Hampden Coit DuBose

Background

DuBose was born in South Carolina and a graduated from Columbia Theological Seminary.

Career

His Chinese name is Du Buxi 杜步西. As a witness of the destructive problems of opium addiction in China, he was moved to join with other likeminded missionaries and Christian medical workers to form the Anti-Opium League in China. DuBose was its first president

In 1899 the League published a seminal book called Opinions of Over 100 Physicians on the Use of Opium in China.

The book illustrated the purpose of the league and published facts about the opium abuse crisis that ultimately influenced public opinion against the trade. DuBose eventually gained the support of United States. President Theodore Roosevelt, the United States. Congress, and the International Opium Commission.

In turn the Emperor issued an imperial edict, following verbatim the petition Dubose had drafted, which prohibited the trade and abuse of opium. In a letter to United States. Senator John McLaurin he called upon the United States. to own its responsibility for the opium trade, in that, along with Great Britain it had profited at the expense of the Chinese.

He asserted:

DuBose’s missionary career in Suzhou lasted 38 years until his death in 1910.

Achievements

• In 1906 the League achieved success when the British Parliament declared that the trade was "morally indefensible." DuBose circulated a petition signed by over a thousand missionaries in China and it was presented to the Guangxu Emperor.