Rhetoric of White Slavery: Debating Women's Bodies in Wisconsin, 1887-1890

In 1887 prostitution had long been a reality in Northern Wisconsin lumber towns and other similar areas. Yet, by the end of that year citizens across the United States were outraged by reports of “white slavery.” Although the Wisconsin legislature passed a bill to address the issue, the governor’s investigation concluded that there was not a problem with women’s enslavement in northern Wisconsin towns and lumber camps. The Wisconsin controversy was important because it set the stage for the broader national controversy that cumulated in the federal Mann Act. All sides involved in the Wisconsin controversy could agree on the existence of prostitution, but the public meaning of prostitution was contested. My presentation establishes that the rhetoric of white slavery functioned as the crux of this contested meaning.

Through a rhetorical analysis of newspaper reporting, letters to the Wisconsin governor, and the governor’s investigation files, I examine the trope of white slavery. While the public use of this rhetoric does not tell us much about the complex lived reality of women’s lives during this time, this analysis does reveal how women’s bodies can become appropriated in public controversy. In particular, I argue that because whiteness gains meaning through its opposition, the rhetoric of white slavery posited whiteness as at risk. Women’s bodies functioned as a contested space of claiming and controlling white American identity. This presentation aims to contribute to understandings of women’s bodies in the American public imaginary, as well as the rhetoric of slavery in American public discourse.