Hampden Coit DuBose (30 September 1845 in

Darlington, South Carolina Darlington is a city located in Darlington County, South Carolina, United States. In 2010, its population was 6,289. It is the county seat of Darlington County. It is part of the Florence, South Carolina Metropolitan Statistical Area. Darlington ...

– 22 March 1910 in

Suzhou Suzhou (; ; Suzhounese: ''sou¹ tseu¹'' , Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Soochow, is a major city in southern Jiangsu province, East China. Suzhou is the largest city in Jiangsu, and a major economic center and focal point of trade ...

) was a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

with the American Presbyterian Mission (South) and founder of the Anti-Opium League in China. Rev. Dr. Hampden Coit DuBose was the son of Rev. Julius Jesse DuBose and Margaret Eliza Thompson, married Pauline McAlpine, daughter of Augustine Irving McAlpine and Martha Clisby and had seven children with her.

Career

DuBose was born in

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

and a graduated from

Columbia Theological Seminary Columbia Theological Seminary is a Presbyterian seminary in Decatur, Georgia. It is one of ten theological institutions affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). History Columbia Theological Seminary was founded in 1828 in Lexington, Geo ...

. He and his wife Pauline went to China as missionaries with the Southern Presbyterian Church in 1872 and settled in

along the

Grand Canal of China The Grand Canal, known to the Chinese as the Jing–Hang Grand Canal (, or more commonly, as the「大运河」("Grand Canal")), a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the longest canal or artificial river in the world. Starting in Beijing, it passes ...

. His Chinese name is Du Buxi 杜步西. As a witness of the destructive problems of

opium Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...

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

abuse crisis that ultimately influenced public opinion against the trade. DuBose eventually gained the support of U.S. President

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

, the

U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...

, and the

International Opium Commission The International Opium Commission was a meeting convened on February 1 to February 26, 1909 in Shanghai that represented one of the first steps toward international drug prohibition. Dr. Hamilton Wright and Episcopal Bishop Charles Henry Brent h ...

. In 1906 the League achieved success when the

British Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative supremacy ...

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 The Guangxu Emperor (14 August 1871 – 14 November 1908), personal name Zaitian, was the tenth Emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the ninth Qing emperor to rule over China proper. His reign lasted from 1875 to 1908, but in practice he ruled, wi ...

. 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 U.S. Senator

John L. McLaurin John Lowndes McLaurin (May 9, 1860 – July 29, 1934) was a United States representative and Senator from South Carolina. He was born in Red Bluff, South Carolina, in Marlboro County, South Carolina and attended schools at Bennettsville, Sou ...

he called upon the U.S. 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 was memorialized in Suzhou by a stone tablet and in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

by being elected moderator of the General Assembly of the Southern Presbyterian Church in 1891. DuBose's missionary career in Suzhou lasted 38 years until his death in 1910.

Works Authored

* Hampden Coit DuBose
''Preaching in Sinim: The Gospel to the Gentiles, with Hints and Helps for Addressing a Heathen Audience''
(1873) * Hampden Coit DuBose
''The Dragon, the Image, and the Demon: Or the Three Religions of China Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism''
(1887) * Hampden Coit DuBose
''Memoirs of Dr. J. Leighton Wilson''"> ''Memoirs of Dr. J. Leighton Wilson''
(1895) * Hampdon Coit DuBose
Beautiful Soo, the Capital of Kiangsu
(1899) * Hampden Coit DuBose, sermons (

Chinese language Chinese (, especially when referring to written Chinese) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the wor ...

) * Hampden Coit DuBose, Bible study aids (Chinese language) * Hampden Coit DuBose, 三教問答 = A catechism of the three religions of China (Shanghai, 1888).Copy in the Bodleian Library, Sinica 6470

References

* * *

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:DuBose, Hampden Coit 1845 births 1910 deaths People from Darlington, South Carolina Presbyterian Church in the United States members American Presbyterian missionaries Presbyterian missionaries in China Christian writers American expatriates in China

Career

Works Authored

Further reading

See also

References

Notes