Opium Slavery: Civil War Veterans and America’s First Opioid Crisis

Name: Opium Slavery: Civil War Veterans and America’s First Opioid Crisis
Start: 2025-11-01T15:00:00-04:00
Location: 48 E Patrick St, Frederick, MD, United States, Maryland 21701

Sat, 01 Nov, 2025 at 03:00 pm UTC-04:00

48 E Patrick St, Frederick, MD, United States, Maryland 21701 | Frederick

Publisher/HostNational Museum of Civil War Medicine

share

$Opium Slavery: Civil War Veterans and America\u2019s First Opioid Crisis$

In the wake of the Civil War, many veterans struggled with lingering pain, disabling illnesses, and trauma. Old soldiers often turned to opioids to cope, and thousands became addicted to opium and Morph*ne.
Jonathan S. Jones, Assistant Professor of History at James Madison University, will discuss his new book Opium Slavery: Civil War Veterans and America’s First Opioid Crisis. It investigates how the Civil War sparked an opioid epidemic among veterans, how addiction affected their lives, and what this crisis can teach us about the war’s unexpected aftershocks in the postwar decades.