This trafficking activity lasted for decades and extent of the problem was much worse than that of “the white slave trade,” yet there was much less concern from the general public. At its peak, there were roughly 1,500 to 2,000 Chinese women forced into sex slavery in San Francisco, but there wasn’t a wide public uproar because of rampant anti-Chinese sentiment. Oddly enough, our nation’s first drug laws were directly related to anti-Chinese sentiment as the newspapers proclaimed that Asian men were forcing white women into sex slavery with opium. As a result, that propaganda had a double whammy effect of sorts as it led to both drug and prostitution laws.
The white slave scare was unofficially launched in the U.S. by a journalist George …show more content…
“The moral panic surrounding white slave traffic allowed a certain class to discuss prostitution in the most serious tone while being titillated by the sexual detail. This was porn for puritans,” wrote James R. Peterson, author of The Century of Sex. For instance, one article was titled “Beautiful White Girls Sold into Ruin” with the caption “Illustrated with a large number of startling pictures.” There was hardly any fact checking with these kinds of lurid stories until George Kibbe Turner wrote another white slave article that directly implicated Tammany Hall, the New York City Democratic political organization. It was no secret that this group was incredibly corrupt as Tammany Hall directly “taxed” the city’s vice rackets. However, there was no evidence that they were forcing anyone into prostitution. Nonetheless, Turner’s Tammany article caused a stir nationally and led the city to initiate an investigation by a commission and grand jury, led by John D. Rockefeller
The white slave scare was unofficially launched in the U.S. by a journalist George …show more content…
“The moral panic surrounding white slave traffic allowed a certain class to discuss prostitution in the most serious tone while being titillated by the sexual detail. This was porn for puritans,” wrote James R. Peterson, author of The Century of Sex. For instance, one article was titled “Beautiful White Girls Sold into Ruin” with the caption “Illustrated with a large number of startling pictures.” There was hardly any fact checking with these kinds of lurid stories until George Kibbe Turner wrote another white slave article that directly implicated Tammany Hall, the New York City Democratic political organization. It was no secret that this group was incredibly corrupt as Tammany Hall directly “taxed” the city’s vice rackets. However, there was no evidence that they were forcing anyone into prostitution. Nonetheless, Turner’s Tammany article caused a stir nationally and led the city to initiate an investigation by a commission and grand jury, led by John D. Rockefeller