Brothels, Depravity, and Abandoned Women : Illegal Sex in Antebellum New Orleans

by Schafer, Judith Kelleher

• ISBN13: 9780807133972
• ISBN10: 0807133973
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-04-01
• Publisher: Louisiana State Univ Pr

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
Selling Sex and the Law	p. 17
"Disgusting Depravity": Sex across the Color Line	p. 31
The Sexual Exploitation of Children	p. 47
Infamous Public Women	p. 60
Larceny and Robbery among Prostitutes	p. 74
Violent Lives	p. 89
The Murder of a "Lewd and Abandoned Woman": State of Louisiana v. Abraham Parker	p. 108
Keeping a Brothel in Antebellum New Orleans	p. 126
"An Ordinance Concerning Lewd and Abandoned Women"	p. 145
Conclusion	p. 155
Notes	p. 159
Bibliography	p. 187
Index	p. 199
Illustrations follow page	p. 59.
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

When a priest suggested to one of the first governors of Louisiana that he banish all disreputable women to raise the colony's moral tone, the governor responded, "If I send away all the loose females, there will be no women left here at all." In Brothels, Depravity, and Abandoned Women, Judith Kelleher Schafer uses case histories from the First District Court of New Orleans to tell the engrossing story of prostitution in the city prior to the Civil War. She ably details the brutal and often harrowing lives of the women and young girls who engaged in prostitution; and discusses the sexual exploitation of children, sex across the color line, and the city's feeble attempts to suppress the trade. She also profiles several infamous New Orleans sex workers, including Delia Swift, alias Bridget Fury, a flaming redhead with a fondness for stabbing men; and Emily Eubanks and her daughter Elisabeth, free women of color known for assaulting white women. Although scholars have written much about prostitution in New Orleans' Storyville era, few historical studies on prostitution in antebellum New Orleans exist. Schafer's rich analysis fills this gap and offers insight into an intriguing period in the history of the "oldest profession" in the Crescent City.