White Slave Crusades: Race, Gender, and Anti-vice Activism, 1887-1917 - Hardcover

Donovan, Brian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0252030257 ISBN 13: 9780252030253

Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 2006

Synopsis

During the early twentieth century, individuals and organizations from across the political spectrum launched a sustained effort to eradicate forced prostitution, commonly known as "white slavery." White Slave Crusades is the first comparative study to focus on how these anti-vice campaigns also resulted in the creation of a racial hierarchy in the United States. 
 
Focusing on the intersection of race, gender, and sex in the antiprostitution campaigns, Brian Donovan analyzes the reactions of native-born whites to new immigrant groups in Chicago, to African Americans in New York City, and to Chinese immigrants in San Francisco. Donovan shows how reformers employed white slavery narratives of sexual danger to clarify the boundaries of racial categories, allowing native-born whites to speak of a collective "us" as opposed to a "them."  These stories about forced prostitution provided an emotionally powerful justification for segregation, as well as other forms of racial and sexual boundary maintenance in urban America. 
 

About this title

Book Description:

Forced prostitution, moralism, and the narratives of prejudice

During the early twentieth century, individuals and organizations from across the political spectrum launched a sustained effort to eradicate forced prostitution, commonly known as “white slavery.” White Slave Crusades is the first comparative study to focus on how these anti-vice campaigns also resulted in the creation of a racial hierarchy in the United States. 

Focusing on the intersection of race, gender, and sex in the antiprostitution campaigns, Brian Donovan analyzes the reactions of native-born whites to new immigrant groups in Chicago, to African Americans in New York City, and to Chinese immigrants in San Francisco. Donovan shows how reformers employed white slavery narratives of sexual danger to clarify the boundaries of racial categories, allowing native-born whites to speak of a collective “us” as opposed to a “them.”  These stories about forced prostitution provided an emotionally powerful justification for segregation, as well as other forms of racial and sexual boundary maintenance in urban America. 

About the Author:

Brian Donovan is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Kansas.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0252030257
• ISBN 13: 9780252030253
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 186