- Hardcover: 370 pages
- Publisher: University of California Press; illustrated edition edition (Jun 14 1993)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0520078349
- ISBN-13: 978-0520078345
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 626 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #986,212 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
This intimate study of prostitutes in New York City during the mid-nineteenth century reveals these women in an entirely new light. Unlike traditional studies, Marilynn Wood Hill's account of prostitution's positive attractions, as well as its negative aspects, gives a fresh perspective to this much-discussed occupation.
Using a wealth of primary source material, from tax and court records to brothel guidebooks and personal correspondence, Hill shows the common concerns prostitutes shared with women outside the "profession." As mothers, sisters, daughters, and wives, trapped by circumstances, they sought a way to create a life and work culture for themselves and those they cared about.
By the 1830s prostitution in New York was no longer hidden. Though officially outside the law, it was well integrated into the city's urban life. Hill documents the discrimination and legal harassment prostitutes suffered, and shows how they asserted their rights to protect themselves and their property. Although their occupation was frequently degrading and dangerous, it offered economic and social opportunities for many of its practitioners. Women controlled the prostitution business until about 1870, and during this period female employers and their employees often achieved economic goals not generally available to other working women.
While examining aspects of prostitution that benefited women, Hill's vivid portrayal also makes evident the hardships that prostitutes endured. What emerges is a fully rounded study that will be welcomed by many readers.
Using a wealth of primary source material, from tax and court records to brothel guidebooks and personal correspondence, Hill shows the common concerns prostitutes shared with women outside the "profession." As mothers, sisters, daughters, and wives, trapped by circumstances, they sought a way to create a life and work culture for themselves and those they cared about.
By the 1830s prostitution in New York was no longer hidden. Though officially outside the law, it was well integrated into the city's urban life. Hill documents the discrimination and legal harassment prostitutes suffered, and shows how they asserted their rights to protect themselves and their property. Although their occupation was frequently degrading and dangerous, it offered economic and social opportunities for many of its practitioners. Women controlled the prostitution business until about 1870, and during this period female employers and their employees often achieved economic goals not generally available to other working women.
While examining aspects of prostitution that benefited women, Hill's vivid portrayal also makes evident the hardships that prostitutes endured. What emerges is a fully rounded study that will be welcomed by many readers.
About the Author
Marilynn Wood Hill is currently Honorary Visiting Scholar at the Schlesinger Library, Harvard-Radcliffe College.
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4.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
4.0 out of 5 stars
New York City in the mid-1800s., Mar 23 2010
By Donald W. Blankman - Published on Amazon.com
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This review is from: Their Sisters' Keepers: Prostitution in New York City, 1830-1870 (Hardcover)
I bought "Their Sister's Keepers" because I was researching the history of Fanny White, one of the leading "Madams" of the period, for a biography I am writing on Edmon Blankman, Esquire, a young and successful criminal lawyer in New York City, who married her as his first wife. She died within a couple of years thereafter, and her will, which left her substantial fortune to her husband, was hotly contested by her siblings at probate, over a four year period. The contest was richly reported in The New York Times, right down to the testimony given, and in the end, Edmon prevailed. The book provides wonderful detail of the "profession" during that time frame, and helped corroborate details I had found elsewhere. Anyone researching that era will find the book of great interest.Don Blankman
The Villages, Florida
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