
Luibhéid, Entry Denied, 16.
143
Ibid., 16.
144
Ibid.
145
Highman, Strangers, 204.
28 Louis Albertoli, a twenty-four-year-ROG,WDOLDQPDQ³IDFHGGHSRUWDWLRQDQGDILYH-year
prison sentence for having sex with a fourteen-\HDUROGJLUOIURPKLVQHLJKERUKRRG´146
JXGJH2JGHQOHFWXUHGWKH\RXQJLPPLJUDQWVD\LQJ³,UHDOL]HWKDWLQVRPHIRUHLJQ
FRXQWULHVWKHVDPHFRGHRIPRUDOVLVQRWSUHVHQW«,QVRPHFRXQWULHVWRGD\DPDQFDQ
IRUFLEO\WDNH>D@ZRPDQWKDW«KHZDQWVEXWRIFRXUVHZHGRQ¶WFDOOWKRVHFRXQWULHV
civilized.´147 2JGHQJRHVRQWRVD\³,IZHSHUPLW>WKHLU@FXVWRPVWRSUHYDLOXSRQWKLV
soil, instead of having the higher code of ethics, we would descend to the code of ethics
DQGWKHPRUDOVRI>WKHVH@RWKHUFRPPXQLWLHV´148 Judge Ogden ultimately sent Louis to
prison while a twenty-three-year old white man in a similar case judged by Ogden was
granted probation because Ogden felt the white man was the true victim.149 When a white
man had sex with an underage girl he was seen as the victim of her immoral ways, while
immigrants in the same situation were seen as products of uncivilized and depraved
races.150Americans seemed to be okay with this, however, because it kept the white and
American born citizens safe from the moral decay that came along with immigrants.
From the first documentation of immigrant births skyrocketing, Americans began
to obsess over the vulnerability of their race and nation at the hands of immigrants.
Theodore Roosevelt warned the nation that if the women did not start reproducing and
performing their duty to the state, then the Yankee stock would commit suicide. This
highly romantic ideal was turned into science at the hands of eugenicists who held firm in
their belief that immigrants simply inherited their feeblemindedness and loose morals.
146
Mary E. Odem, Delinquent Daughters: Protecting and Policing Adolescent F emale Sexuality in the
United States, 1885-1920 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995), 79.
147
Ibid., 79-80.
148
Ibid., 80.
149
Ibid., 81.
150
Ibid.
29 They said that immigrants could not help their degenerate characteristics anymore than a
tiger could help to be striped. Unfortunately, these feebleminded and immoral ways
would ultimately cause the decay of American society, they warned. Venereal disease
came to also be seen as a quality of immigrants. They were seen as a diseased lower class
who infected the upper echelons of society through their loose morals; foreign-born
prostitutes lured in upstanding American men to sleep with them. The men subsequently
infected their wives, which ultimately caused them to be sterile and contributed to race
VXLFLGH³,QQRFHQW´WUDQVPLVVLRQRIYHQHUHDOGLVHDVHVWKURXJKHYHU\GD\REMHFWVVXFKDV
pencils and drinking fountains, further justified the upper-classed citizens of America to
avoid contact with the immigrant, lower-classed citizens living in close quarters in urban
environments. Through laws such as the Page Law, the Immigration Acts of 1891, 1910,
and 1917, and the Mann Act elected officials sought to put Americans at ease by
regulating immigration on a federal level. Even local courts sought to ease the troubled
minds of Americans by imprisoning the morally depraved for much longer than any
white citizen would dream of going to jail for.
The idea that most foreign-born women were employed as prostitutes, despite
strict laws to prevent such an occurrence, and the fact that prostitution remained not only
a moral threat but also a health threat to the race as a whole caused alarm among
Americans. Ultimately this would reach a fever-pitch with the notion of white slavery.
Until then, eugenicists who feared the worst for the race added the reason and logic of
science to the argument to eradicate prostitution or regulate it so that such instances could
not get out of control. Hysteria over race morphed into hysteria over sex.
30 CHAPTER II
PROSTITUTION AND WHITE SLAVERY: AMERICA FIGHTS
IMMORALITY
February 1910 found Louise Elbert, a 17-year-old orphan, jobless and staying in a
California orphanage. Up until then, the matron of the home had encouraged Louise time
and time again to find a job and a home of her own. Louise had been searching for jobs in
the city, but to no avail. Then, a stroke of luck found her. A girl wrote to Louise saying
that a maid was wanted in a San Francisco home, and without investigating the lead at all,
the matron of the home in which Louise was staying sent her on to apply for the job.
With the address in hand, Louise arrived in San Francisco. One morning several days
later, Louise overheard the girl who had written to her bargaining with four Chinese men
as to who would buy Louise. Louise began to sob, but it was no use.151 She was sold into
a life of prostitution, locked up, and only rescued months later after she had been tortured
E\KHUFDSWRUV<HWIRU/RXLVHLWZDVWRRODWH6KHKDGDOUHDG\EHHQ³UXLQHG´EHFDXVH
she had been forced to fill out a checklist that reformers claimed would lead her straight
151
Harriet Laidlaw Papers, 1851-1958, Correspondence from Hattie Rose, Feb. 1910. A-63, folder 150.
Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., qtd. in Ruth Rosen, The
Lost S isterhood (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982), 128.
31 WRKHOO6KHGUDQN³WKHZLQHFRQVWDQWO\RIIHUHGKHU«VPRNH>G@WKHFLJDUHWWHZLWKLWV
RSLXPDQGWREDFFR´152
/RXLVH¶VIDOOUHSUHVHQWHGWKHJUHDWHVWIHDUVRI$PHULFDGXULQJWKHPRUDOSDQLFWKDW
reached its height in 1910. However, America had been worried over the moral dangers
that prostitution presenWHGVLQFH$PHULFD¶VYHU\LQFHSWLRQ9DJUDQF\ODZVKDGEHHQ
around since the time of colonial America to combat moral threats such as prostitution.
But, by the nineteenth century vagrancy laws were no longer well enforced. To make
PDWWHUZRUVHDIWHUWKH³PDUNHWUHYROXWLRQ´RIWKHQLQHWHHQWKFHQWXU\PRUHDQGPRUH
women took jobs outside the home and moved from their rural communities to urban
FHQWHUVWKDWFRQWDLQHGPRUHMREV7KLVFKDQJHLQZRPHQ¶VWUDGLWLRQDOUROHVUHSUHVHQWHGD
key aspect of the moral panic that would later reach its height in the early 1900s. In
addition, migration across the U.S. led to towns that were, in some respects, lawless, and
lacking traditional moral values²dens of prostitution. The Second Great Awakening,
from 1790 to 1840, focused on social problems, such as prostitution, instead of individual
sinners, like its predecessor. This was just one of several movements that grew out of the
fears among Americans that the morals, especially sexual morals, of Americans were no
longer under control. Moral reform campaigns, promoted by women, grew out of the
Second Great Awakening. The campaigns mainly wanted to abolish sexual licentiousness
and prostitution. Slowly but surely the movement to calm the rising fears among
Americans about sexual morality beyond control came under way, and the more people
moved against sexual deviance the more a moral panic began to rise. After the American
Civil War, the South saw an increase in social activism as well as prostitution.
152
&KDUOHV1HOVRQ&ULWWHQWRQ³7KH7UDIILFLQ*LUOV´,Q War on the White S lave Trade, ed. Ernest A. Bell
(Chicago: The Charles C. Thompson Co., 1909), 132.
32 Postbellum America saw an increase in immigrants who could only obtain jobs as
prostitutes, and this only increased fears among Americans that not only had sexual
morality become uncontrollable but the immigrant population contributed to this. The
answer was simple: they were feebleminded and driven by heedless sexuality, the product
of biologically grounded flaws in their moral character that led them to prostitution and
producing illegitimate children. Progressives latched onto this idea and sought biological
answers in the social problems of prostitution and slums. With this change came a
transition in the view of prostitution. It had shifted from necessary to social evil.
Prostitution was no longer a personal problem as it had been in colonial and early
America; it had become a national menace that had to be stopped at all costs. Thus,
Anthony Comstock and his New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, as well as
many other vice commissions in cities throughout the nation, investigated prostitution
from a biological standpoint and sought to restore the fallen women to society as whitewashed angels. The prevailing attitude throughout the U.S. appealed to the government to
formally eliminate prostitution once and for all. Another smaller group, however, wished
to regulate prostitution as European countries had done. Yet, venereal disease stood in the
way of regulation and had become the major factor in race suicide, according to
eugenicists. Venereal disease infected not only the men who visited prostitutes but also
their innocent wives who would later be rendered sterile as a result of infection. Thus,
prostitution had to end. The moral sanctity of America demanded it. The now infamous
red-light districts were created and prostitutes were confined to them by the 1890s. Vice
became localized to a district, which became known as red-light districts, that was
segregated from the rest of cities and towns. Red-light districts restricted groups of
33 people generally despised by average citizens to a clearly separate part of town by means
of city ordinances and sometimes coercion.153 Still, efforts such as these did not prove to
be enough for the panic-stricken Americans.
7KHPRUDOSDQLFRQO\JUHZZRUVH/RXLVH¶VVWRU\LVRQO\RQHRIGR]HQVLQZKLFK
young, unassuming Anglo-American women were snatched from the streets and forced
into prostitution. America became acutely aware of the problem after George Kibbe
Turner published his stories in 0F&OXUH¶V magazine of Jews who tricked young white
girls into sexual slavery. The already panicking Americans reached a crescendo after they
learned that not only was sexuality becoming far too loose in America, but the innocent
and well-behaving white girls of the nation were being forced to participate. Charles
3DUNKXUVWDUHYHUHQGLQ1HZ<RUNLQYHVWLJDWHGWKHFODLPVRI³ZKLWHVODYHU\´DVLWKDG
been dubbed, and exposed the fact that there the stories were true and the actuality was
more brutal than any fiction could ever be. Americans soon learned of the methods of
procurement that white slavers used, and their daughters were warned of the dangers. To
make matters worse, the white slave panic only reinforced the racial panic of the time and
reinforced the fact that immigrants were a danger to the morality of America. Chinese
immigrants had especially been singled out as white slavers, and women had been
warned not to venture into Chinese businesses alone. As the moral panic increased,
government machines, such as Tammany Hall, began to be blamed for allowing white
slavery to continue. Key political figures began to speak out on behalf of white America.
&OLIIRUG5RHIRULQVWDQFHDWWKHWLPHZDV&KLFDJR¶V$WWRUQH\*HQHUDODQGEHFDPHWKH
most prolific writer on white slavery as he uncovered tale after tale of women drugged
153
Mara Laura Keire, For Business and Pleasure: Red-light Districts and the Regulation of Vice in the
United States, 1890-1933 (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010), 51.
34 and dragged into sexual slavery. As the panic grew, the National Vigilance Committee
for the Suppression of White Slavery formed along with vice commissions in almost
every large city in the nation. The committees dedicated themselves to investigating the
sexual licentiousness of their cities, exposing it, and moving towards efforts to stop it.
Eventually, at the very height of the panic, the Mann Act was passed in order to stop the
immoral traffic in young women across state lines. A Bureau of Investigation, eventually
to become the FBI, was formed with a Commissioner for the Suppression of the White
Slave Traffic in order to investigate violations of the Mann Act. Progressive reformers
had not been satisfied, however, and they wanted the red-light districts closed down in
RUGHUWRHQGRQFHDQGIRUDOOWKHQDWLRQ¶VFRPSOLDQFHZLWKVH[XDOGHYLDQFHDQGLPPRUDO
foreigners. Following the panic, eugenicists analyzed white slave investigations for signs
RI³IHHEOHPLQGHGQHVV´LQWKHZRPHQRIWKHQDUUatives. Eventually, in order to protect the
nation and the race, in the Supreme Court case Caminetti v. United States WKH0DQQ$FW¶V
narrow purpose of stopping prostitution was expanded to the goal of stopping immorality.
The moral panic of the 1890s to its peak in 1910 did not begin in the late
nineteenth century. It had a deep-rooted history that extended as far back as colonial
America. However, the moral panic was not simply a panic over sexual morality. It
represented a panic over the changing roles of women, the move from rural to urban life,
slums packed tightly with non-Anglos that Anglo-Americans had to come into close
contact with every day, and most importantly it represented a panic over the supposed
death of the Anglo-American. The race, Teddy Roosevelt had warned, needed to
reproduce quickly lest it commit suicide and be overtaken by feebleminded immigrants
with loose morals. The white slave panic only served to add to this by presenting the idea
35 that foreigners with loose morals were imposing them on the Yankee stock. Prostitution
did this through venereal diseases transmitted to Yankee husbands and then on to their
innocent wives. The moral panic over sexuality that began in the 1890s was, on the
surface, a panic over the loosening of stiff American sexual morality that had been in
place since its inception. Yet, below the surface lurked something more sinister, a panic
over loose foreigners who disrupted the American way of life by imposing their loose
morals on Anglo-Americans as well as outstripping them in reproduction, which could
ultimately lead to an America without anyone of Yankee blood.
The first legislation in America that reflected the desire to control or even outlaw
prostitution came in the form of vagrancy laws. Vagrants were often seen as poor
members of the community who posed a threat to the moral order. Thus, vagrancy laws
in colonial America became tools used to combat moral threats to rural communities
EHFDXVH³GULIWHUVFKDOOHQged both the moral character of small-town society and the
GHOLFDWHZHERIPXWXDOREOLJDWLRQWKDWSURYLGHGUHOLHIIRUWKHSRRULQFRXQWU\VHWWLQJV´154
Vagrancy was considered a local or regional problem, not a problem of society at large.
Local institutions took care of vagrants, but there was not national movement to find
them secure jobs or save them their destitute state.155 Vagrancy laws changed in the
nineteenth century, however. They became a measure to counter gathering poor in urban
centers during economic downturns. As the poor increased in number, they became more
of a threat to the social order.156 Vagrancy laws, therefore, were used to combat that
threat to the social order. The laws had been written with the intention of being broad in
154
-HIIUH\6$GOHU³$+LVWRULFDO$QDO\VLVRIWKH/DZRI9DJUDQF\´ Criminology 27 no. 2 (1989): 214.
Tim Cresswell, The Tra mp in America (London: Reaktion Books, 2001), 51.
156
Ibid.
155
36 RUGHUWR³DSSUehend a diverse array of potential trouble-PDNHUV´157 Accordingly,
RIIHQGHUVRIYDJUDQF\ODZVLQFOXGHG³YDJDERQGVZDQGHUHUVURJXHVSURVWLWXWHVSLPSV
JDPEOHUVDQGSHRSOHZKRUHIXVHGWRZRUNIRUZDJHV´158 Prostitution had, therefore, been
outlawed by a broad set of laws that attempted to keep society safe from trouble makers.
%\YDJUDQF\ODZVLQ,OOLQRLVUHPDLQHGEURDGDQGGHILQHGYDJDERQGVDV³LGOHDQG
dissolute persons who went about and begged, runaways, pilferers, drunkards, nightwalkers, lewd people, wanton and lascivious persons, railers and brawlers, persons
without a calling or profession, visitors of tippling houses and houses of ill-IDPH´159
Consequently, not only was prostitution considered a moral problem to society, but so
were those who visited brothels. America, even by 1874, had begun to see that
prostitution, and those who promoted the institution of prostitution, posed a distinct moral
threat to society.
Vagrancy laws had pointed to prostitution as an individual problem, not one of
society as a whole, and the changing roles of women in society helped to propel
SURVWLWXWLRQWRWKHIRUHDVWKH³VRFLDOHYLO´LWHYHQWXDOO\EHFDPH$VWKH$PHULFDQVRFLHW\
industrialized in the 1850s and 1860s, there was a slow move toward city life and by the
Civil War era women even sought careers outside the home to such an extent that it had
become a full-fledged social problem.160 Employment, from the male point of view,
served as a problem because it enabled women to break free from their duties of the
GRPHVWLFVSKHUHLQZKLFKWKH\KDGWUDGLWLRQDOO\³UHLJQHGRYHUWKHPRUDODQGGRPHVWLF
UHDOPVWKH\UDQWKHKRXVHKROGUDLVHGWKHFKLOGUHQUHJXODWHGWKHIDPLO\¶VUHOLJLRXVOLIH
157
Ibid.
Ibid., 52.
159
9LFWRU+RIIPDQ³7KH$PHULFDQ7UDPS-´0DVWHU¶VWKHVLV8QLYHUVLW\RI&KLFDJR
160
Sharon E. Wood, The F reedom of the Streets: Work, Citizenship, and Sexuality in a Gilded Age City
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005), 7.
158
37 DQGVLJQHGXSIRUOLJKWPLVVLRQDU\ZRUN´161 Women who sought to obtain work upset the
GHOLFDWHEDODQFHDQGPHDQLQJRIIDPLO\EHFDXVHWKHUHZDVQRRQHWRSHUIRUPWKH³KLJK
DQGVDFUHGGXW\«WKHGXW\RIWKHPRWKHU´162 During the early nineteenth century,
motherhood was exalted above all else. If women were no longer home to perform the
sacred duties of motherhood, then it was only natural to assume that the future of the
country was in jeopardy because no one would be there to instill morals in the children,
run the household, raise the children, or keep the family involved in religion. The nation,
it seemed, would be led straight to vice if mothers did not stay home and perform their
sacred duty. 2WKHUVZRUULHGWKDW³SDLGHPSOR\PHQWSXWZRPHQLQGDQJHURIEHFRPLQJ
SURVWLWXWHV´163 9LFWRULDQZRPHQDIWHUDOOZHUHPHDQWWREH³GRPHVWLFGRFLOe, and
UHSURGXFWLYH´DQGWKH\ZHUHVXSSRVHGWRUHDIILUPKHUKXVEDQG¶VFODVVVWDWXVDQGKHOSWKH
less fortunate.164 Unfortunately, as women moved into the working (also known as
public) sphere, she made it seem as though she must work in order to provide for the
IDPLO\$GGLWLRQDOO\E\ZRUNLQJZLWKZRPHQ¶VFKDULW\JURXSVVKHPRYHGHYHUFORVHUWR
the public sphere that was so dominated by men by learning how to speak in public and
become involved politically. Women felt, however, that they must pursue skills that lay
RXWVLGHWKHGRPHVWLFRUZRPDQO\VSKHUH7KDWPRYHLQHVVHQFHFUHDWHGD³GDQJHURXV
VRFLDOSKHQRPHQRQ´165 In addition, as women earned money of their own, they gained
more control over many aspects of the family that men had typically taken responsibility
for. As women gained financial freedom from men through wage labor, divorce became a
161
James A. Morone, Hellfire Nation (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003), 223.
Anthony Comstock, Traps for the Young (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1883), 245.
163
Wood, F reedom of the Streets, 8.
164
Carroll Smith-Rosenburg, Disorderly Conduct (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), 225.
165
Ibid.
162
38 much more popular option for women.166 In fact, between 1870 and 1920, the divorce
rate grew fifteen fold.167 Thus, not only were women shirking their duties to the family,
they were completely destroying the family by breaking it up. The demise of the
American middle class family seemed to be at hand. Middle class families, according to
Progressives and earlier critics, formed the basis of the American society.168 To lose the
foundation of American society would be an atrocity indeed. Thus, the newly
industrialized America fretted over the state of its morals and virtues. Some women even
passed up marriage completely to pursue careers, which helped to strengthen the idea that
the morals and virtues of Americans were in a fragile state. Not only this, but the move
from city to country had even affected the definition of roles within the family. Young
JLUOVZKROLYHGLQWKHFLW\ZHUHWKRXJKWWR³KDYHWKHLURZQIUHHZD\QLJKWDQGGD\´
which was thought to ultimately lead to sin and a life working in a brothel.169 With this
idea came a division of ideas about what could be done. Was it a private matter to be
solved by the parents, or (as it was increasingly becoming to reformers) a matter of public
policy to be solved with intervention by the law? Furthermore, the traditional family that
had been a part of the American way until the Victorian period seemed to be lost.
)DPLOLHVQRORQJHUFRQVLVWHGRI³\RXQJPDWHGFRXSOH>V@«ZRUNLQJRQOLIH¶VSUREOHPV
WRJHWKHU´170 The loss of the so-FDOOHG³PRUDOIDPLO\´ZDVPRXUQHGE\UHIRUPHUVRIWKH
Progressive era, and generations of Americans who followed the move of women from
home to work idealized the simple and innocent past. As generation passed to generation,
166
Morone, Hellfire Nation, 235.
Ibid.
168
Allan M. Brandt, No Magic Bullet: A Social History of Venereal Disease in the United States S ince 1880
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), 7.
169
Davenport Democrat-Gazette (Morning), 31 January 1889, 4.
170
-+&DUVWHQV³(GXFDWLRQDVD)DFWRULQWKH3UHYHQWLRQRI&ULPLQDO$ERUWLRQDQG,OOHJLWLPDF\´
Transactions of the Section on Preventative and Industrial Medicine and Public Health of the American
Medical Association (Detroit: American Medical Association, 1890), 194.
167
39 each one became more nervous than the last, and the sentiment of 1679 that every woe in
VRFLHW\IORZHGIURP³GHIHFWVDVWRIDPLO\JRYHUQPHQW´VWLOOUDQJWUXHRYHUWZRKXQGUHG
years later.171
The changes in family life and the role of women in society may have been the
most unsettling to Americans from the 1850s until the Progressives finally sought reform
in the 1890s, but the Western United States was facing another crisis in its identity²
prostitution had become far more open in the years following the Gold Rush, especially
during the 1850s. The Gold Rush of 1849 had no precedence in U.S. history, and it
occurred quite far from other states with governments and anti-vice laws, however
loosely enforced. Over the course of the Gold Rush, prostitution flourished as prostitutes
positioned in the western region of the U.S. travelled quickly, either individually or as an
organization, to newly discovered mining areas. However, in the first days of the Gold
Rush, prostitution was not quite so established as it eventually became.172 The Gold Rush
actually contained all of the elements necessary for prostitution to strive: starvation,
Native American wars, sexual assaults, and desperate circumstances led many women
who moved west to turn to prostitution for a better life.173 Prostitution quickly became a
way of life in the American West, and by the time of the 1850 census of Sacramento
there were at least three brothels striving in the city.174 The lawless West had no real way
of controlling the sin that seeped into its very soil, and eventually the lawlessness of the
171
Ibid.
Mark A. Eifler, Gold Rush Capitalists: Greed and Growth in S acra mento (University of New Mexico
Press, 2002), 225.
173
0HOLVVD+RSH'LWPRUH³$PHULFDQ:HVWth &HQWXU\´ Encyclopedia of Prostitution and Sex Work
Volume 1, 24.
174
Ibid.
172
40 west was to spread, or rather to be exposed, in cities as far away as Chicago and New
York.
The Second Great Awakening sought to end such social problems that had begun
to spread across the entirety of the continental U.S. The Second Great Awakening lasted
roughly from 1790 to 1840 and focused mostly on social problems rather than individual
sinners. It was composed of Evangelicals who were the original reformers prior to the
Progressive Era. The Second Great Awakening believed in human perfectibility, and
reformers worked to create a society free of sin.175 People in the Northeast and Midwest
joined together and campaigned to end prostitution and alcohol abuse, improve prison
conditions, and establish public schools.176 The primary goal of the movement was to
eliminate social problems, such as slavery and prostitution. By the1830s, special attention
had been called to prostitution as a social problem by middle class reformers.177 No
longer is prostitution considered simply an individual problem in which someone simply
gave into temptation. By the 1830s prostitution has become a social problem that
demanded a solution.178 Clergymen initiated a movement during the Second Great
Awakening to oppose prostitution, and this movement was soon taken up by Protestant
women.179 7KHVHZRPHQIRXQGHGD³PRUDOUHIRUP´PRYHPHQWWKDWFRQGHPQHG
prostitution and then men who resorted to it.180 7KLV³PRUDOUHIRUP´PRYHPHQWZRXOG
HYHQWXDOO\OHDGWRWKH³VRFLDOSXULW\´FUXVDGHZKLFKGHPDQGHGDVLQJOHVWDQGDUGRf
175
Mary Beth Norton et al., eds., A People and a Nation: A History of the United States Volume 2 S ince
1865, Eighth Edition (Boston: Wadsworth, 2010), 290.
176
Ibid.
177
-RKQ'¶(PLOLRDQG(VWHOOH%)UHHGPDQ Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1997), 140-141.
178
Ibid.
179
Ibid., 141.
180
Ibid.
41 morality for men and women. Women active in the Second Great Awakening saw it as
their duty to uphold the moral standards of society. 181
Women, therefore, were especially primed to take on the issue of prostitution
during the time of the Second Great Awakening. These women sought to establish
missions in urban settings to take care of the poor and imprisoned. Women in New York
City had even organized a shelter for prostitutes and publicized the names of brothel
clients by 1830. In addition, the Second Great Awakening arrived at a time of class
formation. The ideas of the middle class were just developing as wage labor, an industrial
society, and city life became more common. The middle class developed ideas of
themselves in which they had internalized the ability to control their sexual urges and
were morally upright citizens.182 The poor and working class, however, did not have this
same control. With the mission work that the Second Great Awakening promoted, middle
class citizens sought to reinstitute sexual controls for the poor and middle class.183 The
middle class missionaries, primarily women, thus called on the state to regulate sexuality,
especially prostitution, which had become a social ill. In addition, the Second Great
Awakening gave followers a reason to hope that the messiah might return soon.
Therefore, they resolved to speed the coming of the millennium (the thousand years of
SHDFHVDLGWRDFFRPSDQ\&KULVW¶V6HFRQG&RPLQJWKURXJKWKHFRPEDWRIVLQ7KXVWKH
followers of the Second Great Awakening urged fellow Americans to renounce their sins,
VXFKDV³GULQNLQJVZHDULQJDQGOLFHQWLRXVQHVV´184 In fact, by the 1830s women, who
had taken on the role of moral reform in society, had begun a full-scale movement to save
181
Ibid.
Ibid., 142.
183
Ibid.
184
Norton, A People and a Nation, 291.
182
42 wayward women and men from their sins. This new awakening to the sins of the
American people only added to the nervousness felt by a society who had seen the roles
of women turned upside down and the definition of family change. Unfortunately this
nervousness would eventually boil over and induce panic among the American people.
Eventually Progressives, the reformers who descended from those moral
reformers of the Great Awakening, called for intervention from the government and
requested that vice be cut off from the rest of the now huge urban cities. Major cities had
just begun the process of professionalizing the police by the mid-nineteenth century, and
these police departments aided in hiding vice from public view.185 Prostitutes and their
clients could be arrested by police on charges oIOHZGQHVVYDJUDQF\RU³NHHSLQJD
GLVRUGHUO\KRXVH´KDUNHQLQJEDFNWRWKHYDJUDQF\ODZVRIFRORQLDOWLPHV186 Prostitution
was effectively limited to poorer sections of urban environments so that the burgeoning
middle class could ignore its presence. By the 1890s, the professionalization of the police
had helped to create red-light districts.187 7KHSKUDVH³UHG-OLJKW´KDVLWVRULJLQVLQUDLOURDG
construction camps of the West, wherein prostitutes outnumbered regular women by fifty
to one.188 Brakemen often visited prostitutes in these camps and would hang his red
signal lamp outside her tent so that he could easily be found if needed to make up a
railroad crew.189 2IWHQSURVWLWXWHV¶WHQWVZRXOGEHFORVHWRJHWKHULQWKHVHFDPSVDQGRQ
a busy night, this area would become known as the red-light district.190 By the 1890s, red-
185
Rosen, The Lost S isterhood, 4.
Ibid.
187
Ibid., 5.
188
Charles Winick and Paul M. Kinsie, The Lively Commerce: Prostitution in the United States (New
York: Signet, 1971), 119.
189
Ibid., 119-120.
190
Ibid., 120.
186
43 light districts had become a staple of big cities and served to segregate vice from citizens
who did not wish to engage in or see it.
Prostitution, limited to these newly created districts of vice, was allowed to
continue unless the political climate called on an elected official to demonstrate his
condemnation of vice through a raid on houses of prostitution. However, these raids were
just for show as prostitutes generally only received fines and not jail sentences.191 Redlight districts were touted as a safer form of prostitution for society. One magazine with a
directory to such districts proclaimed a red-OLJKWGLVWULFW³UHJXODWHVWKHZomen so that
they may live in one district to themselves instead of being scattered over the city and
ILOOLQJRXUWKRURXJKIDUHVZLWKVWUHHWZDONHUV´192 The most celebrated of these districts
were Storyville in New Orleans, the Levee in Chicago, Happy Hollow in Houston, and
the Alley in Boise.193 Furthermore, before red-light districts had been created most
prostitutes plied their own trade without interference from a boss of any sort. As
prostitution grew into a larger and more profitable business venture, an intricate and
commercialized business emerged out of red-light districts. Along with madams, police
DQGSROLWLFLDQVEHQHILWWHGIURPSURVWLWXWLRQE\GHPDQGLQJ³ILQHV´WRHQVXUHWKDWWKH\
would look the other way and allow prostitution to continue. Thus, with the creation of
red-light districts, more third-SDUW\DJHQWVEHFDPHLQYROYHGZLWKWKHVDOHRI³YLFH´DQG
prostitution became an essential part of the political, economic, and cultural milieu of
cities.194 Consequently, prostitution was solidified as a social problem, not one of
individual women, because it touched every major aspect of city life. Along with this,
191
Rosen, The Lost S isterhood, 5.
Winick, The Lively Commerce, 120.
193
Morone, Hellfire Nation, 225.
194
Rosen, The Lost S isterhood, 70.
192
44 *HRUJH.LEEH7XUQHUZKRZURWHWKHIDPRXVH[SRVHRIZKLWHVODYHU\FDOOHG³7KH
'DXJKWHUVRIWKH3RRU´QRWHGWKDW³WKHEXVLQHVVHQWHUSULVHVIRUParketing girls have
SDVVHGHQWLUHO\IURPWKHKDQGVRIZRPHQLQWRWKRVHRIPHQ´195 This would later be quite
LPSRUWDQWLQWKHZKLWHVODYHSDQLF:KDW¶VPRUHWKHFUHDWLRQRIUHG-light districts were
VHHQE\K\JLHQLVWVDVIRROLVKEHFDXVHWKH\IXQFWLRQHGDV³D breeding place of syphilis and
JRQRUUKHD´ZKLFKQHHGHGWREHGUDLQHGVRPHWKLQJDV³ORJLFDODVLWLVWRGUDLQDVZDPS
DQGGHVWUR\WKHUHE\DEUHHGLQJSODFHRIPDODULDDQG\HOORZIHYHU´196 Eventually, through
KHOSIURP³VRFLDOK\JLHQLVWV´ZKRDLPHGWRFOHDQXSWKH³VRFLDOGLVHDVHV´VXFKDV
prostitution, prostitution itself became seen as a disease that must be eradicated. With
the creation of red-light districts, prostitution changed from an occasional means of
making money to a bona fide profession, and the women who worked in the profession
were no longer accepted as neighbors but were corralled into districts in which they lived
and worked. Reformers quickly came to see prostitutes as an enemy of their pure and
innocent cities. Moral panic was all too close to ravaging the nation.
The call to action by reformers continued to be strong as the nation advanced
toward a moral panic for which only government action could hold a solution. In 1892,
the Reverend Charles Parkhurst, of the Presbyterian Church of New York, issued a
sermon in which he denounced the police for protection of prostitution and vice. Little
was done to solve the problem, and therefore, Parkhurst followed the example of English
reformer William Stead, who had personally explored the underworld of prostitution to
see if a white slave market truly existed in Britain. Parkhust conducted a similar
195
*HRUJH.LEEH7XUQHU³7KH'DXJKWHUVRIWKH3RRUA Plain Story of the Development of New York City
as a Leading Centre of the White Slave Trade of the World, under Tammany Hall." McClure's Magazine 34
(November 1909): 61.
196
John H. Stokes, To-GD\¶V:RUOG Problem in Disease Prevention: A Non-Technical Discussion of
Syphillis and Gonorrhoea (Washington, 1919), 105.
45 LQYHVWLJDWLRQLQ1HZ<RUNDQGH[SRVHGWKH³EUXWDOLW\DQGYLROHQFHDVVRFLDWHGZLWKWKH
XQGHUJURXQGYLFHPDUNHW´197 Parkhust recognized early on that political machines were
WLHGSHUVRQDOO\DQGILQDQFLDOO\WRSURVWLWXWLRQ3DUNKXUVWDQQRXQFHGWKDW³VRIDUDVUHODWHG
to the blotting out of such houses [brothels], the strength of the municipal administration
is practically leaguered with the them rather thDQDUUDQJHGDJDLQVWWKHP´198 He even
DFFXVHGWKHSROLFHLQ1HZ<RUNRI³HQWLFLQJSURVWLWXWHVIURPRWKHUFLWLHVWRFRPHWR1HZ
<RUN´199 Parkhurst despised the corrupt political machine known as Tammany Hall as he
FKDUJHGWKHPZLWKEHLQJ³WKHGLUWLHVWFURRNHGest, and ugliest lot of men ever
FRPELQHG«RXWVLGHRI-DSDQRU7XUNH\´200 Accusations such as these garnered more
attention as vice committees formed to investigate such claims. Later muckrackers, for
Parkhurst was indeed a muckracker, were not surprised to find the police and local
political entities involved in the white slave trade. Parkhurst keyed in on fears that had
EHFRPHSURPLQHQWLQ$PHULFDLQWKHVSROLWLFDOPDFKLQHVPDGHGHDOVZLWK³GLUW\
IRUHLJQHUV´DQGXOWLPDWHO\OHGWRWKHFRUUXSWLRQRI$PHrican morals.
As reformers demanded government intervention to keep vice at bay and as
governments continued to look the other way, a moral panic grew in America and
reached its crescendo with fear of white slavery. The moral panic over white slavery
persisted from 1900 to 1914 and centered on the terror Americans had of white women
EHLQJHQWUDSSHGLQWRSURVWLWXWLRQE\IRUHLJQHUV7KH³ZKLWHVODYHSDQLF´FUHDWHGDQ
elaborate myth about white women who were innocent and never entered prostitution of
their own free will and must, therefore, have been coerced or manipulated into such a life.
197
Rosen, The Lost S isterhood, 15.
Charles Parkhurst, Our F ight with Ta mmany 1HZ<RUN&KDUOHV6FULEQHU¶V6RQV
199
Ibid., 155.
200
Ibid., 161.
198
46 In the midst of rising concerns over immigration, there is no surprise that the blame for
such coercion was placed squarely on the shoulders of non-Anglo-Saxons. The panic, as
it grew, took on a life of its own. There was some actual trafficking in women, but it was
largely traffic in foreign, not native-ERUQZRPHQ$GGLWLRQDOO\³RXWRISURVWLWXWHV
interviewed during the Progressive Era, only 7.5 percent listed white slavery or extreme
FRHUFLRQDVWKHFDXVHRIHQWHULQJWKHOLIH´201 Despite this evidence, immigrants became
LQVHSDUDEOHIURPWKHLGHDRIZKLWHVODYHU\DIWHUZLWK*HRUJH.LEEH7XUQHU¶VDQWLSemitic HVVD\³7KH'DXJKWHUVRIWKH3RRU´ZKLFKOLQNHG-HZLVK immigrants to
managing the traffic in Anglo-Saxon women.202 Turner had initially hoped that his essay
would expose the connection between Tammany Hall and prostitution, but the public
made a different connection. Turner charged Tammany Hall leaders, in New York with
the responsibility for the growth of white slavery, but the public latched onto the image of
³HYLO´LPPLJUDQWVSURFXULQJLQQRFHQWZKLWHZRPHQDQGWULFNLQJWKHPLQWRDOLIHRI
prostitution.203 Turner assured his audience that the governments of Paris and Buenos
Ares had already battled these flesh peddling foreigners, and now they poured into
American cities.204 +HZHQWRQWRGHFODUHWKDWWKH-HZV³RSHQHGWKHH\HVRI
WKH«SROLWLFLDQ«WRWKHWUHPHQGRXVILQDQFLDOILHOG´205 From there, Tammany Hall took
over in the traffic of white slaves. Turner charged that men latched onto women for
HFRQRPLFJDLQ+HZURWHWKDW³HYHU\ZKHUHWKHER\RIWKHVOXPVKDVOHDUQHGWKDWDJLUOLV
an asset which, once acquired by him, will give him more money than he can ever earn
201
Frederick Grittner, White S lavery: Myth, Ideology, and American Law (New York: Garland, 1990), 64.
7XUQHU³7KH'DXJKWHUVRIWKH3RRU´-61.
203
Rosen, The Lost S isterhood, 73.
204
Morone, Hellfire Nation, 260.
205
Ibid.
202
47 aQGDOLIHRIDEVROXWHHDVH´206 7XUQHU¶VDFFXVDWLRQVVKRFNHG$PHULFDQVZKRZHUH
DOUHDG\REVHVVHGZLWKWKHQRWLRQRI³UDFHVXLFLGH´DQGLWFRQILUPHGWKHLUZRUVWIHDUV
Foreigners were out to corrupt the morally righteous Anglo-Saxons with their barbaric
sense of lust. Turner further asserted that prostitution in Chicago had been organized
³IURPWKHVXSSO\LQJRI\RXQJJLUOVWRWKHGUXJJLQJRIROGHUDQGOHVVVDODEOHZRPHQRXWRI
existence²ZLWKDOOWKHQLFHW\RIPRGHUQLQGXVWU\´207 +HFRQFOXGHGWKDW³DVLQWKe
VKLS\DUGVQRWRQHVFUDSRIIOHVKLVZDVWHG´208 Thus, a connection between the cold
mechanisms of industry and the procuring of prostitutes was made. Turner effectively
told the nation that when white women, who by Victorian standards would never enter
into prostitution willingly, are forced into such a life they are to remain in such a life until
GHDWK:RUVHWKHVHSDQGHUHUV7XUQHULQVLVWHG³FUXLVHG´1HZ(QJODQGRIWHQLQGLVJXLVHV
like that of a priest, and lured innocent country women into sexual slavery.209
3URVWLWXWLRQLWZRXOGVHHPKDGGHYHORSHGLQWRD³FORVHO\RUJDQL]HGPDFKLQH´DVFRUUXSW
as any trust in America.210 7XUQHU¶VDUWLFOHIRU0F&OXUH¶Vquickly sparked national
attention. Turner had given America every detail it wanted about what it had always
assumed lurked beneath the surface²the corruption of Anglo-Saxon women at the hands
of foreigners. ,QUHVSRQVHWRWKHDUWLFOHRQHPDJD]LQHGHFODUHGWKDW³WKHWUDIILFLQZKLWHslaves, therefore, is diligently at work making pimps of American boys as well as
SURVWLWXWHVRI$PHULFDQJLUOV´ZKLFKW\SLILHGUHDFWLRQVWRWKHDUWLFOH211 Americans gave
LQWR7XUQHU¶VIDQFLIXOWDOHEHFDXVHWKH\KDGDORWWREHDIUDLGRIKD]DUGRXVFLWLHV
206
7XUQHU³7KH'DXJKWHUVRIWKH3RRU´
*HRUJH.LEEH7XUQHU³7KH&LW\RI&KLFDJR$6WXG\RIWKH*UHDW,PPRUDOLWLHV´0F&OXUH¶V0DJD]LQH
28 (April 1907): 575.
208
Ibid., 582.
209
7XUQHU³7KH'DXJKWHUVRIWKH3RRU´
210
Ibid.
211
Edward J. Wheeler, Current Literature 47 (July-December 1909): 596.
207
48 crooked political machines, greedy trusts, and frightening outsiders. President Taft heard
WKHRXWFU\RI$PHULFDQVDQGFODLPHGWKDWWKHUHZDVDQ³XUJHQWQHFHVVLW\IRUDGGLWLRQDO
legislation and greater executive activity to suppresVWKHUHFUXLWLQJ«RISURVWLWXWHV«DQ
evil which, for want of a better name has been called µ7KH:KLWH6ODYH7UDGH¶´212 Taft
even allocated $50,000 to fight white slavery.213 7XUQHU¶VVWRU\RYHUDOOJDYH$PHULFDQV
something to fight against²immigrants who stole young American women and forced
them into a life of tortuous prostitution. His stories actually turned out to be quite tame in
contrast to the storm that was to follow. Millions of immigrants, after all, created anxiety
and trouble in the growing American cities.
As tragic as white slavery seemed to be, the sexual enslavement of white girls was
far more unusual than that of minority women.214 However, the stories of women of nonAnglo-Saxon races being forced into sexual slavery were ignored by the media and
government. This is partly because of the rising fears about immigrants. As North
American railroads blazed a trail to the Western United States, Chinese women, sold into
VH[XDOVODYHU\E\WKHLUSRRUSDUHQWVEHFDPHWKH³EULGHV´VH[XDOVODYHVRIPDQ\UDLOURDG
workers. These Chinese women satisfied the physical needs of exploited Chinese men
who toiled to build the railroads.215 The women received no money for their sexual deeds
and were whipped, branded, and tormented.216 Most Chinese sexual slaves lived only six
years because of the conditions they were forced to live in.217 Yet, stories of Chinese
women being abducted and forced into prostitution induced no outrage in Americans the
212
William Howard Taft, First Annual Message, 7 December 1909, in Papers and Messages of the
Presidents, Ed. James Richardson, (Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Literature, 1911), vol. 10: 7818.
213
Ibid.
214
Naomi B. McCormick, Se[XDO6DOYDWLRQ$IILUPLQJ:RPHQ¶V6H[XDO5LJKWVDQG3OHDVXUHV(Westport,
CT: Praeger Publishers, 1994), 98.
215
Ibid.
216
Ibid.
217
Ibid.
49 way that exaggerated tales of innocent country girls being taken by foreigners and forced
into a life of prostitution in a city they do not know did. It emphasizes the fact that
Americans feared foreigners and feared that Anglo-Americans would soon be the
minority rather than immigrants. Anglo-Americans emphasized the fact that immigrants
came from barbaric nations where laws were not enforced and morals did not apply. The
terror came from the idea that with such an influx of immigrants to America, America
might eventually be stripped of its morals as well. Thus, the white slave panic centered
around Anglo-American girls being stripped of their innocence through force by
foreigners²a fitting analogy for the way that Americans felt at the time.
Americans played up fear of immigrants and the lower class by asserting that
DURXQGHYHU\FRUQHUOXUNHGIRUHLJQ³WKXJV´UHDG\WRVWHDODZD\DZRPDQ¶VLQQRFHQFH
Procurers participated because they gained enormous profits from successfully capturing
young women.218 Progressive reformers pointed to Jews and Italians on the East Coast
DQG&KLQHVHRQWKH:HVW&RDVWDVWKHPDLQIRUHLJQ³VFRXQGUHOV´ZKRNLGQDSSHGRU
coerced young women into a life of prostitution.219 Yet, progressives remained guilty of
letting their fear of foreigners get the best of them. Of convictions under the Mann Act,
created to combat white slavery in 1910 and outlawed interstate traffic in women for
immoral purposes, 72.5 percent were native-born Americans and only 11.5 percent were
Italians, while other ethnicities had insignificantly small percentages.220 In any case, the
SURFXUHUVUHJDUGOHVVRIHWKQLFLW\ZHUHSDLGEDVHGXSRQWKHZRPDQ¶VDJHDQG
218
Rosen, The Lost S isterhood, 119.
Ibid.
220
Howard Woolston, Prostitution in the United States Prior to the Entrance of the United States into the
World War (New York: The Century, Co., 1921), 87.
219
50 attractiveness, either in one payment by a brothel owner, or the procurer would earn a
SRUWLRQRIWKHFDSWXUHGZRPDQ¶VHDUQLQJV221
The methods of procurement for white slavery ranged from employment agencies
ZKRVHQWZRPHQWREURWKHOVRULQWRWKHDUPVRIZKLWHVODYHUVWR³NQRFNRXWGURSV´WKDW
ZHUHSODFHGLQWRXQVXVSHFWLQJ\RXQJODGLHV¶GULQNV7HVWLPRQLHVDERXQGHGDERXWWKH
methods used to drag white slaves into the world of prostitution, which heightened the
SDQLFDPRQJ$PHULFDQV6RPHRIWKHWDPHUPHWKRGVXVHGLQFOXGHG³IDOVHSURPLses of
marriage, mock marriages that had no legal status, and deliberate attempts to entangle a
ZRPDQLQILQDQFLDOGHEWRUHPRWLRQDOGHSHQGHQF\´222 These methods became the most
widely known, but other more devious strategies were also employed. In larger cities, for
example, procurers would search court records to find young women on probation who
might want to leave the city.223 Women, though seldom discussed, also served as
procurers. Women often searched the districts of cities most saturated with charity for
women who were poor and recovering from illness or an accident. These women would
then offer the young women employment, and the girl would promptly be taken to a
house of prostitution.224 Employment agencies frequently served as means of getting
women iQWRZKLWHVODYHU\$VZLWK/RXLVH(OEHUW¶VVWRU\ZRPHQUHVSRQGHGWRDGYHUWLVHG
positions as maids or were sent to jobs of this kind by others, only to be sent to brothels.
Another young woman like Louise responded to an advertisement for work and received
an address for her to go and apply at. After she entered the building though, she was
221
Rosen, The Lost S isterhood, 125.
Ibid.
223
Ibid.
224
Clifford Roe, The Great War on White S lavery (New York, 1911), 239.
222
51 drugged and her clothes were seized.225 Local officials tried to prevent such happenings,
but the officials often received payoffs which prevented them from truly stopping such
practices. For instance, cabdrivers received payoffs for delivering young women who did
not yet know their way around the city to brothels.226 Thus, unsuspecting young girls
could not even trust officials or natives of cities for help upon their arrival there, most
frequently for work. Women were warned not to travel alone as they would become
prime targets for procurers.227
Americans feared innocent young country girls leaving their rural homes and
travelling to urban areas to obtain work. These fears expressed themselves in the
warnings given to women about employment agencies and other urban establishments
sending women to have their innocence stripped from them and enslaved in a life of
prostitution. Warning bells continued to ring as girls were warned about meeting strange
men, especially foreigners. Literature of the period described women who accepted
GULQNVIURPVWUDQJHUVFRQWDLQLQJXQEHNQRZQVWWRWKHZRPHQ³NQRFNRXWGURSV´7KH
women woke up the next morning to find RXWWKDWWKH\KDGEHHQ³UXLQed and placed in
brothels under contract to end their blasted lives in nameless horror.´228 Dangers, it
seemed, lurked all around as women travelled increasingly on their own and foreigners in
the U.S. abounded. Ultimately, the stories of women being drugged and dragged off had
some basis in fact, but the stories quickly got out of control as fears of immigrants
mounted. White slavery, and the stories of procurers that surrounded it, simply worked to
play on the fear of immigrants already present in the U.S. and furthered the attempt to
225
Rosen, The Lost S isterhood, 126.
Ibid.
227
Ibid.
228
E. Norine Law, The Sha me of Great Nation: The Story of the White S lave Trade (Harrisburg, PA:
United Evangelical Publishing House, 1909), 181.
226
52 have women stay at home with warnings of big city crime that could happen even to
them. The stories of procurers who sought out their prize in young Anglo girls only added
to the growing panic over white slavery. It would be only a matter of time before the
government would be forced to act.
Officials in larger cities, such as Chicago and New York, reacted to the panic and
ZRUNHGWRSUHYHQWZRPHQIURPEHLQJYLFWLPL]HGLQWKH³WUXVW´RIZKLWHVODYHU\&OLIIRUG
5RH&KLFDJR¶V$VVLVWDQW'LVWULFW$WWRUQH\DQGWKHPRVWSUROLILFZULWHURQZKLWHVODYHU\
warned that the supply of women who entered brothels of their own free will did not meet
the demand; he was acutely aware of the dangers that white slavery posed to innocent
women because of this need for procuring new victims.229 Roe, known among his
FRQWHPSRUDULHVDV³WKH:LOOLDP/OR\G*DUULVRQRIWKHDQWLSURVWLWXWLRQPRYHPHQW´230 led
the charge in the fight against white slavery from a government standpoint as he
prosecuted white slave cases in Chicago. 231 He never hesitated to express his opinion
that the white slave trade posed a grave danger for women. Roe dramatically proclaimed
WKDW³WKHZKLWHVODYH«LVDVODYHDVPXFKDVWKH1HJURZDVEHIRUHWKH&LYLO:DU«DV
PXFKDVSHRSOHDUHVODYHVZKRDUHRZQHGIOHVKDQGERQHE\DQRWKHUSHUVRQ´232 The
statement exemplifies the rhetoric that surrounded white slavery. Government officials
saw it, as the rest of the nation did, as a real threat that was, if not worse than, on the
same level of gravity as slavery had been in the South. Not only does the statement reveal
this, it also goes to show how deeply imbedded racial divides played into the panic. It,
after all, was not just any set of Americans that were being forced into sexual slavery;
229
Clifford Roe, Panderers and Their White S laves (New York: 1910), 108.
Rosen, The Lost S isterhood, 117.
231
Walter C. Reckless, Vice in Chicago (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1933), 36.
232
Clifford Roe, qtd. in Law, The Sha me of a Great Nation, 143.
230
53 Anglo-American girls, who epitomized the innocence of the nation, were being dragged
off and forFHGWRVHOOWKHLUERGLHVE\IRUHLJQ³GHYLOV´5RHKHOSHGH[SRVHVXFKGDQJHUV
when he wrote essays for the most popular white slavery tract, F ighting the Traffic in
Young Girls.233 5RH¶VZKLWHVODYHQDUUDWLYHVZHUHODWHUIRXQGWREHH[DJJHUDWLRQVEXWDW
the time, the public looked to him as a credible source, as did many legislators.234 Roe
became famous for helping young women caught up in the horrors of white slavery.
0RQD0DUVKDOOEHFDPH5RH¶VLQVSLUDWLRQIRUKDOWLQJWKHZKLWHVODYHWUDGHLQKLVFLW\RI
Chicago. The case was questionable from the outset and would eventually be revealed to
EHDKRD[EXWWKHSURVSHFWRIZKLWHVODYHVMXVWOLNHLQKHUVWRU\H[LVWLQJJRWSHRSOH¶V
attention. While she was locked away in her brothel one night in 1907, she supposedly
ZURWH³,DPDZKLWHVODYH´RQDVFUDSRISDSHUDWWDFKHGWKHQRWHWRDNH\DQGGURSSHGLW
out the window.235 The milkman found it the following day and turned it over to the
police.236 Mona had been a slave in the sense that she was tied to the brothel in which she
worked, but she was not truly a white slave and had not been coerced or tricked into the
job. She later denied ever writing the note at all.237 Clifford Roe, however, became
infuriated at the very idea of white slaves in his city.238 Roe took noticHRI0DUVKDOO¶V
case, which was eventually revealed to be a hoax, and he continued to search for a case
WKDWZRXOGJDLQWKHSXEOLF¶VDWWHQWLRQVRWKDWSHUKDSVWKHZKLWHVODYHU\LVVXHZRXOG
finally hit home, if it had not already. Sarah Joseph turned out to be just the girl Roe
needed. In 1908, Joseph was 17-years-old and had moved to Chicago to live with her
233
Morone, Hellfire Nation, 269.
Ibid.
235
Laurence Bergreen, Capone: The Man and the Era (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994): 91.
236
Ibid.
237
Ibid.
238
Ibid.
234
54 friend, Mollie Hart, who claimed to have a job waiting for Sarah. The job, unfortunately,
was in a brothel, which Sarah was not aware of until she entered the building.239 6DUDK¶V
FDVHFDPHWR5RH¶VQRWLFHLQDQGGHVSLWHKLVPRUHVXVSLFLRXVFDVHVSULRUWR6DUDK¶V
Sarah had indeed been held captive.240 The case had all the requirements for it to achieve
national notice. It fit all prior descriptions of white slavery. A young girl entered a city
that was strange to her for work, and only upon entering the building she had been
directed to did she realize that it was too late. It fit everything that Americans had been
warned about, and a real case only served to incite greater panic and a greater push for
government action.
In an effort to hasten the government to action, many officials exaggerated the
stories of white slaves to make the dangers seem more impending. Edwin Sims proved to
be one of the officials who embellished white slave narratives in order to speed the
government toward action. Sims was also U.S. district attorney from Chicago who agreed
ZLWK5RHWKDWZKLWHVODYHU\UHSUHVHQWHG³UHDOVODYHU\´241 Edwin Sims became known as
WKH³PRVWDUGHQWFUXVDGHUDJDLQVWWKHPHQDFH´RIZKLWHVODYHU\242 Edwin Sims estimated
that there were fifteen thousand white slaves in America.243 He based his estimate on data
gathered from police raids on brothels.244 For Sims, the biggest danger lay in the fact that
white slavery was run like a business trust. American entrepreneurs had all but
GLVDSSHDUHGZKLOHELJEXVLQHVVFRPELQHGWRIRUPWUXVWVDQGQRZ³FOHYHU-HZV´DQG
foreigners had formed a similar trust in order to make money as they kidnapped and
239
Karen Abbott, 6LQLQWKH6HFRQG&LW\0DGDPV0LQLVWHUV3OD\ER\VDQGWKH%DWWOHIRU$PHULFD¶V6RXO
(New York: Random House, 2007), 188.
240
Ibid.
241
(GZLQ6LPV³7KH:KLWH6ODYH7UDGH7RGD\´,Q War on the White S lave Trade, Ed. Ernest A. Bell
(Chicago: Charles C. Thompson Co., 1909), 48.
242
Morone, Hellfire Nation, 264.
243
6LPV³7KH:KLWH6ODYH7UDGH7RGD\´
244
Ibid.
55 traded innocent American girls.245 Sims concerned himself most with the upsetting idea
of an economic gain made from innocent young American girls, but it was later learned
that a trust like the one Sims described had never existed.246 At the time, however, the
very notion of a ³WUXVWRIIOHVK´LQFLWHGSDQLFDPRQJUHJXODU$PHULFDQVDVZHOODV
officials. Sims was the man whose statements were repeated the most of any anti-white
VODYHU\FUXVDGHUVLQFRXQWOHVV³QHZVSDSHUDQGPDJD]LQHDUWLFOHVVHUPRQVDQGSXULW\
SXEOLFDWLRQV´247 He was clear on his stance, unlike many vice commission reports of
1909 and 1910, and this made his evidence all the more appealing. He announced boldly
WKDW³OHJDOHYLGHQFH´SURYHGWKDWD³ZKLWHVODYH«V\QGLFDWH´ZDVLQRSHUDWLRQZLWK
³ µdistributing centers¶ LQQHDUO\DOORIWKHODUJHUFLWLHV´248 Other voices urged calm in the
IDFHRIWKHZKLWHVODYHK\VWHULDEXW6LPV¶VUDQWVFKRNHGRXWKLVFRQWHPSRUDULHV¶YRLFHV
-DPHV0DQQD865HSUHVHQWDWLYHIURP,OOLQRLVODWFKHGRQWR6LPV¶VLGHDVand enlisted
Sims in his later crusade to get legislation passed through Congress to combat the
³VWDUWOLQJ«WUDIILFLQ\RXQJ JLUOV´249 Mann, in fact, acknowledged to Congress that Sims
had first brought his attention to the possibility of federal action against white slavery.250
Sims, thus, accelerated the speed at which the federal government responded to the panic
because his statements and facts that surrounded the panic led others to call on the
government to act, whether those others were legislators or everyday citizens.
The white slave hysteria that swept the nation concluded in 1910 when the
government finally instituted national legislation. The Mann Act, passed by Congress in
245
Morone, Hellfire Nation, 264.
Ibid.
247
David J. Langum, Crossing Over the Line: Legislating Morality and the Mann Act (Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1994), 38.
248
6LPV³7KH:KLWH6ODYH7UDGH7RGD\´-57.
249
³7R&XUE:KLWH6ODYHU7DIW&RQVXOWHGRQ3ODQWR5HDFK7UDIILF7KURXJK,QWHU-6WDWH&RPPHUFH/DZ´
New York Times, 25 November 1909, p. 7.
250
Langum, Crossing Over, 39.
246
56 SURKLELWHGWKH³WUDQVSRUWDWLRQRIZRPHQDFURVVVWDWHOLQHVIRULPPRUDO
SXUSRVHV´251 The interstate commerce clause was thus utilized to fight vice as it had been
used to fight trusts under Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft.
There had at first been some objection to the use of the interstate commerce clause to
fight vice, but the critics never gained much ground because it seemed as though they
defended white slavers.252 Such objections were seen as un-American as this often
amounted to defense of immigrants who, at the time, were seen as stripping America of
its very essence and innocence. Legislators in favor of the Mann Act assured their
colleagues and the public that they only had one goal for the legislation, to rescue
³ZRPHQZKRDUHOLWHUDOO\VODYHV²women who are owned and held as property and
chattels²whRVHOLYHVDUHOLYHVRILQYROXQWDU\VHUYLWXGH´253 James Robert Mann, the
ELOO¶VFUHDWRUDORQJZLWK(GZLQ6LPVVDLGWKDWZKLWHVODYHWUDIILF³ZKLOHQRWVR
extensive, is much more horrible than any black-slave traffic ever was in the history of
WKHZRUOG´254 0DQQ¶VFRQWHPSRUDULHVGLGQRWGLVDJUHH7KH\VDZZKLWHVODYHU\DVDQHYLO
LPSRVHGXSRQ$PHULFDE\IRUHLJQLPPLJUDQWVZKRRQO\ZDQWHGWRSUD\XSRQ$PHULFD¶V
innocence, strip it from its citizens, and create a world as barbaric as the one they just
left. The\UHPDLQHGILUPDJDLQVWWKHGZLQGOLQJRSSRVLWLRQDQG³UDLVHGWKHIHDUWKDW
LPPLJUDWLRQZDVWKHFDXVHRI$PHULFD¶VXUEDQXQUHVWDQGDOLHQSLPSVDQGSURFXUHUVZHUH
WKHFDXVHRIZKLWHVODYHU\´255 7KXV0DQQ¶VELOOSDVVHGVPRRWKO\WKURXJK&RQJUHVVDQG
President Taft signed it into law in June 1910.256 Under the Mann Act, the perpetrator is
251
Brandt, No Magic Bullet, 34.
Morone, Hellfire Nation, 264.
253
Langum, Crossing Over, 42.
254
Ibid., 43.
255
Grittner, White S lavery, 94.
256
Morone, Hellfire Nation, 265.
252
57 LGHQWLILHGDV³DQ\SHUVRQZKRNQRZLQJO\WUDQVSRUW>V@«LQLQWHUVWDWHFRPPHUFH«DQ\
woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral
purpose, oUZLWKWKHLQWHQW«WRLQGXFH«VXFKDZRPDQRUJLUOWREHFRPHDSURVWLWXWH«RU
HQJDJHLQDQ\RWKHULPPRUDOSUDFWLFH´257 Legislators swore they only wanted to fight
white slavery, but the Mann Act was deliberately vague and fully of loopholes.258 This
would later be used to expand the Act to protect against more than just prostitution.
7KRXJKWKHGRPLQDQWLPDJHKDGDOUHDG\EHHQWKDWRI³HYLO´LPPLJUDQWPHQXVLQJ
deception on innocent Anglo-American women so that they unknowingly became sexual
slaves, the Mann Act only served to further that image as it signaled federal support for
the white slave narratives. After 1910 immigrants could be deported for violating the
Mann Act.259 Worried cities and states set up vice commissions, which totaled no less
than thirty-two, between 1910 and 1916 to examine moral problems, such as prostitution,
under the Mann Act.260 Commissions often found, in-line with the rhetoric of the
3URJUHVVLYH(UDWKDWLPPLJUDQWVKDGLQWURGXFHGWKHVH[XDOSUDFWLFHVWKH\GHHPHG³XQ$PHULFDQ´261 Eventually the Mann Act would have its own national enforcement
agency, the fledgling Federal Bureau of Investigation. Since the Mann Act only protected
against the interstate transportation of women for immoral purposes, it, in effect, left
prostitution within states intact. As a result, progressive reformers would not rest even
with the passage of the Mann Act. Worse still, the passage of the Mann Act and the
subsequent cases brought before courts of possible violations had the Department of
257
White-Slave Traffic Act of 1910, Pub. L. 2421-2424, 25 June 1910, Stat. 825.
Morone, Hellfire Nation, 266.
259
Eithne Luibhéid, Entry Denied: Controlling Sexuality at the Border (Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press, 2002), 13.
260
$QQ/XFDV³7KH'LV-HDVHRI%HLQJD:RPDQ5HWKLQNLQJ3URVWLWXWLRQDQG6XERUGLQDWLRQ´3K'GLVV
Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program, University of California, Berkeley, 1997, 64.
261
Luibhéid, Entry Denied, 14.
258
58 Justice and the American people afraid that white slavery would spread like wildfire
throughout the states.262 This resulted in high numbers of convictions in cases of white
slavery. In fact, between 1910 and 1913, 337 convictions were made in cases of white
slavery.263 The existence of the trade itself never came into question in the courts. The
actual existence of cases to be brought before the courts seemed like proof enough, and
reformers remained appalled by the forced participation of American women in such
vice. After the Mann Act passed, it seemed like the hysteria over white slavery may have
been cooling, but it definitely would not be over until the last brothel closed.
Progressive reformers had been pleased with government intervention in matters
of sexual morality, but they continued to call on the government to do more than pass
laws like the Mann Act. Reformers urged the government to close red-light districts in
RUGHUWRHQGRQFHDQGIRUDOOWKHQDWLRQ¶VFRPSOLDQFHZLWK³LPPRUDO´IRUHLJQHUV
Reformers got their wish in 1909 in Iowa as the red-light abatement act passed, which
was an important first step for reformers as most legislation against prostitution, aside
from the Mann Act, happened on the state level rather than the federal one.264 The redlight abatement act allowed any citizen to file a complaint against any house or building
utilized for prostitution, and a vacate order would be subsequently issued by the local
court.265 Following this, a trial would be held in order to determine whether or not the
building haGWUXO\EHHQXVHGIRU³LPPRUDOSXUSRVHV´DQGLIWKHRZQHUZDVIRXQGJXLOW\
WKHEXLOGLQJZRXOGEHSODFHGXQGHU³MXGLFLDOVXSHUYLVLRQ´266 In some states, such as New
262
Rosen, The Lost S isterhood, 125.
³White Slavers Get Varying Penalties; Whitin Report Shows Older Judges Do Not Deal So Severely
with Them´ New York Times, 22 February 1913, p. 8.
264
Rosen, The Lost S isterhood, 28.
265
Ibid.
266
Ibid.
263
59 York, the owner could be fined.267 These fines were intended to encourage owners to
keep their buildings free of prostitution. Landlords typically evicted violators, however,
and the abatement act turned into a warning system for inevitable hearings.268 The
abatement act garnered its fair share of backlash though, as politicians and citizens alike
saw it as an attempt to regulate private property and a law that could eventually devolve
into blackmail.269 Businesses and real estate groups opposed the act as a plan for the
government to seize private property.270 Yet, reformers argued that the law was necessary
because red-OLJKWGLVWULFWVKDGEHJXQWRVSLOORYHULQWR³GHFHQW´QHLJKERUKRRGV7KH
reformers turned out to be better organized as they touted the end of prostitution as the
beginning of a more purified society. Reformers could provide examples from dozens of
FLWLHVDOORYHUWKHFRXQWU\ZKHUHWKHDEDWHPHQWDFWKDGZRUNHGDQGE\³WKLUW\-one
VWDWHVKDGDGRSWHGVRPHIRUPRIWKH,RZD$EDWHPHQW$FW´271 At the city level, another
similar law was passed in Portland, Oregon, in 1913, called the Tin Plate Ordinance,
ZKLFKUHTXLUHGDWLQSODWHVWDWLQJDEXLOGLQJRZQHU¶VQDPHDQGKRPHDGGUHVVRQHYHU\
building in an attempt to discourage owners from running houses of prostitution.272
Most reformers hoped that such laws would ultimately lead to the abolition of
prostitution. However, when chiefs of police ordered districts closed, prostitutes merely
OHIWWKHGLVWULFWVRQO\WREHDUUHVWHGIRU³VWUHHWZDONLQJ´273 Prostitutes also often fled to
places where the brothels were still in operation as they had little other means of
267
Ibid., 29.
Ibid.
269
Ibid.
270
Morone, Hellfire Nation, 277.
271
Rosen, The Lost S isterhood, 29.
272
Ibid.
273
Howard B. Woolston, Prostitution in the United States, 74.
268
60 survival.274 Prostitutes led an existence moving from town to town as district after district
closed down with reformers showing no care or sympathy for the women who faced
unemployment and a loss of shelter. In fact, by 1916 at least forty-seven cities had closed
down their red-light districts.275 Reformers had not wanted to drive prostitutes from their
homes and into the streets, but ultimately the red-light abatement act led to just that. One
reformer said that after the vice district in Des 0RLQHV,RZDKDGFORVHG³WKHUHZHUHD
great many of them [prostitutes] who left the city. It was not our prime idea to drive them
RXWRIWKHFLW\EXWRXULGHDWRGULYHWKHPLQWRGHFHQF\´276 Reformers, however, ended
up driving prostitutes into a much worse situation as they lost their friends, shelter, and
LQFRPH0RVWIRUPHUSURVWLWXWHVVWUXJJOHGWRILQG³UHVSHFWDEOHZRUN´DQGVRPHGLGQRW
even desire to try.277 0DQ\ZRPHQHQGHGXSLQWKHVWUHHWVZLWK³QRWKLQJEXWWKHFORWKHV
RQWKHLUEDFNV´FORWKHVZKLFh were far from appropriate for public display.278 After
Washington, D.C. closed its red-light district in 1914, prostitutes wrote a public letter to
WKHHGLWRUZKLFKVWDWHG³:HGRQRWZDQWµKRPHV¶$OOZHDVNLVWKDWSRVLWLRQVEH
SURYLGHGIRUXV«:HPXVWOLYHVRPHKRZ«,IZHPXVWUHIRUP\RXZKRUHFRPPHQGHG
WKHVHUHIRUPDWLRQVKHOSXVWROHDGDEHWWHUOLIH´279 The letter revealed some of the
XQGHUO\LQJSUREOHPVWKDWUHIRUPHUVGLGQRWRSHQO\GLVFXVVUHJDUGLQJWKH³DEROLWLRQ´RI
prostitution. Reformers held no UHJDUGDVWRZKDWSRVLWLRQ³SXULILHG´SURVWLWXWHVZRXOG
SOD\LQVRFLHW\DIWHUWKH\KDGEHHQ³IUHHG´IURPSURVWLWXWLRQ¶VJUDVS5HIRUPHUVRQO\
274
Bridgeport, CT, Bridgeport Vice Commission, The Report and Recommendations of the Bridgeport Vice
Commission (Bridgeport, CT: 1916), 48-49.
275
Joseph Mayer, The Regulation of Commercialized Vice: An Analysis of the Transition from Segregation
to Repression in the United States (New York: The Klebold Press, 1923), 11.
276
Harriet Laidlaw Papers, 1851-1958, Testimony and Addresses on Segregation and Commercialized
Vice, Nov. 1912. A- 63, folder 163. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University,
Cambridge, Mass., qtd. in Rosen, The Lost S isterhood, 30.
277
Rosen, The Lost S isterhood, 31.
278
Wood, The F reedom of the Streets, 251.
279
Letter to the New York Evening Journal, January 27, 1914, qtd. in Rosen, The Lost S isterhood, 31.
61 concerned themselves with the visible disturbances of prostitution, such as venereal
disease, and elected to ignore the fate of the prostitutes themselves.280 Moreover,
reformers did not even eliminate prostitution. Prostitution merely morphed into a new
form with the ultimate goal of avoiding police detection.281 Madams and prostitutes who
KDGRQFHVHUYHGZHDOWKLHUPHPEHUVRIVRFLHW\OHDUQHGWRUHO\RQWKH³FDOOJLUO´V\VWHPLQ
ZKLFK³FXVWRPHUVFDOOWRVHHDSDUWLFXODUSURVWLWXWH´282 Thus, connections were made
secretly and police detection was avoided. Prostitutes also took to the streets to find
customers, though this was much more noticeable. In fact, the Chicago Vice Commission
FRPPHQWHGWKDWWUDFHVRIWKH/HYHH'LVWULFWZHUH³VWDONLQJDERXWWKHVWUHHWVDQGDOOH\VRI
WKH6RXWKVLGH´283 One Chicago citizen claimeGWKDW³ZLWKWKHLQLWLDWLRQRIWKHSHULRGRI
VXSSUHVVLRQRIFRPPHUFLDOL]HGYLFHSURVWLWXWLRQZHQWXQGHUJURXQG´284 His claim was
WUXHSURVWLWXWLRQEHFDPHDJDPHRISROLFHDYRLGDQFHDQGZDVFRQWUROOHGE\³YLFHORUGV´
who ruled the girls with an iron fist. Vice did not disappear as reformers had hoped. It
simply took on new forms.
Progressive reformers did not invent moral reform. In fact, moral reform goes
EDFNWR$PHULFD¶VFRORQLDOURRWVDVYDJUDQF\ODZVZHUHLQVWLWXWHG7KH6HFRQG*UHDW
Awakening in the 1830s and 1840s furthered the cause of moral reform and focused
mostly on social problems rather than individual sinners. It was composed of
Evangelicals who preceded their Progressive brethren, and they sought to eliminate social
problems in an effort to ³SXULI\´WKHQDWLRQ3URJUHVVLYHUHIRUPHUVGLGKRZHYHUDGGD
twist to moral reform by politicizing it and seeking to have the government intervene in
280
Rosen, The Lost S isterhood, 32.
Ibid.
282
Ibid.
283
Morone, Hellfire Nation, 272.
284
Reckless, Vice in Chicago, 69.
281
62 matters of sexual morality. They too sought to purify the nation, particularly of the
³LPPRUDO´IRUHLJQHrs who were snatching up the young and innocent white girls of
America and forcing them into prostitution. Yet, the concern over white slavery reflected
a concern over something much larger, that of a changing society. As women moved out
of the private sphere and into the public one, as cities began to grow, and as immigrants
raced to American shores, the nation showed signs of panic. Actually, the concern with
ZKLWHVODYHU\ZDVSULPDULO\FRQFHUQRYHULPPLJUDQWVZKR$PHULFDQVVDZDV³GHYLOV´
and barbarians who would strip innocent America of its morality. This panic grew into
hysteria, which masked itself in concern over sexual morality. The hysteria reached a
fever pitch in 1910 with the passage of the Mann Act, but reformers could not be calmed.
They contLQXHGWRFODPRUDWWKHJRYHUQPHQW¶VGRRUGHPDQGLQJWKHDEROLWLRQRI
prostitution. In all the fuss, though, the reformers forgot about who they had proclaimed
they were working for: the fallen woman. When asked what could be done about the
prostitutes now roaming the streets, Brand Whitlock, mayor of Toledo between 1905 and
UHSOLHG³:K\LVLWFRQVWDQWO\QHFHVVDU\WRGRVRPHWKLQJ to SHRSOH",IZHFDQ¶WGR
something for WKHPZKHQDUHZHJRLQJWROHDUQWROHWWKHPDORQH"´285 The mayor of
Toledo following :KLWORFNIHOWVLPLODUO\DVKHVDLGWRUHIRUPHUV³:KHUHVKDOO,KDYHWKH
police drive them? Over to Detroit, or to Cleveland, or merely out into the country? They
have to go somewhere, \RXNQRZ´286 Reformers had forgotten the reason they began
their campaiJQLQWKHILUVWSODFHDVWKH\VKRXWHG³'ULYHWKHPRXWRIWRZQDQGFORVHXS
WKHLUKRXVHV´287 The fallen woman had fallen to an all-time-low as her shelter and means
285
³7KH)XWLOLW\RIWKH:KLWH6ODYH7UDGHDV%UDQG:KLWORFN6HHVLW´(G(GZDUG-:KHHOHU Current
Opinion. Vol. 56. (New York: The Current Literature Publishing Company, 1914), 287.
286
Ibid.
287
Ibid.
63 of income was stripped from her. Yet, reformers seemed unperturbed by this recent
development.
Yes, moral reform for Progressives, was nothing new, but the addition of politics
to the mix was. Progressives used this same tactic to protect the nation from the terror of
birth control. Panic over birth control use also turned out to mask concern over
immigrants who were reproducing faster than the native population. Another concern
proved to be women gaining more control of their own sexuality. Even the idea cities
filled with non-Anglo Americans instead of a rural Anglo America as there had been in
WKHSDVWVKRFNHGUHIRUPHUV&KDQJHVLQWKHQDWLRQ¶VVRFLDOG\QDPLFDQGLWVDSSHDUDQFH
ultimately led to panic over both white slavery and birth control. In the end, the
3URJUHVVLYHV¶PRWLYHVZHUHQRWWRSXULI\WKHQDWLRQIURPDVH[XDOPRUDOLW\SHUVSHFWLYH
but from the perspective of a nation that had changed too much too quickly. So too would
be the case with birth control.
64 CHAPTER III
BIRTH CONTROL VS. ANTHONY COMSTOCK
Dr. Edward Bliss Foote of New York City built his career on correspondence with
patients who lived nowhere near the city. The New York Independent reported in the
VWKDW)RRWH³RULJLQDWHGDQGSHUIHFWHGDVHULHVRITXHVWLRQVUHODWLQJWRWKHSK\VLFDO
conditions of invalids. These questions are so thorough and complete that when they are
answered by patients at a distance, the Doctor is able to make a complete diagnosis and
prescribe for his patients with about the same facility that he could do were they
SUHVHQW´288 $V)RRWH¶VFRUUHVSRQGHQFHJUHZKHEHJDQGROLQJRXWDGYLFHIRUDOOVRrts of
medical dilemmas, one of which was contraceptive information, despite the fact that the
Comstock Laws had been in place since 1873 making it illegal to give out such
information. It was only a matter of time before Foote was arrested on charges of
obscenity, and in 1876, Foote was arrested for sending out advice about contraceptives to
RQHRI$QWKRQ\&RPVWRFN¶VWKHPDQZKRLQLWLDWHGWKHHIIRUWVWRSDVVWKH&RPVWRFN
Laws) agents who posed as a patient in need of counsel.289 &RPVWRFN¶VDJHQWUHSRUWHG
288
Qtd. in Adelaide Hechtlinger, The Great Patent Medicine Era: or, Without Benefit of Doctor (New
York: Gosset & Dunlap, 1970), 110-111.
289
³5HSRUWRI3HUVRQV$UUHVWHG8QGHUWKH$XVSLFHVRIWKH1HZ<RUN6RFLHW\IRUWKH6XSSUHVVLRQRI9LFH
IRUWKH<HDU´FRQWDLQHU5HFRUGVRIWKH1HZ<RUN6RFLHW\IRUWKH6Xppression of Vice., qtd. in
Andrea Tone, Devices and Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America (New York: Hill and Wang,
2001), 57.
65 thDWWKHSDPSKOHWWKDW)RRWHVHQWZDV³RQO\WKLUW\-two pages of about the size of a letter
envelope, in which it was«sealed, under letter postage«7KHSDPSKOHWWRRNVWURQJ
JURXQGVDJDLQVWPLVFDUULDJHRUDERUWLRQ«VKRUWO\DIWHUWKH&RQJUHVVLRQDOODZ>was
approved@«DVLPLODURQHZDVSDVVHGLQRXURZQ6WDWH1HZ<RUNIRUELGGLQJWKH
GHYLVLQJRUVXSSO\LQJRIDQ\PHDQVZKDWHYHUIRUWKHSUHYHQWLRQRIFRQFHSWLRQ´290 Foote
felt, however, that he had done no wrong as his legal advisor assured him that such a law
would never be enforced against physicians.291 In the eyes of Comstock and his agents,
though, Foote had done a terrible misdeed, and he was ultimately convicted and fined
three thousand dollars.292 The conviction of Foote was intended to make other latenineteenth century doctors who supported birth control to think twice before giving out
advice or sending out pamphlets regarding such material. Birth control education, as had
been intended by Comstock, began to recede as doctors feared for their livelihood.
)RRWH¶VVWRU\LOOXVWUDWHVWKHHVVHQFHRIQLQHWHHQWKFHQWXU\PRELOL]DWLRQRI
opposition to birth control. Contraceptives, such as rubber condoms and diaphragms, as
with most aspects of nineteenth century America, were new devices that had been
introduced just prior to the Civil War. The changing landscape of America,
contraceptives included, had become an object of fear among most Americans who saw
the past through nostalgic lenses as simpler and more homogeneous. These rose-colored
lenses that American law-makers and influential men in society wore did not tell the
entire story though. Differing forms of birth control had been around for centuries as
women (and men) sought to control the size of their families for physical, emotional,
290
D.R.M. Bennett, $QWKRQ\&RPVWRFN+LV&DUHHURI&UXHOW\DQG&ULPH$&KDSWHUIURP³7KH
&KDPSLRQVRIWKH&KXUFK´(New York: D.R.M. Bennett, 1878), 1036.
291
Ibid.
292
Ibid.
66 social, and economic reasons. The two most common methods of birth control in the U.S.
prior to contraceptives were abortion and douching, which were highly dangerous
procedures performed by non-medical professionals. Yet, abortion fell out of favor as
many states passed laws prohibiting it by the first half of the nineteenth century.
Abortions remained a mainstay though as women (especially prostitutes) performed them
illegally and were often even acquitted by juries. By 1869, the Catholic Church had
declared that abortion was murder.293 In addition to abortions, douching was prevalent
DPRQJ$PHULFDQZRPHQLQWKHQLQHWHHQWKFHQWXU\,QIDFWUHFLSHVLQZRPHQ¶VERRNV
show that douching was known and tried in the U.S. Infanticide was another alternative
to abortion. Infanticide is the practice of killing newborn babies. It was practiced fairly
commonly in America because, in the absence of medical techniques, it was less risky
and painful than abortion. The rhythm method was also utilized as a birth control
technique prior to contraceptives, but it was highly inaccurate as the fertility cycle
remained a mystery to women and men alike well into the twentieth century.
Unlike such inaccurate and risky birth control methods as were commonly used
during the early nineteenth century, contraceptives gave women and men a much more
reliable way of controlling family size. After 1850, contraceptive information in the form
of public lectures, marriage guides, medical books, and newspaper advertisements for
contraceptive and abortion-inducing services and products spread a wealth of information
as well as sparking bitter public debate. Condoms became the most common form of
contraceptive devices utilized in the nineteenth century. Condoms had been produced in
the U.S. since the 1840s and were advocated not to prevent pregnancy but in campaigns
293
³&ULPLQDO$ERUWLRQLQ$PHULFD´ The Medical Press Circular F rom January to June 1869 (London:
Medical Press and Circular Office, 1869), 171.
67 against venereal disease that was wreaking havoc on America at the time. To make
matters worse, a transfer of power occurred from midwives to male doctors, most of
ZKRPGLGQRWUHVSHFWDZRPDQ¶VULJKWWRWHUPLQDWHRUSUHYHQWDSUHJQDQF\
Ultimately, the fear of the new contraceptive devices and literature surrounding
them, along with fear of women gaining more power with the power to control their
decision to become mothers, led to the passing of the Comstock Laws in 1873. These
laws defined birth control as obscene and twenty-two states followed suit with their own
laws that mimicked the federal one passed through Congress with the aid of Comstock.
The terror surrounding birth control did not end there, however. When Theodore
5RRVHYHOWLQWURGXFHGWKHWHUP³UDFHVXLFLGH´LQKHattacked birth control and
condemned the tendency towards smaller families as decadent, a sign of moral disease.
0RUDOUHIRUPHUVWRRN5RRVHYHOW¶VZRUGVWRKHDUWDQGH[WHQGHGWKHILJKWDJDLQVWELUWK
FRQWUROIXUWKHULQDKRSHWREDQ³VH[IRUSOHDVXUH´7KH\DIILUPHGWKDWELUWKFRQWUROXVDJH
is ³wicked´EHFDXVHWKHQDtion needed a rising population of large, secure families. They
also declared that birth control symbolized a rebellion of women in opposition to their
main social responsibility²motherhood.
Margaret Sanger was one of the few who were not afraid to stand up against the
government and try to remove the stigma of obscenity from contraception. She
campaigned from 1914 to 1937 and was introduced to the cause when she saw a tenement
dweller die from a self-induced abortion. From that point on she knew that women
GHVHUYHGWKHULJKWWRFRQWUDFHSWLYHHGXFDWLRQLIQRWIRUWKHVLPSOHULJKWRI³YROXQWDU\
PRWKHUKRRG´IRUWKHVDIHW\LWRIIHUHGWKHPFRPSDUHGWRRWKHUPHWKRGVRIELUWKFRQWURO
Despite her efforts and several dozen House bills to repeal the Comstock laws between
68 1912 to 1930 that were defeated, the Comstock laws were not repealed until 1965 with
Griswold v. Connecticut. Birth control, however, remained a stigmatized term to some
degree, representing not only a change in the roles of women and medicine but in
America as a whole.
The ultimate problem facing the U.S. seemed to be a changing American face as
immigrants poured into the U.S. during the Progressive Era. The U.S. was also being
ravaged by venereal disease, which could be prevented (somewhat reliably) with
contraceptives. However, as contraceptives came to be seen as immoral, the one method
RIUHOLDEOHSUHYHQWLRQZDVRXWODZHG7KXVDJUHDWSDUDGR[RFFXUUHGDV³UDFHVXLFLGH´
was proclaimed to be the result of utilizing birth control and also the result of venereal
disease making people sterile. The motivation for the development of the condom had
been to guard against venereal disease. Historically, this had been its use. Initially, the
condom was advertized as an anti-venereal disease measure by the Italian anatomist
Fallopius, who discovered the Fallopian tubes was an early authority on syphilis.294 When
he introduced the condom for this purpose in a book written in 1564, he suggested that it
be made of cloth and fitted to the penis.295 However, by the eighteenth century, condoms
were made from animal membrane, which was waterproof, and therefore, could be used
as a contraceptive measure as well.296 Yet, contraceptives, to nineteenth century
reformers, weakened sexual morality because it protected against some of the dangers of
sexual affairs.297 )RUUHIRUPHUVVH[FDUULHGWKHULVNVRI³YHQHUHDOGLVHDVHVXQZDQWHG
294
Linda Gordon, :RPDQ¶V%RG\:RPDQ¶V5LJKW%LUWK&RQWUROLQ America (New York: Penguin Books,
1974), 44.
295
Ibid.
296
Ibid.
297
Ibid., 114.
69 FRQFHSWLRQGDQJHURXVDQGSDLQIXOSDUWXULWLRQRUDERUWLRQ´298 These risks, though
difficult to deal with, were simply a part of sex, even within the confines of marriage,
which could not be eliminated, even if sex was separated from reproduction. Birth control
would not be accepted as a legal measure for preventing venereal disease until just prior
to World War I as soldiers prepared to enter a distaQWZRUOGIXOORI³ZLFNHG´IRUHLJQHUV
who were equally full of venereal diseases.299 Venereal diseases also led to infertility,
which was seen as a leading cause of race suicide. Race suicide, ironically, was the
principal reason behind upholding the Comstock Laws by the early twentieth century
because small American families could not compete with growing immigrant families.
7KXVELUWKFRQWUROZDVODEHOHGDVDPDMRUFRQWULEXWRUWRUDFHVXLFLGHDVWKRVHRI³<DQNHH
VWRFN´RIWHQXWLOL]HGLWDVDPHDQVRIFRQWUROOLQJWKHVL]HRIWKHLUIDPLOLHV%LUWKFRQWURO
was also seen as contributing to WKHGHWHULRUDWLRQRIWKHQDWLRQ¶VPRUDOVDVPRUHSHRSOH
HQJDJHGLQ³VH[IRUSOHDVXUH´UDWKHUWKDQIRUUHSURGXFWLRQSXUSRVHVDQGDPDMRULW\RI
Americans thought that birth control took the risk out of sex in that respect. Therefore,
even though birth control could have been used to prevent the further spread of venereal
disease it was banned and stigmatized as immoral, obscene, and selfish.
In addition to venereal disease, contraceptives, such as condoms, began to be used
to control the size of families for a variety of reasons. Prior to the medical progress of the
nineteenth and early twentieth century, agricultural lifestyles made it advantageous to
give birth to more children, and because mortality rates were so high, women had to give
birth to more children than were necessary.300 As medicine advanced, there was a decline
298
Ibid., 117.
Lynne E. Ford, Encyclopedia of Women and American Politics (New York: Facts on File, 2008), 60.
300
Linda Gordon, The Moral Property of Women: A History of Birth Control Politics in Am erica (Chicago:
University of Illinois Press, 1974), 8.
299
70 in mortality rates, which made it economically beneficial to have smaller families.301
These economic benefits were the result of a changing society that had transformed to a
market economy in which people earned money based on hourly wages rather than how
much they produced agriculturally. This in turn promoted a more urban society in which
living costs were higher for these city dwellers. Moreover, in this environment, children
also contributed less to the family than they had in their traditional agricultural roles,
which meant that having children was an expensive endeavor in which they cost more
than they could contribute to the family.302 Urbanization slowly produced a decline in
the birth rate of Americans in all socioeconomic classes. It was those that had the most to
gain from giving up large families that made the change first though, and this included
WKH³XSZDUGO\PRELOHDQGWKHSURIHVVLRQDOV´ZKRIRUPHGWKHXSSHUHFKHORQVRI
society.303 Decline in family size from eight children in the late eighteenth century to
three by 1900 seemed quite shocking indeed to those who attributed the change to factors
outside of the shifts taking place in American society.304 In fact, in the eighteenth century
America had one of the highest birth rates in the world and was legendary in Europe for
this, but by the close of the nineteenth century, only France had a lower birth rate.305 To
most authorities at the time, the change came suddenly and set in as a social norm almost
immediately. Nevertheless, this change had been a gradual one and only appeared sudden
EHFDXVHLWKDGEHIRUHRQO\EHHQDQ³H[FHSWLRQDOSDWWHUQ´WRKDYHVPDOOIDPLOLHV306 Those
who believed in race suicide claimed that if this trend continued it would spell disaster
301
Ibid.
Ibid.
303
Ibid., 102.
304
Wilson H. Grabill, The F ertility of A merican Women (New York: Wiley, 1958), 10.
305
Daniel Scott SmiWK³)DPLO\/LPLWDWLRQ6H[XDO&RQWURODQG'RPHVWLF)HPLQLVPLQ9LFWRULDQ$PHULFD´
F eminist Studies 1, no. 3-4 (Winter-Spring 1973), 55-56.
306
Ibid.
302
71 for the United States as the native-born population approached a state of no growth.
2WKHUVDUJXHGWKDWWKLVWUHQGWRZDUGVPDOOHUIDPLOLHVZDVPHUHO\DQ³DGYDQFHRI
FLYLOL]DWLRQ´ZKLFKZDVPRUHWKDQFRPSHQVDWHGIRUE\WKHORQJHr lives of children and
adults alike.307 Unfortunately, most agreed with traditional views that the economic
system required population growth, and instead of giving birth control to the poor, the
prosperous were asked to give their contraceptives up and restore upper class families to
D³FRPSHWLWLYHVL]H´308 Birth control was singled out as the culprit for the appalling fall
in the birth rates among Americans, especially among the upper classes, which officials
saw as dangerous for the economy and society.
Officials became more alarmed as the wealth of contraceptive information
increased after 1830. Most information about birth control was exchanged informally, but
advice literature, advertisements, and medical journals also contained information about
birth control methods in the nineteenth century as contraceptive technology expanded.309
Print materials that touted knowledge of birth control and contraceptives grew
particularly quickly after 1830.310 In fact, the first published discussion about birth
control thDWZDVDYDLODEOHWRWKHSXEOLFZDV5REHUW'DOH2ZHQ¶VSDPSKOHW Moral
Physiology; or a Brief and Plain Treatise on the Population Question.311 In this
pamphlet, the condom was recommended as the most effective form of contraceptive.312
In addition, as early as the 1850s contraceptives were featured in newspaper medical
307
Gordon, :RPDQ¶V%RG\:RPDQ¶V5LJKW, 153.
Gordon, Moral Property, 102.
309
(VWKHU.DW]³7KH+LVWRU\RI%LUWK&RQWUROLQWKH8QLWHG6WDWHV´LQ5HEHFFD*UHHQHHG History of
Medicine, Volume 4 (New York: Haworth Press, 1988), 90.
310
Ibid.
311
Ibid.
312
Ibid., 91.
308
72 columns and penny circulars.313 As information grew and circulated, physicians also
published material on contraceptives in medical textbooks and technical journals.314 Yet,
illiterate and lower class women typically relied on word of mouth to obtain information
about birth control.315 Most middle class women could read, but their access to
contraceptive information was somewhat hindered by religious beliefs that abstinence
was the only proper form of birth control.316 The variety and widespread nature of
published materials concerning birth control suggests that there was a growing demand
for birth control as early as the 1830s, which only increased over time as more people
OHDUQHGELUWKFRQWURO¶VSRWential to solve economic, physical, and social ills. Still, those
with traditional views saw birth control as a threat rather than a solution to any sort of
population or social dilemma, let alone personal and economic woes.
In the midst of expanding information on contraceptives, male doctors began to
replace female midwives as the moral and scientific pillars of communities. The
American Medical Association was formed in 1847 and soon began attacking lesseducated female competitors.317 This carried with it some significant consequences
EHFDXVHPDOHGRFWRUVKHOGOLWWOHUHVSHFWIRUDZRPDQ¶VULJKWWRWHUPLQDWHRUHYHQSUHYHQW
a pregnancy. Doctors carried out a campaign against birth control, especially abortion,
DQG³DGYDQFHGDPRUDODUJXPHQWIRUWKHSURWHFWLon of life at all stages of development
IURPEDUEDULFSULPLWLYHLQWHUYHQWLRQV´'RFWRUVDOVRXWLOL]HGWKHUKHWRULFRIFODVVUDFH
313
Ibid., 90.
Ibid., 91.
315
Catherine Ingram Fogel and Nancy Fugate Woods, :RPHQ¶V+HDOWK&DUHLQ$GYDQFHG3UDFWLFH1XUVLQJ
(New York: Spring Publishing Company, 2008), 135.
316
Ibid.
317
Ellen Chesler, Woman of Valor: Margaret S anger and the Birth Control Movement in America (New
York: Simon & Schuster, 1992), 64.
314
73 and gender tensions that was already becoming popular as a result of falling birthrates.318
Consequently, abortion lost a considerable part of its reputation. Historian Linda Gordon
has also suggested that doctors resented birth control primarily because women were
taking away a part of their bodily functions that doctors had become a part of, and if they
lost this, it could mean that their enjoyed status as moral pillars of the community would
be undermined.319 7KH\IXUWKHUGHQRXQFHGELUWKFRQWURODV³TXDFNHU\DQGLPPRUDOLW\´320
All the same, as late as the 1860s and 1870s, midwives remained a challenge to the
authority of physicians.321 ,QIDFWRQH'HWURLWGRFWRUFODLPHGWKDW³HYHU\QHLJKERUKRRGRU
small village has its old woman, of one sex or the RWKHUZKRLVNQRZQIRUKHUDELOLW\´322
These women blossomed into a full-blown industry with the onset of urbanization. The
³PHGLFDOSURIHVVLRQDOV´PDOHGRFWRUVWDONHGWKHJRYHUQPHQWLQWRHYHQWXDOO\JHWWLQJULG
of these midwives altogether.323 Even so, these doctors did not know much more than
their rivals as the menstrual cycle was not fully understood by them until the 1920s.324
Furthermore, doctors did possess formal training, which gave them a professional edge
over midwives, but they often did unintentional harm while participating in such routine
affairs as childbirth.325 Nonetheless, these doctors assured each other that their scientific
knowledge was more than adequate and claimed that only they could show women the
³YDOXHRIWKHIRHWXV´DQGKHOSOHJLVODWRUVFRQVWUXFW³VXLWDEOHODZV´WKDWUHIOHFWHGWKLV326
318
Ibid.
Gordon, :RPDQ¶V%RG\157.
320
Gordon, Moral Property, 106.
321
James A. Morone, Hellfire Nation: The Politics of S in in American History (New Haven, CT: Yale
University Press, 2003), 253.
322
James C. Mohr, Abortion in America: The Origins and Evolution of National Policy, 1800-1900 (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1978), 161.
323
Morone, Hellfire Nation, 253.
324
Ibid.
325
Ellen Chesler, Woman of Valor, 64.
326
Horatio Robinson Storer, Why Not? A Book for Every Wom an (Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1866), 82.
319
74 Thus, as the doctors cleared away the midwives and flouted their scientific know-how
they subsequently became, in a way, moral pillars of the communities they served.
At the same time, some doctors continued to issue advice to patients concerning
birth control and contraceptive devices. Primary among them was Edward Bliss Foote,
who emphDVL]HGZRPHQ¶VULJKWVWKURXJKRXWKLVZULWLQJVLQWKHVDQGV)RRWH
was a social reformer, but he differed from others in that he advanced birth control
methods rather than attempting to prohibit them.327 He opposed such oppression of
knowledge relating to birth control as he built his career on writing and advocating for
the prevention of conception as well as free speech regarding sexuality.328 +HZURWH³,WLV
my conscientious conviction that every married woman should have it within her power
to decide for herself just when and just how often she will receive the germ of a new
RIIVSULQJ´329 Foote even cited infanticide as a result of what happens when birth control
is prohibited.330 In his first book of importance, Medical Common Sense (1858), Foote
begDQWRTXHVWLRQWKH³EHVWZD\VWRFRQWUROUHSURGXFWLRQ´EXWKHUHIXVHGWRRSHQO\
GLVFXVVWKHPDQGDVNHGLQWHUHVWHGPDUULHGFRXSOHVWRZULWHKLPHQFORVLQJ³RQHGROODU
DQGERWKRIWKHLUVLJQDWXUHV´DVZHOODVLQIRUPDWLRQDERXWWKHLU³WHPSHUDPHQWV´LQ
exchange for his advice.331 %\KRZHYHU)RRWHKDGEHJXQFDOOLQJ³H[FHVVLYH
FKLOGEHDULQJ´WKH³EDQHRIVRFLHW\´EHFDXVHLWZDVGHVWUXFWLYHWRZRPHQ¶VKHDOWKDQG
delivered into the world children ZKRZHUH³GHIRUPHG´DQGVXEVHTXHQWO\SOD\HGDSDUWLQ
327
Gordon, :RPDQ¶V%RG\164.
Ibid., 165.
329
Edward Bliss Foote, A Step Backward (New York: Murray Hill, 1875), 7.
330
Gordon, :RPDQ¶V%RG\165.
331
Janet Farrell Brodie, Contraception and Abortion in Nineteenth-Century America (Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University Press, 1994), 238.
328
75 the corruption of society.332 Foote went on to openly promote rubber devices called
³SHVVDULHV´ZKLFKZHUHLQLWLDOO\VROGWRPDUULHGZRPHQWREHLQVHUWHGLQWRWKHXWHUXVIRU
support or medication.333 Foote described their purpose as that of a contraceptive as he
KDGLQYHQWHGD³ZRPEYHLO´PDGHRIUXEEHUWREHLQVHUWHGEHIRUHLQWHUFRXUVHSULRUWR
pessaries becoming popular.334 However, Foote was considered a bit of a quack and was
not initially taken seriously, though his device resembled the modern vaginal
diaphragm.335 Foote further produced an advice book that detailed a variety of birth
control methods from douching to contraceptive devices like his womb veil.336 Foote was
the most successful publisher of those who advocated birth control from a medical
standpoint. By 1872 he had established his own publishing company, Murray Hill
Publishing Company, and through it published more than sixty books on reproductive
control and health reform.337 He even continued to sell his own contraceptive devices
even as laws began to crack down on distribution of birth control and birth control
information. Unfortunately, Foote was an exception rather than the rule itself.
Most Americans saw birth control very differently from Dr. Foote. They
considered it to be something obscene, lascivious, or lewd, posing as much danger to the
population as prostitution did. The most outspoken on this front was Anthony Comstock,
who created the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, which oversaw and
enforced morality upon the public. Comstock was joined in his crusade by those who
saw the hegemony of Anglo-Americans threatened by European immigrants and newly
332
Edward Bliss Foote, Medical Common Sense: Applied to the Causes, Prevention, and Cure of Chronic
Diseases and Unhappiness in Marriage (New York: Edward Bliss Foote, 1863), 338.
333
Chesler, Woman of Valor, 37.
334
Ibid.
335
Ibid.
336
Ibid., 70.
337
Brodie, Contraception and Abortion, 240.
76 freed slaves, physicians who wanted to cement their status as moral and scientific pillars
of the community, and ardent feminists who felt that they could gain autonomy by
UHJXODWLQJRWKHUSHRSOH¶VVH[XDOLW\338 The goals of these campaigners against
contraception were to restrict ineffective medicines prepared by unqualified individuals
and to outlaw perilous medical procedures, which truly did need regulation.339 Yet,
Comstock took the campaign in another direction, focusing on obscenity. Up until this
time, obscenity itself was not against the law, but in 1868 in England, a law was passed
WKDWRXWODZHGREVFHQLW\VWDWLQJ³WKHWHQGHQF\RIthe matter charged as obscene was to
GHSUDYHDQGFRUUXSWWKRVHZKRVHPLQGVDUHRSHQWRLPPRUDOLQIOXHQFHV´340 The law was
mimicked in America as Comstock helped to pass a similar law in New York in 1869.341
In 1873, Comstock carried his fight against obscenit\WR&RQJUHVVZKHUHD³EURDGEXW
YDJXHO\GHILQHG´IHGHUDOVWDWXWHRSSRVLQJREVFHQLW\ZDVSDVVHGDQGFDPHWREHNQRZQ
informally as the Comstock Law.342 Comstock had managed to secure the law by
displaying piles of pornographic material that he claimed was proof of unrestrained
immorality in America, and no Congressman wanted to risk objecting to a law that would
protect against this.343 The New York Times also seemed to support the crusade for the
&RPVWRFN/DZVVD\LQJ³,WLVGLVJXVWLQJHYHQIRUDKDUGHQHGPDn of the world to see the
FLUFXODUVDQGERRNVZKLFKDUHVHQWE\SRVWWRWKHJLUOVDQGER\VLQRXUVFKRROV´344
&RPVWRFNFDOOHGRQ&RQJUHVVWRSURWHFWWKH\RXWKRI$PHULFDIURPWKH³PRVWREVFHQH
PDWWHU´PDGHWR³UXLQWKHVWXGHQWV¶ERG\DQGVRXO´DQGIHOOLQWo their hands by way of
338
Chesler, Woman of Valor, 67.
Brodie, Contraception and Abortion, 287.
340
Qtd. in Chesler, Woman of Valor, 67.
341
Ibid.
342
Ibid.
343
Ibid., 68.
344
Qtd. in Morone, Hellfire Nation, 229.
339
77 ³VLQLVWHU´IRUHLJQHUV345 Therefore, the U.S. criminal code was amended to prohibit the
WUDQVSRUWE\SXEOLFPDLORI³HYHU\REVFHQHOHZGRUODVFLYLRXV«ERRNSDPSKOHW
SLFWXUHSDSHUOHWWHU«HYHU\DUWLFOHRUWKLQJGHVLJQHGDGDSWHGor intended for preventing
FRQFHSWLRQRUSURGXFLQJDERUWLRQRUIRUDQ\LQGHFHQWRULPPRUDOXVH´346 Congress felt
backlash against the law immediately as one group, the National Liberal League,
petitioned Washington and demanded the repeal of the act, but Comstock once again
showed Congress his pile of obscene material, which resulted in no further action being
taken against the law until the 1920s.347 To make matters worse, twenty-four states
amended their penal codes similarly, though most also exempted physicians.348
Nevertheless, the enforcement of the law was much trickier than had originally
been anticipated. The law targeted the postal service, which was difficult to monitor
EHFDXVHDV&RPVWRFNVDLG³,WJRHVHYHU\ZKHUHDQGLVVHFUHW´349 The New York Society
for the Suppression of Vice, of which Comstock headed, was put on the case, and
Comstock was given the authority by the U.S. Post Office and the State of New York to
FRQGXFWVHDUFKHVDQGVHL]XUHVDQGPDNHDUUHVWVDVD³VSHFLDODJHQW´350 Comstock made
ceUWDLQWKDWSXEOLFUHVRXUFHVZRXOGEHXVHGWRSROLFHIHPDOHEHKDYLRUDQGWKH³SXUYH\RUV
RIµREVFHQLW\¶´351 The law actually imposed stringent fines and prison sentences for
YLRODWRUVVWDWLQJWKDW³IRUHDFKRIIHQVHEHILQHGQRWOHVVWKDQRQHKXQGUHGGROODUVnor
more than five thousand dollars, or imprisoned at hard labor not less than one year nor
345
Nicola Beisel, I mperiled Innnocents: Anthony Comstock and F a mily Reproduction in Victorian America
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997), 58.
346
The Comstock Act, U.S. Code, vol. 18, sec. 1461.
347
Chesler, Woman of Valor, 68.
348
Ibid.
349
Anthony Comstock, F rauds Exposed: Or, How the People are Deceived and Robbed, and Youth
Corrupted (New York: J. Howard Brown, 1880), 391.
350
Chesler, Woman of Valor, 69.
351
Rickie Solinger, Pregnancy and Power: A Short History of Reproductive Politics in America (New
York: New York University Press, 2005), 72.
78 PRUHWKDQWHQ\HDUVRUERWKLQWKHGLVFUHWLRQRIWKHMXGJH´352 Comstock often entrapped
those who continued to disobey the law by writing to them as a young girl in need of
advice, which typically worked to his advantage.353 By 1880 Comstock claimed that he
KDG³RSHQOHWWHUVVHL]HGLQSRVVHVVLRQRISHUVRQVDUUHVWHG´WKHQDPHVRI
³GHDOHUVLQREVFHQHERRNVDQGJRRGV´WKDWKDGEHHQOLVWHGLQWKHDFFRXQWERoks of various
SXEOLVKHUVDQGWKHQDPHVDQGDGGUHVVHVRISHRSOHWRZKRPVXFK³VPXWGHDOHUV´
had sent wares.354 Comstock treated each successful conviction as if it were a victory
RYHU³EORRG\´³JURVV´DQG³YLFLRXV´PHQ355 Though venereal disease was a leading
cause of the so-FDOOHG³UDFHVXLFLGH´LWZRXOGQRWEHXQWLOWKDW1HZ<RUNDXWKRULWLHV
ZRXOGFXUE&RPVWRFN¶VSRZHUVDQGDOORZSK\VLFLDQVWRSUHVFULEHFRQWUDFHSWLRQDVD
means for combating venereal disease.356 Comstock refused to admit that the Comstock
Laws had ever been intended to handicap physicians, but at the same time he also called
all sexual activity that was non-SURFUHDWLYH³EHVWLDODQGEDVH´357 Thus, despite his
declaration that the Comstock Laws were not there to inhibit a physician¶VDELOLW\WR
prescribe contraception, Comstock disagreed with the purposes that contraception to be
XVHGIRU³VH[IRUSOHDVXUH´7KHODZPD\QRWKDYHDSSOLHGWRSK\VLFLDQVLQPRVWVWDWHV
EXW&RPVWRFN¶VQRWLRQWKDWFRQWUDFHSWLYHVZHUHLPPRUDODQGFULPLQal led most
physicians to cease their prescription and advice regarding them.358 Even physicians who
had private practices rarely and quietly discussed contraceptives.359 It would not be until
352
Tone, Devices and Desires, 22-23.
Solinger, Pregnancy and Power, 72.
354
Anthony Comstock, F rauds Exposed, 435.
355
Morone, Hellfire Nation, 230.
356
Chesler, Woman of Valor, 69.
357
Qtd. in ibid, 70.
358
Ibid.
359
Ibid.
353
79 1912 that the American Medical Association would once again take up open discussion
of contraceptives.360
$VDUHVXOWRI&RPVWRFN¶VHIIRUWVGLVFRXUVHVXUURXQGLQJFRQWUDFHSWLRQZDV
quieted and pushed underground and out of the hands of medical professionals.
Reputable magazines, for instance, only accepted advertisements that masked
FRQWUDFHSWLYHVXQGHUWKHHXSKHPLVP³IHPLQLQHK\JLHQH´361 On the other hand, before the
Comstock Laws, syringe ads were explicit regarding their contraceptive function and said
WKLQJVOLNH³WREHXVHGZLWKµLQIHFXQGDWLQJSRZGHUV¶DQGµDQWL-conception
FRPSRXQGV¶´362 All the same, following the passage of the Comstock Laws, Lydia
Pinkham was just one of many who sold contraceptives during the reign of Comstock,
DQGVKHEHFDPHZHDOWK\VHOOLQJHPPHQDJRJXHVWRPDNH³VWRPDFKWXPRUV´YDQLVK363
Edward Bliss Foote also advertised his wares under disguised names, such as douching
V\ULQJHVDV³6DQLWDU\6\ULQJHV´ZKLFKKHVDLGZHUH³DGDSWHGWRPDUULHGZRPHQ´DQGWR
EHXVHGIRU³WKRURXJKFOHDQVLQJDQGDSSOLFDWLRQRIPHGLFLQDOZDVKHVZLWKRXWZDVWH´364
The ultimate result, however, was that the regulation and standardization of the
contraceptive market became nearly impossible as it expanded farther beyond the reaches
of the law.365
It is unclear whether Comstock and his supporters reached their ultimate goal of
limiting risky medical practices because although many dangerous drugs were removed
from the market, other more hazardous ones were sold under disguised terms like
360
Ibid.
Ibid.
362
Gordon, Moral Property, 33.
363
Chesler, Woman of Valor, 70.
364
Qtd. in Brodie, Contraception and Abortion, 281.
365
Chesler, Woman of Valor, 70.
361
80 ³UHPRYLQJREVWUXFWLRQVWRPHQVWUXDWLRQ´RU³HUJRWSXOOV´ 366 Advice literature was
hardest hit by the Comstock Laws as the last two decades of the nineteenth century saw a
significant decline in the number and quality of advice literature available. For the most
part, advice literature was censored to contain little to nothing about birth control or
contraceptives. For instance, one book by Frederick Hollick ( The Nerves and the
NervousZDVQRORQJHUDGYHUWLVHGDV³LQFOXGLQJDIXOOGHVFULSWLRQRIHYHU\WKLQJWKDWLV
QRZNQRZQUHVSHFWLQJWKHSUHYHQWLRQDQGSURGXFWLRQRIRIIVSULQJ´367 Other books, such
as )RRWH¶VPlain Home Talk had been edited to no longer contain explicit advice
UHJDUGLQJFRQWUDFHSWLYHVDQGLQVWHDGH[SODLQHG)RRWH¶VWULDODQGILQHIRUEUHDNLQJWKH
Comstock Laws.368 The result was advice literature that was inferior at the close of the
nineteenth century to what had been available several decades earlier. In addition,
distribution channels were repressed as a result of the Comstock Laws. Those who did
publish birth control material did not do so visibly. Though the Supreme Court ruled in
1877WKDWWKH&RPVWRFN/DZV³GLGQRWGHQ\IUHHVSHHFK´369 the law proved complicated
DVMXULHVZHUHIRUFHGWRGHFLGHZKHWKHURUQRWLWHPVVXFKDV³ZRPEYHLOV´ZHUHEHLQJ
sold for lawful or unlawful purposes. Lawful, in this case, meant for the purpose of
disease prevention and unlawful meant for contraception.370 Still, by the early 1900s
Comstock began to lose favor in the eyes of the public. His biographer described him as
³DIRXUVTXDUHJUDQLWHPRQXPHQWWRWKH3XULWDQWUDGLWLRQ´371 Though Comstock himself
366
Brodie, Contraception and Abortion, 288.
³%RRNV:RUWK+DYLQJ´ The Play Goer and Theatrical Recorder 1, no. 3 (16 November 1857).
368
Brodie, Contraception and Abortion, 282.
369
Ibid., 286.
370
Ibid.
371
Heywood Broun and Margaret Leech, Anthony Comstock: Roundsman of the Lord (New York: 1927),
17.
367
81 was considered an old-fashioned crusader, his legacy would be his law which would
remain in place until 1965.
The argument over birth control eventually turned from a discussion of morals to
a discussion of population. By the early 1900s there was a call for the upper classes to
have more children as their birth rates were falling; the poor were out producing the
upper echelons of society. Theodore Roosevelt took it upon himself to speak out on the
issue, as he maintained that reproduction was the fundamental duW\RIWKH³EHWWHU
VWRFN´372 ,QSDUWLFXODU5RRVHYHOW¶VSRVLWLRQDVSUHVLGHQWRIIHUHGKLPWKHRSSRUWXQLW\WR
EHKHDUGRQWKHLVVXH<HW5RRVHYHOW¶VYLHZVZHUHLQQRZD\RULJLQDO:KHQKHEHFDPH
president and began attacking birth control, he merely fell into line with the most
fashionable rhetoric of the day-- the importance of maintaining and furthering the race.373
&RQVFLRXVO\UHVWULFWLQJWKHELUWKUDWHLQDQ\ZD\ZDVFRQVLGHUHGE\5RRVHYHOWDV³UDFH
VXLFLGH´ZKLFKPHDQWWKDWLWH[WHQGHGEH\RQGWKHLGHDWKDt immigrants were reproducing
faster than native-born Americans.374 Roosevelt viewed the upper classes in particular as
selfish when utilizing birth control, and he especially disapproved of women who put
individual ambitions ahead of their obligation to prolonging the existence of their family,
FODVVDQGQDWLRQ³7KHSURYLGHQWDQGWKHWKULIW\´KHVDLG³WHQGWRGHYHORSDFROG
VHOILVKQHVVZKLFKPDNHVWKHPUHIXVHWREUHHGDWDOO´375 He repeatedly denounced
ZRPHQZKRDYRLGHGWKHLU³GXW\´DVKDYLQJD³YLFLRXVQess, coldness, shallowKHDUWHGQHVV´WKDWZDVZRUVHWKDQDQ\TXDOLW\RIWKHLUORZHU-class counterparts.376 He
372
Kathleen A. Tobin, The American Religious Debate Over Birth Control, 1907-1930 (Jefferson, NC:
McFarland & Company, 2001), 18.
373
Gordon, :RPDQ¶V%RG\:RPDQ¶V5LJKW138.
374
Tobin, The American Religious Debate, 18.
375
Qtd. in Henry Goddard, Eugenics Record Office: Bulletin no. 1 (Cold Springs Harbor, NY: 1911), 56.
376
Gordon, :RPDQ¶V%RG\:RPDQ¶V5LJKW139.
82 FRPSDUHGPRWKHUKRRGWRDVROGHU¶VREOLJDWLRQWRWKHQDWLRQGXULQJDWLPHRIZDU377 It
was therefore selfish for women to utilize birth control because they had, in a sense,
betrayed the entirety of the human race by withholding from it what was necessary for its
survival. Roosevelt believed that availability of contraceptives would result in further
GHFUHDVHDPRQJWKH³VXSHULRU´VWRFNRIWKHXSSHUFODVVes. Furthermore, Roosevelt
FRQGHPQHGWKHXSSHUFODVV¶VWHQGHQF\WRZDUGVPDOOHUIDPLOLHVDV³GHFDGHQW´DQGD³VLJQ
RIPRUDOGLVHDVH´378 Thus, it was not only selfish, it was immoral to have small families.
Roosevelt went so far as to condemn upper-class women who held off having children as
³FULPLQDODJDLQVWWKHUDFH«WKHREMHFWRIFRQWHPSWXRXVDEKRUUHQFHE\KHDOWK\SHRSOH´379
5RRVHYHOW¶VWLUDGHVWHPPHGIURPDQDOUHDG\JURZLQJIHDUWKDWDVZRPHQVWUD\HG
from their primary responsibility, motherhood, it would lead to social degeneration. The
American upper classes saw themselves as political and economic leaders, and this
degeneration seriously weakened their leadership position as the lower classes
reproduced more steadily.380 7KH\VDZWKLVDVIDWDOEHFDXVHWKH³OHDVWYDOXDEOH´FLWL]HQV
ZHUHUHSURGXFLQJDWDUDSLGSDFHZKLOHWKH³PRVWYDOXDEOH´SRSXODWLRQZDVVKULQNLQJ
One physician even remarked that those women who did not have children were the ones
with the best minds, the intellectuals.381 Moreover, Roosevelt feared that birth control
ZRXOGEHWKHXQGRLQJRIWKHKRPHDQGIDPLO\EHFDXVH³WKHZKROHIDEULFRIVRFLHW\UHVWV
XSRQWKHKRPH«´382 The family and home was viewed as a school that taught children
about authority and community, which ultimately allowed for the development of citizens
377
Ibid.
Ibid., 133.
379
Theodore Roosevelt, Presidential Addresses and State Papers (New York: Review of Reviews, 1910),
282.
380
Gordon, :RPDQ¶V%RG\:RPDQ¶V5LJKW135.
381
Abbot Kinney, The Conquest of Death (New York: 1893), 13.
382
Theodore Roosevelt, A Compilation of the Messages and Speeches of Theodore Roosevelt, Alfred
Henry Lewis, ed. (New York: Bureau of National Literature and Art, 1906), 446.
378
83 for democratic self-rule.383 For Roosevelt, an ideal home was one made up of a large
IDPLO\+HFODLPHGWKDWWKRVHRI³QRUPDOVWRFN´VKRXOGKDYHDPLQLPXPRIVL[FKLOGUHQ
and those of better sock should have even more.384 5RRVHYHOW¶s rhetoric was not all that
he used to combat birth control while in the extremely voluble position of president. He
DOVRFUHDWHG0RWKHU¶V'D\DQGDIHGHUDOLQFRPHWD[GHGXFWLRQIRUFKLOGUHQLQWKHKRSHV
that it would promote women to perform their sacred duty.385 All the same, most of
5RRVHYHOW¶VIROORZHUVZHUHPHQZKRKDGVLPLODUYLHZVUDWKHUWKDQZRPHQFRQFHUQHG
about the stability of the race.
'HVSLWH5RRVHYHOW¶VVHYHUHVFROGLQJPRVWZRPHQGLGQRWJLYHXSWKHLUELUWK
control, though it had become illegal to obtain contraceptives under the Comstock
Laws.386 ,QIDFW5RRVHYHOW¶VUHEXNHDFWXDOO\HQFRXUDJHGIHPLQLVWVWRVSHDNRXWLQIDYRU
of birth control where many of them would have remained silent otherwise. Margaret
Sanger was the most vocal of the birth control advocates, campaigning from 1914 to
1937 to remove the stigma of obscenity from birth control, which had tainted it since the
SDVVDJHRIWKH&RPVWRFN/DZV6DQJHU¶VDZDNHQLQJWRWKHQHHGIRUSURSHUFRQWUDFHSWLYHV
allegedly came when she aided Sadie Sachs, a young Jewish immigrant, who had induced
upon herself a septic abortion that resulted in grim complications.387 According to
Sanger, Sachs plead for reliable contraception after being told by a physician that she
would die if she became pregnant again, but the heartless doctor stood by and told her to
383
Chesler, Woman of Valor, 60.
Gordon, :RPDQ¶V%RG\:RPDQ¶V5LJKW137.
385
Chesler, Woman of Valor, 60.
386
Ibid., 154.
387
Chesler, Woman of Valor, 63.
384
84 make her husband sleep on the roof, for she could not have her cake and eat it too.388
0DUJDUHWNQHZDIWHUWKLVWKDWVKHPXVWSXUVXH³IXQGDPHQWDOVRFLDOFKDQJH´389
Sanger became the most outspoken advocate IRU³IDPLO\SODQQLQJ´DQGVKH
especially appealed to working-class women, who had the least amount of knowledge
concerning birth control.390 6DQJHUDFWXDOO\FRLQHGWKHWHUP³ELUWKFRQWURO´LQLQWKH
hopes that it would appeal to Progressives.391 She wanted the public to realize that using
birth control agreed with goals expounded upon by Progressives. Without birth control,
IRULQVWDQFHVRFLHW\ZRXOGEH³LQHIILFLHQW´PHDQLQJWKDWWKRVHRI³EDGVWRFN´ZRXOG
KDYHWRRPDQ\FKLOGUHQZKLOHWKRVHRI³JRRGVWRFN´KDGWRRIHZ392 Birth control became
a real option for controlling the population growth of cities.393 Furthermore, Sanger wrote
and distributed literature as well as spoke publicly about the ties between reproductive
oppression and economic oppression. Sanger wanted women to publicly demonstrate in
favor of birth control as well as use it, which meant breaking the Comstock Laws.394 She
also imported ideas and devices from abroad for use in the U.S. because what little
contraceptive advice that was available in the U.S. had not advanced much since the
passage of the Comstock Laws. Sanger became aware of vaginal diaphragms while in
Holland and brought the concept back to the U.S.395 She returned to the U.S. in 1913 and
continued to press women to get rid of their fears about male promiscuity and control
their own reproduction. This feminist rhetoric would be maintained by Sanger throughout
her campaign for birth control, despite a later change in political alliances. Sanger also
388
Ibid.
Ibid.
390
Solinger, Pregnancy and Power, 80.
391
Ibid., 100.
392
Ibid.
393
Ibid.
394
Ibid., 81.
395
Morone, Hellfire Nation, 274.
389
85 published a paper, The Woman Rebel, LQZKLFKVKHSURPRWHGELUWKFRQWURODVD³ULJKW
GHQLHGWRWKHORZHUPLGGOHFODVV´396 Women of the upper-middle class had access to
knowledge about birth control that women of the lower middle class did not through
private physicians who often gave them advice on contraceptives illegally. Thus, Sanger
understood that women needed reproductive privacy and independence and opened her
first birth control clinic in New York in October 1916, which women of all religious,
ethnic, and class affiliations flocked to.397 All the same, many women remained afraid of
the consequences brought on by visiting the clinic. The doctor who worked there said that
³VRPHZKRFDPHWRWKHFOLQLFXQGRXEWHGO\JDYHIDOVHDGGUHVVHV´398 Even so, Sanger
refused to hide behind anonymity, and LQVKHIDFHGWULDOIRUSXEOLVKLQJ³REVFHQH´
material on birth control.399 She was also charged with selling contraceptives at her birth
control clinic.400 Sanger wanted this, however, as she sought to challenge the Comstock
Laws in court before the eyes of the public. Her lawyer advised her to simply plead
guilty, pay a fine, and end the issue.401 1HYHUWKHOHVV6DQJHUUHIXVHGVD\LQJ³,¶PQRW
concerned about going to jail. The question is whether I have or have not done something
REVFHQH´402 6DQJHU¶VIROORZHUVSUHIHUUHGQRWWREHDVVRFLDWHGZLWKELUWKFRQWUROWKRXJK
ZKHQDVNHGWR³VLJQDPDQLIHVWRGHPDQGLQJWKDWLQIRUPDWLRQDERXWELUWKFRQWUROEHPDGH
public DQGDGPLWWLQJWKDWWKH\XVHGLWWKHPVHOYHV´PRVWZRPHQUHIXVHGWRGRVR403
Nonetheless, in time birth control leagues caught on and spread across the nation,
396
Tobin, The American Religious Debate, 20.
Solinger, Pregnancy and Power, 81.
398
Chelser, Woman of Valor, 3.
399
Solinger, Pregnancy and Power, 82.
400
Brodie, Contraception and Abortion, 286.
401
Vicki Cox, 0DUJDUHW6DQJHU5HEHOIRU:RPHQ¶V5LJKWV(New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 2005),
59.
402
Ibid.
403
Solinger, Pregnancy and Power, 82.
397
86 especially between 1914 and 1918, after Sanger publicly battled the Comstock Laws
several times.404 Working-FODVVZRPHQHVSHFLDOO\WRRNXS6DQJHU¶VFUXVDGHDQGVRXJKWWR
NQRZWKH³VHFUHW´RIFRQWUDFHSWLRQWKDWKDGEHHQKLGGHQIURPWKHPIRUVRORQJ,Q
Sanger founded the American Birth Control League, and in 1931 she founded the
National Committee on Federal Legislation for Birth Control, both of which worked
toward her goal of legalizing birth control under medical supervision.405
Yet, Sanger eventually took a turn in her politics. She realized she needed
powerful allies if she was ever going to win her crusade, and therefore, she turned to
eugenics. Eugenics had grown to be a popular idea in the United States by the 1920s with
many followers, particularly male physicians. In fact, by 1930 she was recommending the
VWHULOL]DWLRQRIDOO³G\VJHQLF´SHRSOHs.406 She started out merely advocating the advance
of birth control through science though. In her book, The Pivot of Civilization, Sanger
promoted birth control as a way of understanding and researching race degeneracy, which
helped create insight for social problems.407 She wanted officials to find qualitative
instead of quantitative solutions to problems such as overcrowding in cities.408 6DQJHU¶V
IROORZHUVVDZFRQWUDFHSWLYHVDVWKHVRFLDOUHIRUPQHHGHGWRLPSURYH³WKHUDFH´DQGWKH\
tried to convince the Eugenics Society to unite with them.409 6DQJHUVDLGWKDW³ELUWK
FRQWURO«LVQRWKLQJPRUHRUOHVVWKDQWKHIDFLOLWDWLRQRIWKHSURFHVVRIZHHGLQJRXWWKH
XQILW>DQG@RISUHYHQWLQJWKHELUWKRIGHIHFWLYHV«,IZHDUHWRPDNHUDFLDOSURJUHVVWKLV
404
Morone, Hellfire Nation, 274.
Kathryn Cullen-DuPont, (QF\FORSHGLDRI:RPHQ¶V+LVWRU\LQ$PHULFD³0DUJDUHW6DQJHU´1HZ<RUN
Facts on File, 2000), 228.
406
Morone, Hellfire Nation, 274.
407
Tobin, The American Religious Debate, 12.
408
Ibid.
409
Ibid., 16.
405
87 development of woPDQKRRGPXVWSUHFHGHPRWKHUKRRGLQHYHU\LQGLYLGXDOZRPDQ´410
Eugenicists at first disagreed with this sentiment because they feared that by legalizing
FRQWUDFHSWLYHVWKRVHRI³ILW´VWRFNZRXOGOLPLWWKHLUUHSURGXFWLRQPRUHWKDQWKH\KDG
already.411 By the 1920s, however, eugenicists had come around and realized that
contraception could be used to make society better by alleviating social, psychological,
and economic problems.412 Eugenicists also saw an advantage in utilizing birth control
clinics for collectinJGDWDRQ³IDPLO\SDWWHUQVELUWK-control use, changing attitudes,
VH[XDOEHKDYLRUDQGJHQHWLFKLVWRU\´413 In 1925, Sanger aided her new allies by allowing
them to see the heredity, religion, nationality, and occupation of her patients.414 In 1930,
seventy birth-control clinics were studied in Britain and the U.S., and it was found that
they had reached a larger amount of working-class women compared with other classes
and claimed that a Eugenic effect had taken place as a result.415
Sanger declared a triumph in the melding of eugenics with birth control as she
SURFODLPHG³7KHHXJHQLVWVZDQWHGWRVKLIWWKHELUWK-control emphasis from less children
for the poor to more children for the rich. We went back of that and sought first to stop
the multiplication of tKHXQILW´416 Sanger had little patience for the women she had
started out to teach about birth control, claiming that the poor could not be taught how to
properly use birth control.417 Sterilization was recommended for these women.418 Sanger
410
Qtd. in Ibid., 16-17.
Ibid., 17.
412
Gordon, :RPDQ¶V%RG\:RPDQ¶V5LJKW281.
413
Ibid.
414
David M. Kennedy, Birth Control in America: the Career of Margaret S anger (New York: Yale
University Press, 1970), 200.
415
Gordon, :RPDQ¶V%RG\:RPDQ¶V5LJKW282.
416
Margaret Sanger, Margaret S anger an Autobiography (New York: Kessinger Publishing, 2004), 374375.
417
Gordon, :RPDQ¶V%RG\:RPDQ¶V5LJKW283.
418
Ibid.
411
88 remained an ardent feminist, however, promoting the right of women to control their
reproductive processes.
Unfortunately, the propaganda of the eugenics movement was more useful in
advancing the cause of contraception than was feminist rhetoric. The alliance between
birth control and eugenics was more a marriage of convenience than one in which birth
control advocates truly believed in the principles of eugenics. The marriage seemed to
work though, for by the 1930s, contraception became widespread.419 By the 1930s and
40s SanJHUKDGUHFODLPHGKHUURRWVDQGFDOOHGIRU³UHEHOOLRQ´DQG³VWUXJJOH´RQEHKDOIRI
women who wanted to control their own reproduction.420 Still, the birth control
movement had moved toward alliances with influential, respectable people, regardless of
their stance on feminism or historical views on birth control.421 Yet, Sanger remained
committed to the problems of women, which she did not see as opposed to her alliance
with eugenics.422 Sanger continued to campaign for an overturn of the Comstock Laws,
and she had success in 1936 when she testified before the Supreme Court in the case of
United States v. One Package of Japanese Pessaries.423 Sanger had been mailed a
package of pessaries in 1932 by a Japanese physician that she had met at a birth control
conference.424 6DQJHU¶VDWWRUQH\WROGKHUWRKDYHWKHSK\VLFLDQPDLOWKHPDJDLQRQO\WKLV
time to another physician instead, Hannah Stone.425 A fight in court followed, with
Hannah Stone on the side of medical exemption. The court sided with Stone, and Judge
Augustus Hand declared that the medical community had the right to dispense
419
Ibid.
Ibid., 354.
421
Ibid.
422
Ibid.
423
Tobin, The American Religious Debate, 206.
424
Ibid.
425
Ibid.
420
89 contraceptives.426 This was a monumental victory for contraceptives, as it rightly negated
WKH&RPVWRFN/DZV¶EDQRQWKHVHOORUGLVWULEXWLRQRIFRQWUDFHSWLYHV-XGJH+DQGZURWH
RIWKHODZ³>,W¶V@GHVLJQLQRXURSLQLRQZDVQRWWRSUHYHQWWKHLPSRUWDWLRQVDOHRU
carriage by mail of things which might intelligently be employed by conscientious and
competent physicians for the purpose of saving life or promoting the well-being of their
patients´427 Following this decision, the American Medical Association acknowledged
FRQWUDFHSWLRQDV³SURSHUPHGLFDOSUDFWLFH´LQDQG6DQJHUWKRXJKVKHKDGQRW
begun her campaign for birth control with the AMA in mind, seemed to have won the
struggle for birth control.428 Still, it would not be until Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)
and Eisenstaedt v. Baird (1972) that access to birth control information would finally be
settled on constitutional grounds.429
The Comstock Law was thought to be a mistake almost immediately following its
creation. By 1878, only three years after its introduction, there were already many
unhappy citizens. People became concerned that such a law was dangerous because it
could limit free speech, and more than 50,000 people signed a petition to have the
Comstock Laws repealed.430 Subsequent efforts to repeal the law did not come to fruition
until 1965, though some changes to the law were made. During the 1920s Mary Ware
Dennett, an American birth control activist and leader of the Voluntary Parenthood
League, began to gradually dissolve the Comstock Laws. For instance, she published a
VH[HGXFDWLRQSDPSKOHWIRUDGROHVFHQWVFDOOHG³7KH6H[6LGHRI/LIH´DQGLWZDVODEHOHG
426
Ibid.
U.S. v. One Package, 86 F. 2d 737 (1936), 5-6.
428
Tobin, The American Religious Debate, 206.
429
Cullen-DuPont, (QF\FORSHGLDRI:RPHQ¶V+LVWRU\³0DUJDUHW6DQJHU´ 228.
430
James J. Magee, F reedom of Expression (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002), 105.
427
90 as obscene and banned from being mailed.431 Dennett overcame this obstacle and was
YLFWRULRXVLQZKHQDFRXUWRIDSSHDOVMXGJHUXOHGWKDW³DQDFFXUDWHH[SRVLWLRQRIWKH
relevant facts of the sex side of life in decent language and in manifestly serious and
GLVLQWHUHVWHGVSLULWFDQQRWRUGLQDULO\EHUHJDUGHGDVREVFHQH´432 Thus, information
regarding sex and sex education was no longer illegal to publish as it had been under the
Comstock Laws. Doctors could now publish information regarding sex and new
discoveries surrounding it, which was a significant breakthrough since almost all prior
knowledge regarding sex had to be obtained by word of mouth. Also in 1930, the case
Youngs Rubber Corporation v. C.I. Lee Co., Inc. struck a blow to the Comstock Laws. In
this case, it was decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that
³WUDQVSRUWLQJFRQWUDFHSWLRQXQGHUFHUWDLQFRQGLWLRQVIRUFHUWDLQSXUSRVHV´ZDVOHJDO433
Devices could be distributed by a doctor for the specific purpose of preventing diseases
DQGSUHJQDQF\LQDUHDVRIWKHFRXQWU\³ZKHUHWKDWLVSHUPLWWHGE\ODZ´434 This decision
was momentous because it allowed anyone to obtain contraceptives under the pretext that
they were protecting themselves from disease or preventing a pregnancy.
0DUJDUHW6DQJHU¶VFDVH United States v. One Package of Japanese
Pessaries was the next major victory over the Comstock Laws, allowing doctors to sell
and distribute contraceptives as well as importing them from other countries.435 The
decision removed the federal ban on birth control, though state laws could still maintain
their ban on birth control.436 The state Comstock Laws, especially those of stricter states
431
Solinger, Pregnancy and Power, 106.
Constance Chen, ³7KH6H[6LGHRI/LIH´0DU\:DUH'HQQHWW¶V3LRQHHULQJ%DWWOHIRU%LUWK&RQWURODQG
Sex Education (New York: New Press, 1996), 301.
433
Solinger, Pregnancy and Power, 106.
434
Ibid.
435
Tobin, The American Religious Debate, 206.
436
Solinger, Pregnancy and Power, 107.
432
91 like Connecticut, would not be completely removed from the books until 1965 with the
case of Griswold v. Connecticut. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas maintained
WKDWDPDUULHGFRXSOHKDGDULJKWWRELUWKFRQWURODQGWKDWLWZDV³ZLWKLQWKH]RQHRI
SULYDF\FUHDWHGE\VHYHUDOIXQGDPHQWDO>FRQVWLWXWLRQDO@JXDUDQWHHV´437 Thus, marriage, as
sanctioned by the state, includes a right to privacy, which further includes the right to use
contraceptives. The Comstock Laws did not, however, breathe their last breath until
1972, almost a century after they had been passed, with the Supreme Court case decision
in Eisenstadt v. Baird. Justice William Brennan proclaimed that ³LIWKHULJKWWRSULYDF\
means anything, it is the right of the individual, married or single, to be free from
unwarranted governmental intrusion into matters so fundamentally affecting as person as
WKHGHFLVLRQZKHWKHUWREHDURUEHJHWDFKLOG´438 Finally, ninety-nine years later, birth
control shook off the stigma that it was immoral and obscene.
Birth control became a national controversy in much the same way that
prostitution did. As fears over immigration and race suicide compounded, a panic over
birth control as an immoral and obscene creation arose. Anxiety in the U.S. over
LPPLJUDQWVUHSURGXFLQJDWDIDVWHUUDWHDQGFUHDWLQJDQHZQDWLRQRI³XQILW´LQGLYLGXDOV
led many to consider birth control, because it was used mainly by upper-FODVV³ILW´
Americans. In addition, President Theodore Roosevelt implored Americans to have larger
families, though it had become an economic strain in the new market economy, and those
who withheld were considered immoral. Furthermore, women had begun to take control
of their own lives through controlling their reproduction. Men grew anxious as women
began to make the move from private to public sphere, and they claimed that the duty of
437
438
Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965).
Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438 (1972).
92 ZRPHQZDVWKDWRIPRWKHUKRRGMXVWWKHVDPHDVDVROGLHU¶VGXW\LVWRWKHFRXQWU\$OOof
these factors combined at once to create an atmosphere of panic among most Americans.
Anthony Comstock perhaps became the most uneasy over the changing American
landscape and set to work petitioning Congress to pass a law which would make it illegal
to WUDQVSRUWEX\RUVHOOFRQWUDFHSWLYHVDVWKH\ZHUHGHHPHG³REVFHQH´7KHODZVWRRG
for nearly a century when it was finally struck down through the efforts of those like
Margaret Sanger and her successors. The irony of the birth control debate was that it
offered protection against diseases that were feared to be contributing to race suicide,
diseases that were much worse than the supposed immoral consequences of using birth
control. Yet, the panic induced by a changing society led cloudy-minded individuals to
ignore this fact and create laws that could be more detrimental than what they claimed to
be protecting society from. Ultimately, birth control became a scapegoat utilized in an
attempt to ease growing apprehensions surrounding a changing American society.
93 CONCLUSION
³,QDQDXWKRULWDULDQVRFLHW\WKHFRQIOLFWEHWZHHQDPRUDOLW\ZKLFKLVLPSRVHGRQ
the total society by a minority in the interests of maintaining its power, on the one hand,
and the sexual needs of the individual on the other, leads WRDFULVLVZKLFK«LV
LQVROXEOH´439 :LOKHOP5HLFKWKHPDQZKRFRLQHGWKHWHUP³VH[XDOUHYROXWLRQ´GHFODUHG
this to be true in 1945 after living through the Progressive Era. His statement held true as
the ensuing decades led to a conflict between those who wished to maintain the reforms
put in place by Progressive reformers like Anthony Comstock and those who sought to
VKDNHWKHPRIIDQGFUHDWHD³QHZPRUDOLW\´7KHVVDZDEULHIWXUQWRZDUGVH[XDO
revolution, but it would not be until the 1960s that the true sexual revolution took place,
turning Progressive reforms on their heads and crafting a new American idea of sexual
morality. The Progressive Era reforms had a way of working themselves out in the sense
that the pendulum of reform finally swung back to a more liberal ideology. Yet, many of
the issues that plagued the Progressive Era remain today as hot-button political topics.
%HJLQQLQJLQWKHVDVH[XDOUHYROXWLRQJRWXQGHUZD\DV³IODSSHUV´
FKDOOHQJHGWKHWUDGLWLRQDOLGHDRIVH[XDOLW\DQG³SURSHU´EHKDYLRUIRUZRPHQ7KHVH
flappers wore short skirts, cut their hair short, and wore more makeup than women were
439
Wilhelm Reich, The Sexual Revolution: Toward a Self-Governing Character Structure (Toronto:
Doubleday Canada, Ltd.), 30.
94 expected to. Advertising and other media also became increasingly sexualized, despite
the fact that the Comstock Laws remained in place.
The real revolution, however, began in the 1960s. Yet, this revolution could not
have taken place without the discovery of antibiotics that took place in the 1930s, which
rendered venereal disease curable or at least treatable.440 Thus, one aspect of the panic
that took place in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century was already overturned.
By the 1950s pornography had also become more acceptable, something illegal under the
Comstock Laws. In 1953, for instance, Hugh Hefner began publishing Playboy.441 In
addition, nonfiction sex manuals, much like their predecessors on birth control, began to
SHUYDGHVRFLHW\VXFKDV+HOHQ*XUOH\%URZQ¶VSex and the Single Girl and David
5HXEHQ¶V Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex. 442 Even contraceptives
began to be accepted by the 1960s as technology developed new methods for preventing
pregnancy. In the early 1960s, for instance, the first contraceptive pill was introduced.443
Women could once again take their reproductive rights into their own hands.
In addition to changing societal norms, many Progressive Era laws were finally
overturned. In 1965 the Comstock Laws were finally struck down with the Supreme
Court ruling of Griswold v. Connecticut, which allowed married couples to seek and
obtain contraceptives. In 1972, this was extended to non-married couples in the Supreme
Court ruling of Eisenstadt v. Baird. Furthermore, in 1986 Congress updated the vague
0DQQ$FWDQGFKDQJHGWKHDPELJXRXVWHUPV³GHEDXFKHU\´DQG³DQ\RWKHULPPRUDO
SXUSRVH´ZLWKWKHPRUH VSHFLILF³DQ\VH[XDODFWLYLW\IRUZKLFKDQ\SHUVRQFDQEHFKDUJHG
440
Jane L. Caroll, Sexuality Now: E mbracing Diversity (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2010), 23.
Ibid.
442
Ibid.
443
Ibid.
441
95 ZLWKDFULPLQDORIIHQVH´LQDQHIIRUWWRKHOSSURWHFWPLQRUVDJDLQVWVH[XDOH[SORLWDWLRQ
and to eliminate arrests of people who are not engaging in sexual trafficking.444 Such
efforts served to undo or revise many Progressive Era laws that were designed to enforce
a now-dead set of Victorian morals.
On the other hand, many of the issues debated in the Progressive Era remain
grounds for heated debate today. The idea that immigrants are bringing in moral and
literal diseases as well as outnumbering and negatively affecting the American landscape
continues to permeate American society. The recent Arizona Senate Bill 1070, the
Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act, is one of the strictest antiimmigration laws since the Progressive Era itself. Many have recently accused
immigrants not only of bringing tuberculosis into the U.S. but also of bringing drugs and
associated violence to the U.S.445 Thus, the panic over immigration continues to live on
and is as lively today as it was in the 1890s.
0RUDOGHEDWHVFRQWLQXHWRGD\DVZHOOEXWZLWKDVOLJKWWZLVW7RGD\¶VGHEDWHV
XVXDOO\FHQWHURYHUZKHWKHURUQRWLWLVDSHUVRQ¶VULJKWWRFRQWUROWKHLURZQERG\RUKDYH
a right to privacy. Today, Americans with conservative beliefs argue have replaced the
argument over all contraceptives with that of abortion specifically. American lawyer and
FRQVHUYDWLYHSROLWLFDOFRPPHQWDWRU$QQ&RXOWHUVDLGWKDWOLEHUDOV³ZHUHZURQJRQWKH
sexual revolution (witness the explosions of AIDS, herpes, chlamydia, hepatitas B, and
DERUWLRQ´446 7KXVWKH\KHDUNHQEDFNWR&RPVWRFN¶VUKHWRULFZKLFKGHFODUHGWKDWVH[IRU
SOHDVXUHZDV³EHVWLDO´ZLWKWKHLUHTXDOO\-charged discourse that accuses the sexual
444
White-Slave Traffic Act of 1910, Pub. L. 99-628, 1986, Stat. 100.
5DQGDO&$UFKLEROG³,Q%RUGHU9LROHQFH3HUFHSWLRQLV*UHDWHU7KDQ&ULPH6WDWLVWLFV´ New York
Times, 27 June 2010, p. 18.
446
Ann Coulter, S lander: Liberal Lies About the American Right (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2002),
252.
445
96 revolution and liberal morals will lead to the ultimate destruction of America. They also
DVVHUWWKDW³VH[IRUSOHDVXUH´RXWVLGHRIWKHVWDWH-recognized realm of marriage is
immoral. Jeffrey Arnett, American Psychologist, reported that according to interviews he
conductHG³$OWKRXJKWKHPDMRULW\RIHPHUJLQJDGXOWVVHHVQRSUREOHPZLWKSUHPDULWDO
VH[DVORQJDVWKHSHUVRQVLQYROYHGDUHPDWXUH«RQO\WKRVHZLWKFRQVHUYDWLYH«EHOLHIV
WKLQNWKHVSHFLDOUHODWLRQVKLS>VH[LVUHVHUYHGIRU@LVPDUULDJH´447 They also continue to
try and impose laws that seek to regulate sexuality and morality that agree with their
doctrine of beliefs. Liberals, on the other hand, continue to take the same path that
Margaret Sanger did, declaring that people have a right to choose. Kate Michleman, a
poOLWLFDODFWLYLVWDFWLYHLQWKHFDPSDLJQIRUZRPHQ¶VULJKWWRPDQDJHWKHLURZQ
UHSURGXFWLRQKDVVDLG³$ERUWLRQULJKWVDQGUHSURGXFWLYHIUHHGRPDQGFKRLFHQHHGWREH
seen in the larger context of individual liberties, of women determining the course of
theLUOLYHVDQGKDYLQJFRQWURORYHUWKHLUOLYHV´448 These liberals also continue to fight
against the more stringent laws of the conservative camp.
It seems as though the more things change, the more they stay the same. Though
the sexual revolution of the 1960s got rid of many of the strict laws of the Progressive
Era, like the Comstock Laws, panic over immigration, methods of birth control, and the
dangers of sexual deviance persist even in the twenty-first century. Consequently, the
Progressive Era, despite being long over, seems to still be alive and well today. It would
not be surprising to see it carry on into the next century, regardless of efforts to say that
the issues of the Progressive Era had long been solved. The sexual politics of the
447
Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, E merging Adulthood: The Winding Road from the Late Teens Through the
Twenties (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 89.
448
Meet The Press, Besty Fischer, executive producer, National Broadcasting Company, Washington, D.C.,
8 January 2006.
97 Progressive Era, then, remains a great influence on America, as the citizens of the U.S.
continue to mix morals with politics.
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