Bawdy City Commercial Sex, Capitalism, and Regulation in Nineteenth- Century Baltimore
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BAWDY CITY COMMERCIAL SEX, CAPITALISM, AND REGULATION IN NINETEENTH- CENTURY BALTIMORE By Katie M. Hemphill A dissertation submitted to Johns Hopkins University in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Baltimore, Maryland June, 2014 ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the development and policing of Baltimore’s commercial sex trade between 1800 and 1880. Using a core source base of Baltimore City court dockets, newspaper and census records, estate inventories, appellate court decisions, Alms-House medical and admissions records, and medical journals, it reveals that nineteenth-century Baltimore was home to a variety of businesses and entrepreneurs who supported themselves by commodifying sex. The sex trade grew more profitable and diverse as Baltimore developed as a capitalist city, and prostitution, venereal medicine, and (later) risqué print materials were all deeply embedded within the broader urban economy. Commercial sex developed in tandem with the shifting spatial and labor arrangements of capitalism, and it in turn fueled the economic and cultural development of the city. As commercial sex expanded at mid-century, moralists, middle-class Baltimoreans, and political opportunists voiced increasingly strong opposition to prostitution and obscenity. Local authorities were tasked with deciding how best to police the sex trade. This dissertation argues they developed a bifurcated approach. Lawmakers and police eventually assumed a suppressive stance toward the trades in abortion, anti- venereal medicine, and obscene print, all of which promoted sexuality that was simultaneously too public and too covert. At the same time that they cracked down on other forms of commercial sex, however, local authorities tolerated bawdy houses and indoor prostitution and integrated them into a well-established regulatory system that operated through the city courts. Prostitution was tremendously profitable and significant ii to the social life of the city, and bawdy houses represented the best possible version of it. Not only did bawdy houses line the pockets of a wide array of Baltimoreans (directly or indirectly) but they kept sex out of sight even as they produced legible sexual subjectivities. In the latter part of the nineteenth century, Baltimore police officials pioneered the spatial segregation of bawdy houses in an attempt to preserve them in the face of increasing public opposition. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project took many years, and it could not have been completed without the financial assistance of numerous institutions and archives. Johns Hopkins University, The Library Company of Philadelphia, the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, and the Maryland Historical Society all provided generous fellowship and funding support throughout my graduate career. I give my sincerest thanks to those institutions and to the donors that made their support of scholarship possible. As any historian knows, research would be impossible without the labor and knowledge of archivists and librarians. At the Maryland State Archives, Alex Jackson, Edward Papenfuse, Rob Schoeberlein, and so many other archivists and staff members provided invaluable help, advice, and patience as I asked them pull ten-pound docket after ten-pound docket off the shelves. At the Maryland Historical Society, Patricia Dockman Anderson, Eben Dennis, Francis O'Neill, and Damon Talbot provided both assistance with documents and an incredible breadth of local historical knowledge. Saul B. Gibusiwa, Amy James, and Tony Roberts at the Baltimore City Archives were a tremendous help throughout my graduate career, as were the Special Collections librarians at Johns Hopkins. The staff at the Library Company, particularly Connie King, Krystal Appiah, and Linda August, provided their extensive knowledge of the collections as well as stunningly fast document delivery. Their enthusiasm for and amusement at the sources made research an adventure, and I am privileged to have benefited from their expertise. They, along with the staffs of other numerous archives and repositories I iv visited over the course of my research, have my sincerest thanks. During my time in Philadelphia, I was lucky enough to meet wonderful colleagues who eased the transition and aided greatly in the completion of this project. At the Library Company, Margaret Abruzzo, Nick Crawford, Arika Easley Houser, and Peter Jaros, and Katherine Smoak made long days in the archives a great deal of fun. At the McNeil Center, all the fellows created an intellectually stimulating climate for writing and analysis, but Sarah Chesney, Brenna O’Rourke Holland, and Danielle Skeehan went above and beyond in terms of providing academic and emotional support, analytical suggestions, and escapist fun. I am a better scholar for having been exposed to their knowledge and perspectives. I owe thanks to more people at Johns Hopkins University than I can name. The members of the Gender History Workshop and the Charm School together form two of the most cordial, constructive, and sharp communities of scholars I have ever had the pleasure of joining. They provided invaluable feedback and good humor throughout the writing process. Thanks especially to Norah Andrews, Adam Bisno, Will Brown, Jess Clark, Sara Damiano, Toby Ditz, Steph Gamble, Jamie Gianoutsos, Paige Glotzer, Katie Hindmarch-Watson, Jason Hoppe, Layne Karafantis, Ren Pepitone, Amira Rose, Mo Speller, and Jessica Valdez. David Schley and Rob Gamble, who were members of both groups, were the best academic older siblings I could ever have hoped to have. Their works inspired this one in so many ways, and they have my everlasting thanks and admiration. Katherine Smoak and Lauren MacDonald helped tremendously at the final stages of the project, but they were with me all along as friends, supporters, and scholarly inspirations. So too were Katherine Arner, Joe Clark, Christopher Consolino, Natalie v Elder, Claire Gherini, Jonathan Gienapp, Craig Hollander, Ada Link, Emily Mokros, and Nick Radburn. All of the people listed here are responsible for some of the best times of my life, and I could not have produced this without them. My love for Baltimore, which will always be the “The Greatest City in America” to me, was directly influenced by my having experienced it alongside them. Mary Fissell, Michael Johnson, Judith Walkowitz provided invaluable support and insights throughout the process of writing this. Their knowledge and scholarship has shaped who I am as an academic more than I can say. They, along with Matthew Crenson and Ron Walters, took time out of a very hectic period of the year to read this in full and provide me with excellent feedback that will continue to influence the direction I take with this project for years to come. I am privileged to have worked with them, and I thank them for everything. Mary Ryan deserves more thanks and gratitude than I could ever hope to convey on a page. Mary saw me through six years of graduate education, during which time she balanced criticism and support masterfully and always seemed to know the direction in which I was headed before I did. Nevertheless, she let me get there on my own and always trusted that I would. The confidence she placed in me—and in all her students— inspires me still, and the freedom she granted me to develop into the kind of scholar I wanted to be has sustained my enthusiasm for this project over the years. Thanks, Mary. I can’t say it enough. While the number of people who contributed to this project over the course of the years is too many to enumerate, no one has done more for me than my parents, Kim and Susan Hemphill. My mother and father have supported me financially and emotionally vi through my risky career choice, years of schooling, and sustained interest in topics that make it hard to brag to the relatives about what I was doing with my life. They have my eternal gratitude, respect, and love. Finally, I wrote a dissertation about people who profited from the sale of sex in the nineteenth century and, in doing so, became one of them. The labors of the women discussed herein enabled my own, and stories of the lives they carved for themselves under difficult and unpleasant circumstances granted me a shot at the sort of career to which they never had access. I am grateful to them. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction…………………………………………………………………………1 Chapter 1: The Shape of Commercial Sex in Antebellum Baltimore…………..…17 Chapter 2: Sex, the Legal System, and the Regulation of Bawdy Houses, 1810- 1861……………............................................................................................76 Chapter 3: Secret Diseases: Sexuality and Baltimore’s Medical Marketplace………………………………………………..……..……...…140 Chapter 4: “We Have the Pleasure to Pay Our Patriotic Friends a Visit” Prostitution in Civil-War Era Baltimore……………...…………..……….. 197 Chapter 5: “Many Females are Yearly Added to the Register of Prostitution” Ambiguity, Anxiety, and the Shifting Marketplace of Sex in Postbellum Baltimore………………………………………………………………...… 260 Chapter 6: Politics, Space, and the Postbellum Policing of Sex……..…………... 305 Epilogue…………………………………………………………………………... 360 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………….…371 Curriculum Vita……………………………………...……………………...…… 392 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: The Causeway………………………………………………………………..28 Figure 2: The Meadow……………………………………...................……....………..50 Figure 3: Map of Venereal Clinics in Baltimore between 1838 and 1860…………….175 ix ` Introduction Ann “Nancy”