'Cave of oblivion': Opium dens and exclusion laws, 1850-1882

摘要

This study examines the possible links between the demands to eradicate opium smoking from the Intermountain West of Nevada, Montana, and Wyoming to the calls for Chinese exclusion in the 1870s and 1880s.;Initially, the Chinese came to the United States as sojourners to participate in the California gold rush. They came without families, in virtually an all-male movement. The Chinese in the region formed communities that included stores, lodging, and vice enterprises, including brothels, gambling emporiums, and opium dens.;Few Anglo-Americans smoked opium in the dens of Chinatown prior to the early 1870s; however, by the late 1870s, thousands of whites were addicted to the imported narcotic. Intermountain residents took little interest in the Chinese habit until the Anglo-American elite and middle classes began participating in the vice once considered the habit of Chinese laborers and the American demimonde.;The Intermountain West, into which the Chinese moved because of the mineral strikes there, well illustrated western America's reactions to the Chinese and their vice. Their newspapers, residents, and politicians reflect the consensus of American opinion on smoking opium and serve as excellent examples of how the area dealt with a demand for local order while taking on a national problem. Many Americans believed that opium smoking threatened the Victorian values of the elite and middle classes. Victorian America expected a great deal from its men and women and they believed that smoking opium jeopardized the country's future because of the drug's alleged physical and behavioral side effects, including racial degeneration and industrial deterioration.;Calls to eliminate smoking opium began in Virginia City, Nevada, and quickly spread throughout Nevada, Montana, and Wyoming. At first, the authorities tried to eradicate the drug by outlawing places to smoke it, as well as banning the drug itself. With the failure of both actions, the Intermountain West demanded the elimination of smoking opium's dealers, the Chinese. Because the narcotic allegedly threatened the moral and industrial structure of the nation, some Americans demanded its eradication. If that meant excluding the Chinese from the nation, then that was all right with them.