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SUMMARY:Unnecessary sleep: opium\, the trial of Ann\, and the therapeutic 
 dilemma of slavery - Keith Wailoo (Princeton University)
DTSTART:20250306T153000Z
DTEND:20250306T170000Z
UID:TALK227071@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr. Rosanna Dent
DESCRIPTION:As global opium markets expanded in the 19th century\, the dru
 g presented a deep therapeutic dilemma. Valued for vanquishing pain and in
 ducing sleep\, opium also heightened fears about its habit-forming capacit
 y. Prized amid recurring cholera epidemics\, opium products also provoked 
 worry over their capacity to poison and kill. This talk – previewing my 
 next book – examines a single murder trial of an enslaved girl in 1850 T
 ennessee\, accused of using opium to kill the infant child of her master. 
 At issue in the case was her knowledge of the uses and misuses of laudanum
 \, an opium concoction. The case sheds light on an unexplored aspect of th
 e nineteenth-century opium dilemma – the interplay of vital need and fea
 r of poisoning as manifest in the context of US slavery. The case also ill
 uminates how the courts waded into this therapeutic dilemma – how law an
 d medicine interacted in adjudicating questions of knowledge\, intent\, cu
 lpability\, and the maintenance of social order as opium found its way ont
 o the North American slave plantation.
LOCATION:Hopkinson Lecture Theatre\, New Museums Site
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