Prostitution, Race and Politics: Policing Venereal Disease in the British Empire

From the 1850s until the 1880s, British Colonial administrators across the globe established wide-ranging legislation aimed principally at slowing the spread of venereal disease and the subsequent loss of soldier-power it brought about. Virtually every British colonial possession and interest was subject in the later half of the nineteenth century to Contagious Diseases (CD) ordinances and regulations that identified female prostitutes as the principal source of infection. Women working as prostitutes, particularly those serving British soldiers and sailors, were required to register officially as prostitutes and undergo regular examinations designed to detect venereal disease. This system, which differed in detail from colony to colony, was in place by the mid-1870s throughout most of the British Empire. Though most agree that the CD ordinances were put in place primarily to protect the health of British soldiers, a closer examination reveals that the laws were not just about the control of VD but also "aconscious instrument of colonial dominance". Drawing upon original research and never before examined primary sources, Philippa Levine creates a new picture of sex at the turn of the last century. She reveals the ways in which ideas about race and the colonized were intertwined with prostitution and its practices throughout the far reaches of the Empire.

Philippa Levine teaches at the University of Southern California. She is the author of two studies of Victorian feminism, a study of the development of the history of nineteenth-century Britain, and many articles on the history of sexuality and sexually transmissible diseases.