Henry Cohen History of Medicine Lecture - Professor Keith Wailoo
5:30pm - 7:30pm /
Tuesday 7th July 2026
/ Venue: Lecture Theatre 1 Sherrington Building
Type: Lecture /
Category: Department
- Michelle Nelson
- Suitable for: All are welcome
- Admission: Free to attend
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Lecture title: Unnecessary Sleep: Opium, the Trial of Ann, and the Therapeutic Dilemma of Slavery
Professor Keith Wailoo is Henry Putnam University Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University. Professor Wailoo is an award-winning author on drugs and drug policy; race, science, and health; and genetics and society; and he is known also for insightful public writing and media commentaries on history of medicine, pandemics and society, and medical affairs in the U.S.
As global opium markets expanded in the 19th century, the drug presented a deep therapeutic dilemma. Valued for vanquishing pain and inducing sleep, prized amid recurring cholera epidemics, opium products also provoked deep 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 Tennessee, accused to using opium to kill the infant child of her master. The case sheds light on the collision of two 19th century dilemmas – the therapeutic dilemma of vital need and fear of poisoning and the dilemma of US slavery’s labor needs and racial dependencies. At issue in the case was also the girl’s knowledge in the uses and misuses of opium. The case illuminates how US courts waded into this therapeutic dilemma – how law and medicine interacted in adjudicating questions of knowledge, intent, culpability, and the maintenance of social order as opium found its way into North American markets and onto the slave plantation.
Professor Keith Wailoo is Henry Putnam University Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University. Professor Wailoo is an award-winning author on drugs and drug policy; race, science, and health; and genetics and society; and he is known also for insightful public writing and media commentaries on history of medicine, pandemics and society, and medical affairs in the U.S.
As global opium markets expanded in the 19th century, the drug presented a deep therapeutic dilemma. Valued for vanquishing pain and inducing sleep, prized amid recurring cholera epidemics, opium products also provoked deep 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 Tennessee, accused to using opium to kill the infant child of her master. The case sheds light on the collision of two 19th century dilemmas – the therapeutic dilemma of vital need and fear of poisoning and the dilemma of US slavery’s labor needs and racial dependencies. At issue in the case was also the girl’s knowledge in the uses and misuses of opium. The case illuminates how US courts waded into this therapeutic dilemma – how law and medicine interacted in adjudicating questions of knowledge, intent, culpability, and the maintenance of social order as opium found its way into North American markets and onto the slave plantation.